New NASA, ESA images show 3I/ATLAS getting active ahead of its close encounter with Earth

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New NASA, ESA images show 3I/ATLAS getting active ahead of its close encounter with Earth

News By Brandon Specktor published 6 December 2025

NASA and ESA both shared new images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS this week, as the agencies gear up for the mysterious object's closest approach to Earth on Dec. 19.

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The Hubble (left) and Juice (right) spacecraft both imaged interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS shortly after its closest approach to the sun in late October. (Image credit: NASA / Hubble (left) and ESA / Juice (right))

The celebrity comet 3I/ATLAS is showing itself out of our solar system for good — but not before the cosmic paparazzi at Earth's space agencies snap some of the clearest photos of it yet.

Discovered in late June and confirmed to be the third known interstellar object in July, 3I/ATLAS has spent the past several months zooming through the inner solar system at an estimated 130,000 mph (210,000 km/h). The massive, jet-spewing snowball made its closest approaches to Mars and the sun in October. It is due for its closest encounter with Earth on Dec. 19, when it will be about 170 million miles (270 million kilometers) away — nearly twice the distance between our planet and the sun.

As the comet careens toward this astronomical milestone, spacecraft managed by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are snagging as many close-up observations as possible. This week, both agencies shared new images of the comet — proving that its recent flyby of the sun has left it very bright and active as it spews large amounts of sublimated gas and dust into space.

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Hubble doubles down

The second Hubble Space Telescope view of comet 3I/ATLAS (Image credit: NASA / Hubble)

On Thursday (Dec. 4), NASA shared the latest image of 3I/ATLAS taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The glowing white dot at the center of the image shows the comet's nucleus (its main body) and coma, the bright atmosphere of gas and dust that wraps around the comet before getting funneled into its tail. In the background, stars are stretched into long streaks as Hubble's camera stays fixed on the fast-moving comet.

Comets typically brighten as they approach the sun, when the ice within them heats up and sublimates. Solar radiation pushes this gas into a tail that stretches away from the sun. Meanwhile, the warmest, sun-facing side of the comet may erupt with jets of gas and dust angled toward our star. Both of these features are faintly visible in the new Hubble image.

NASA snapped this image on Nov. 30, when Hubble was about 178 million miles (286 million km) from the comet. This is considerably closer than when Hubble first imaged the comet in late July. Although that first view showed little more than a blue blur, it nevertheless allowed scientists to constrain 3I/ATLAS' size to somewhere between 1,400 feet (440 meters) and 3.5 miles (5.6 km) wide — likely the largest interstellar object seen to date.

New data from this image, including details of the coma's composition, has yet to be released but is likely on the way.

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ESA juices up

A new image of comet 3I/ATLAS, taken from the ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice). (Image credit: ESA/Juice/NavCam)

Also on Thursday, ESA shared its latest view of the comet, taken by the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) orbiter on its way to study Jupiter's moons for signs of life. Juice snapped the image Nov. 2, just days after 3I/ATLAS' close approach to the sun.

Located even closer to its target than Hubble (only 41 million miles, or 66 million km, away), Juice shows us a comet brimming with activity.

"Not only do we clearly see the glowing halo of gas surrounding the comet known as its coma, we also see a hint of two tails," an ESA spokesperson wrote in a statement. "The comet's 'plasma tail' — made up of electrically charged gas, stretches out towards the top of the frame. We may also be able to see a fainter 'dust tail' — made up of tiny solid particles — stretching to the lower left of the frame."

Earth gets ready

Recent views of 3I/ATLAS taken by six NASA spacecraft scattered around the solar system (Image credit: NASA/Goddard/LASP/CU Boulder/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Southwest Research Institute/Lowell Observatory/Qicheng Zhang/ASU/MSSS)

Juice observed 3I/ATLAS with five scientific instruments on two days. But besides this teaser image, we don't yet know what those instruments saw; the full data set won't reach Earth until late February 2026, according to ESA. That's because Juice is currently using its main antenna as a heat shield to protect it during its close pass of the sun, and relying on its smaller, less efficient antenna to beam its observations back to us.

related stories

—'From another world': 3I/ATLAS photobombs a galaxy and shows off its multiple tails in stunning new image

—Mars orbiter narrows down the exact path of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS by 'ten-fold,' surprising scientists

—Astronomers detect first 'radio signal' from interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS — but it wasn't aliens

While there's little we can learn from NASA's and ESA's new images without the full complement of scientific data, it's a good reminder that human space exploration pays off in unexpected ways. Hubble and Juice number among a dozen spacecraft that have observed 3I/ATLAS from around the solar system, including Mars rovers, solar orbiters, asteroid trackers and space telescopes that were never intended to track comets.

And there's more to come: As 3I/ATLAS draws closer to Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope will take another look at it, while countless scientific observatories and amateur astronomers will have their chance to watch it as well. When you're dealing with a mysterious intruder from parts unknown, every observation matters.

TOPICS 3I/ATLAS NASA Brandon SpecktorSocial Links NavigationEditor

Brandon is the space / physics editor at Live Science. With more than 20 years of editorial experience, his writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Reader's Digest, CBS.com, the Richard Dawkins Foundation website and other outlets. He holds a bachelor's degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona, with minors in journalism and media arts. His interests include black holes, asteroids and comets, and the search for extraterrestrial life.

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