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Seeing an Interstellar Comet Through Martian Eyes

Seeing an Interstellar Comet Through Martian Eyes
By Mark Thompson (https://ift.tt/EWoDSNM)

A deep image of interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS captured by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on Gemini South at Cerro Pachón in Chile (Credit : International Gemini Observatory)

When an interstellar comet tears through our Solar System at 250,000 kilometres per hour, pinning down its exact trajectory becomes a race against time. ESA astronomers achieved something unprecedented in October 2025, using observations from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter to improve predictions of comet 3I/ATLAS's path by a factor of ten. By triangulating data from Mars with Earth based observations, scientists demonstrated a powerful technique for tracking fast moving objects that could prove invaluable for planetary defence, even though this particular visitor poses no threat to our planet.



November 21, 2025 at 03:55AM
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