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2 celestial visitor astronomy news items found

Interstellar Comet 3I ATLAS observed by NASA as it approaches Mars

Friday, October 10, 2025 by Austin Harris

A rare celestial visitor from beyond the solar system is offering scientists a brief opportunity to study material that formed around another star. Known as Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS, the object is only the third confirmed interstellar body to pass through our solar system. Discovered in July 2025, it is now being tracked by NASA’s fleet of space-based and groun...

Naked eye Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is here!

Wednesday, September 25, 2024 by Richard Harris

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS hails from the Oort cloud, a distant and icy region of our solar system that is home to countless comets. Its journey to the inner solar system is a rare and awe-inspiring event. Since its discovery, astronomers have been closely monitoring its path and characteristics to provide us with the best possible viewing opportunities. Comet C/2023 A3...

Astronomy Picture of the Day

2026-04-04

Hello World

From pole to pole our fair planet is captured in this snapshot from space, an evocative image from a window of the Orion spacecraft Integrity. From the spacecraft's perspective the Sun is moving behind Earth's bright limb along the lower right. Africa and the Iberian peninsula are in view on the pale blue planet's surface, while aurorae crown Earth's south and north poles at top right and bottom left. Commander Reid Wiseman took the historic picture on Artemis II mission flight day 2 (April 2), after the completion of the planned translunar injection burn. That burn boosted the spacecraft out of Earth orbit, sending Integrity and crew on a trajectory that will take them around the Moon and back again. That's a journey humans last made over 50 years ago.