Hubble image archive

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Revisits Interstellar Comet

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reobserved interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS Nov. 30, with its Wide Field Camera 3 instrument. At the time, the comet was about 178 million miles (286 million kilometers) from Earth. Hubble tracked the comet as it moved across the sky. As a result, backgro...

Date
Dec 13, 2025
Mission
Hubble Space Telescope
Archive ID
nasas-hubble-space-telescope-revisits-interstellar-comet
By

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reobserved interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS Nov. 30, with its Wide Field Camera 3 instrument. At the time, the comet was about 178 million miles (286 million kilometers) from Earth. Hubble tracked the comet as it moved across the sky. As a result, background stars appear as streaks of light.

Hubble previously observed 3I/ATLAS in July, shortly after its discovery, and a number of NASA missions have since studied the comet as well. Observations are expected to continue for several more months as 3I/ATLAS heads out of the solar system.

Image Details

AuthorNASA Science Editorial TeamNASA Science Editorial Team
DateDecember 4, 2025December 4, 2025
BlogComet 3I/ATLAS
Categories3I/ATLAS, Comets, Goddard Space Flight Center, Hubble Space Telescope, The Solar System, 3I/ATLAS, Comets, Goddard Space Flight Center, Hubble Space Telescope, The Solar System
Image CreditsNASA, ESA, STScI, D. Jewitt (UCLA), M.-T. Hui (Shanghai Astronomical Observatory). Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)NASA, ESA, STScI, D. Jewitt (UCLA), M.-T. Hui (Shanghai Astronomical Observatory). Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI)
CaptionNASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reobserved interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS Nov. 30, with its Wide Field Camera 3 instrument.

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