Discovered on July 1, 2025 by the ATLAS survey in Chile as C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), 3I/ATLAS — the third confirmed interstellar object after 1I/ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov — entered our solar system at roughly 44 km/s inbound, reached perihelion on Oct. 29-30, 2025 at 2.1 AU (inside Mars' orbit), and now outbound post-perihelion at over 60 km/s on a retrograde path inclined 5° to the ecliptic, aiming for a 0.357 AU Jupiter close approach in March 2026 near the Hill sphere edge.
A fresh snapshot from space catches 3I/ATLAS hurtling towards Jupiter like a cosmic rebel that refuses to fade quietly into the night. Captured at 06:05 UTC on Dec. 26, 2025, by SpaceTracker, this unenhanced image shows a pin-sharp nucleus shrouded in a lopsided coma — a sight that defies what we'd expect from a weary interstellar traveller cooling off after its solar close shave. NASA's Parker Solar Probe imaged it via WISPR from Oct. 18 to Nov. 5, 2025, detecting hydroxyl (water tracer), CO2 gas and H2O ice in the coma, with pre-perihelion sunward jets, cyanogen glow and mm-scale anti-tail grains.
