New images from NASA and the European Space Agency reveal that interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has become significantly more active ahead of its closest approach to Earth at 270 million kilometres on 19 December. The object has spent months racing through the inner Solar System, and fresh activity suggests that its recent pass near the Sun has triggered stronger gas and dust emissions.
NASA released one of the clearest views of the comet so far through its new NASA images. Captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, the latest photograph shows a bright nucleus surrounded by an expanding coma as sublimated material escapes into space. The agency explained that comets brighten as they heat up, and the jet-like features in the new image point to an active surface responding to solar radiation.
