"Since it was first spotted in July, the object - dubbed 3I/ATLAS - has captivated scientists and internet users alike, even prompting Kim Kardashian to ask NASA for answers. Many scientists maintained it was merely a comet visiting us from a different solar system. However, others - including a member of US Congress and a Harvard researcher - were convinced that the object was an alien spacecraft."
"NASA's Mars spacecraft zoomed in on the comet as it passed just 18 million miles (29 million kilometers) away. In the first image, snapped by HiRISE, the comet looks like a fuzzy white ball. 'Captured at a scale of roughly 19 miles (30 kilometers) per pixel, 3I/ATLAS looks like a pixelated white ball on the HiRISE imagery,' NASA explained. 'That ball is a cloud of dust and ice called the coma, which the comet shed as it continued its trajectory past Mars.'"
NASA released images confirming that 3I/ATLAS is a comet. The object was first spotted in July and attracted widespread attention, including public speculation about extraterrestrial origins. Three Mars spacecraft photographed the object from about 18 million miles (29 million kilometers) away. HiRISE captured a low-resolution view showing a pixelated white ball that represents the coma, a cloud of dust and ice. MAVEN used ultraviolet imaging to observe hydrogen signatures and took multiple wavelength images to characterize the comet. Further analysis of the data should permit estimates of the nucleus size and additional compositional details.
Read at Mail Online
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