"Since early July, telescopes around the world have been tracking just our third confirmed interstellar visitor, the comet 3I/ATLAS-3I, for third interstellar, and ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) for the telescope network that first spotted it. But the object's closest approach to the Sun came in late October during the US government shutdown. So, while enough people went to work to ensure that the hardware continued to do its job,"
"So today, NASA held a press conference to discuss everything that we now know about 3I/ATLAS, and how NASA's hardware contributed to that knowledge. And to say one more time that the object is a fairly typical comet and not some spaceship doing its best to appear like one. Extrasolar comet 3I/ATLAS is an extrasolar comet and the third visitor from another star that we've detected."
Telescopes worldwide tracked 3I/ATLAS from early July after detection by the ATLAS telescope network. The object's perihelion occurred in late October during the US government shutdown, delaying public release of NASA images. NASA held a press conference presenting observations and instrument contributions. The object displays a coma and a tail as the Sun heats its materials, confirming cometary behavior. Orbital eccentricity indicates an interstellar trajectory, making 3I/ATLAS the third confirmed extrasolar visitor. Claims that the object is an artificial spacecraft have been publicly rejected by NASA, which states that all evidence points to a cometary origin.
Read at Ars Technica
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