As our solar system’s interstellar visitor hides behind the Sun, humankind’s expeditions to Mars have stepped up to provide an extra set of eyes.
On Tuesday, the European Space Agency announced that two of its spacecraft orbiting the Red Planet had used their cameras to snap photos of the mysterious object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, as it whizzed past over 18 million miles away from them.
The photos were taken on October 3, when 3I/ATLAS made its closest approach to Mars, using the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Mars Express spacecraft.
In a series of images captured with the TGO’s Color and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS), a glowing dot can clearly be seen inching downward across the black expanse of space. That mobile dot is the coma of the interstellar object, which is widely believed to be a comet.
“Though our Mars orbiters continue to make impressive contributions to Mars science, it’s always extra exciting to see them responding to unexpected situations like this one,” Colin Wilson, the ESA’s Mars Express and ExoMars project scientist, said in a statement. “I look forward to seeing what the data reveals following further analysis.”
☄️ #3I/ATLAS comet update!
On 3 October, our ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) turned its eyes towards interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passed close to Mars.
Together with Mars Express, ExoMars TGO had the closest view of the comet of all of our spacecraft. It looked towards the… pic.twitter.com/HJE1CeaEwq — European Space Agency (@esa) October 7, 2025
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