RAPID BRIGHTENING OF COMET 3I/ATLAS

 Hey Space Placers!

While Earth-based telescopes lost sight of the comet during its close approach to the sun, coronagraphs on spacecraft like STEREO-A, SOHO, and NOAA’s GOES-19 satellite never stopped watching. The composite image, above, shows how the comet looked to these instruments.

    CREDIT: SPACEWEATHER.COM

"Spacecraft monitoring the sun witnessed a dramatic surge in the brightness of Comet 3I/ATLAS as it plunged toward its Oct. 29th perihelion. Qicheng Zhang (Lowell Observatory) and Karl Battams (U.S. Naval Research Laboratory) reported the phenomenon in a preprint submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters on Oct. 28th.

"The reason for 3I’s rapid brightening, which far exceeds the brightening rate of most Oort cloud comets, remains unclear," the authors say." 

FULL STORY.

Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is leaving the solar system

ANOTHER story on our "alien" Comet 3I/ATLAS.

View of solar system from viewpoint of comet zooming toward the center and back out again.

Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS sped toward our sun, presumably for billions of years. On October 29, 2025, it made its closest pass by the sun. As of now, its journey toward our sun has ended, and it’s leaving our solar system again. But the chance still exists for you to see it with your own eyes! Animation via Tony Dunn.

CREDIT: EARTHSKY.ORG

Sky Guy in the Atlantic pulling into Miami 10/31/25

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