NASA’s New SPHEREx Mission Observes Interstellar Comet - UNIVERSE

Comet 3I/ATLAS

Cataloguing the journey of comet 3I/ATLAS through the solar system. Because the object comes from outside our solar system, it is just passing through – so we use all the tools at our disposal to observe it before it disappears back into the cosmic dark. A host of NASA missions are coming together to observe this interstellar object, which was first discovered in summer 2025, before it leaves forever. While the comet poses no threat to Earth, NASA’s space telescopes help support the agency's ongoing mission to find, track, and better understand solar system objects.

NASA/SPHEREx

NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS Aug. 7 to Aug. 15. The SPHEREx team has been analyzing insights from this data, and a research note is available online. The agency’s SPHEREx is one of NASA’s space telescopes observing this comet, together providing more information about its size, physical properties, and chemical makeup. For example, NASA’s Webb and Hubble space telescopes also recently observed the comet. While the comet poses no threat to Earth, NASA’s space telescopes help support the agency’s ongoing mission to find, track, and better understand solar system objects.

NASA/SPHEREx

Alise Fisher
NASA Headquarters, Washington

Source: NASA’s New SPHEREx Mission Observes Interstellar Comet - NASA Science