NASA associate administrator Amit Kshatriya and associate administrator of NASA Science Dr. Nicky Fox explain that "all evidence points" that is an interstellar comet and reveal a new image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
00:00A NASA-funded telescope, the Atlas Survey Telescope in Chile, first reported observations of the comet on July 1, 2025, to the Minor Planet Center.
00:09And NASA has been tracking and studying Comet 3I Atlas ever since.
00:13We're here today to give you the latest of what we know about Comet 3I Atlas and what we still want to know.
00:18But first, what is a comet?
00:20It's a small, natural, solid body that is a combination of rocky and icy material that evaporates as it warms when it's close to a star like the sun.
00:29But to start with, I'd like to address the rumors right at the beginning.
00:32I think it's important that we talk about that.
00:34This object is a comet.
00:36It looks and behaves like a comet and has, and all evidence points to it being a comet.
00:40But this one came from outside the solar system, which makes it fascinating, exciting, and scientifically very important.
00:47This is only the third interstellar object like this that humanity has ever found.
00:52A little bit more about the rumors.
00:53I think it's very important, and I'm actually very excited that a lot of the world was speculating about the comet while NASA was in a period where we couldn't speak about it due to the recent government shutdown.
01:04I think what I took away from that whole experience and watching that as we were working during the shutdown was just how interested and how excited people were about the possibility of what this comet could be.
01:18There was a lot of speculation about what it could be, but what I think is really awesome is that folks were interested in this incredible finding that we observed and that came from the heavens.
01:29And what that means, what it could mean about how magical the universe could be.
01:34It expanded people's brains to think about how magical the universe could be.
01:38And I'll tell you, here at NASA, we think that every day.
01:41And so it's really great that you were able to join us while we were not able to comment because of the shutdown constraints about what that comet is.
01:49Because we think the universe is a magical place, and we spend your treasure and we spend all of our time trying to make sure that we explore that and share it with you as much as we can.
01:58In fact, we want very much to find signs of life in the universe.
02:03In fact, just a few months ago, we were with you and we talked about what we think might be the signal from ancient life on the surface of Mars,
02:11from our amazing machines that have been roving the planet for 30 years to look for those things.
02:16That is something that's really important for us to learn about and discover.
02:21It could be an amazing discovery if and when we can confirm that.
02:24But 3-I Atlas is a comet.
02:27So my colleagues from the Science Mission Directorate will go through the images in detail.
02:31But just to give you a peek, here's one of the images from the closest physical instrument we had to the comet,
02:37from the high-rise instrument on our Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter,
02:40taken on October 2nd as the comet sailed by at a distance of 19 million miles from the instrument.
02:44You can see that Comet 3-I Atlas looks like a fuzzy white ball.
02:49That ball is a cloud of dust and ice called the coma,
02:51which is shed by the comet as it continues its trajectory towards the sun.
02:55I'll leave it to my esteemed colleagues to share further details.
02:58And I'd like to introduce you to the head of NASA Science, Nikki Foxx.
03:02Thank you so much.
03:04It is such a rare opportunity for us to be able to observe this interstellar comet.
03:09And NASA Science has been given this really, really exciting opportunity to do it,
03:14and literally from the moment of its discovery.
03:17Just like Ahmet said, comets are tiny cosmic snowballs.
03:21And by studying them, we can learn about the environment from basically where they formed, where they came from.
03:27This one came from a different environment from our own.
03:30And so we're already starting to see some really interesting differences to comets from our own solar system.
03:373-I Atlas, as you heard, is the third known interstellar object to pass through our solar system,
03:42the first one being identified in 2017.
03:46While these types of interstellar objects have long been predicted,
03:50we are just beginning to be able to find them thanks to the newest technologies
03:54with our network of Earth-based telescopes,
03:57which are designed to find small, fast-moving objects in space.
04:01The NASA-funded Atlas Survey Telescope, which made the discovery,
04:05is part of NASA's Planetary Defense Network.
04:08Our telescopes are always watching the skies to keep us safe,
04:12and in doing so, they occasionally make major scientifically interesting discoveries,
04:17just like this one.
04:19Right away, of course, NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office
04:22established, they studied it,
04:24and they established that 3-I Atlas is not a danger to Earth.
04:29In fact, it's at least twice as far away as the distance between the Earth and our Sun.
04:37On October 30th, the comet itself reached the closest it will ever be to the Sun
04:42when it crossed just inside Mars' orbit,
04:46which is why the image that Ahmet just showed,
04:49he noted it was the closest instrument physically to the comet,
04:52because the comet was right inside the orbit of Mars.
04:55Earth was on the opposite side of the Sun,
04:58which is about as far away as our planet can possibly be from Mars.
05:04It's been clear from the moment of discovery
05:06that the comet was going to pass on the opposite side of the Sun
05:09from where the Earth is.
05:11However, it was also clear that its positioning behind the Sun
05:14was going to make observations from Earth very, very difficult.
05:17And that is why we are so happy to have our incredible fleet of NASA science spacecraft
05:23all across the solar system.
05:25And boy, were they ready for this event.
05:28NASA's science assets on board our missions have provided the United States
05:32the unique capability to observe 3-I Atlas
05:35almost the entire time it passes through our celestial neighborhood.
05:39Everything NASA science does is interconnected.
05:43And nearly 20 mission teams have been working together to really rise to this challenge.
05:5020 mission teams, by the way, and counting.
05:52Everything we're learning about the comet is possible
05:55because of the distribution of all of the different instruments on our spacecraft
05:59with different capabilities.
06:01And I'll note that for some of them,
06:03we've even pushed our scientific instruments beyond their normal capabilities,
06:08beyond the things that they were designed to achieve
06:11to allow us to capture this amazing glimpse at this interstellar traveler.
06:18In other words, we can study this comet so well
06:20because we have many different assets in different locations
06:24observing things in different wavelengths,
06:27in different ways, with different instruments,
06:29each set of observations providing a different lens
06:32for understanding objects in the sky.
06:35So NASA's science team has kept watch on 3-I Atlas
06:38for nearly its entire journey through the solar system
06:41for the first time ever.
06:43So I'll just quickly go through the timeline
06:45of which NASA spacecraft have observed the comet thus far.
06:49And we're still going.
06:50There will be more opportunities to observe this comet
06:53as it continues its journey through the solar system,
06:55passing the orbit of Jupiter in spring of 2026.
07:01So the NASA assets that are gathering observations of 3-I Atlas
07:04include Hubble, the James Webb Space Telescope,
07:08TESS, SWIFT, SPHEREX, Perseverance Mars Rover,
07:13Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, Europa Clipper,
07:17Lucy, Psyche, personal favorite Parker Solar Probe,
07:21PUNCH, STEREO, and ESA, NASA's SOHO mission.
07:25And I'll note that Parker Solar Probe's data
07:27were just downloaded yesterday,
07:29and indeed, we did catch several glimpses
07:31of this amazing comet.
07:33The scientific community is hard at work
07:35analyzing these images,
07:37and everyone, as always, is welcome to take a look.
07:41At NASA, we embrace open science.
07:43We make all of our data available to the public 24-7,
07:46and we invite, in fact, we really want you
07:49to tell us what you're observing
07:51and what you think about what we're looking at.
07:54We're still learning even about what questions
07:56we still need to ask.
07:58And this, of course, is the scientific process in action.
08:02All the data go to a public archive.
08:04We get those images as soon as we're able to
08:07from all of our eyes in space.
08:10As always, I am excited to see what new things
08:13we learn about our friendly solar system visitor
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