Juice and Europa Clipper Capture Comet 3I/ATLAS From 2 Sides, Finding High Carbon Emissions
Updated
Updated · Sci.News · May 13
Juice and Europa Clipper Capture Comet 3I/ATLAS From 2 Sides, Finding High Carbon Emissions
6 articles · Updated · Sci.News · May 13
November 2025 observations let ESA’s Juice and NASA’s Europa Clipper view interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS simultaneously from opposite sides—the first direct two-direction look at a comet’s gas coma.
Ultraviolet spectrographs on both spacecraft recorded hydrogen, oxygen and carbon emissions as sunlight broke apart gases escaping the nucleus, while also capturing scattered dust.
Europa Clipper saw the comet’s dustier night side, and Juice imaged a day side dominated by glowing gas, producing a rare dataset that tracked emission changes over several days.
Higher-than-expected carbon emissions, compared with typical Solar System comets, added evidence about 3I/ATLAS’s origin and composition and may help scientists compare its home system with our own.
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3I/ATLAS: Unveiling the Secrets of the Third Interstellar Visitor—Breakthrough Observations, Chemistry, and Implications for Planetary Origins
Overview
In late 2025, a major breakthrough in the study of Comet 3I/ATLAS was achieved through a collaboration between NASA, ESA, and the Southwest Research Institute. Using the Juice-UVS instrument, scientists captured detailed observations of the comet’s coma, revealing gas and dust stretching over 5 million kilometers from its nucleus. Remarkably, these findings came even as the comet had dimmed significantly compared to earlier in the month. Despite the reduced brightness, the Juice-UVS was still able to detect a vast envelope of material, highlighting persistent and widespread cometary activity and offering new insights into the processes driving comet outgassing.