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File:ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter observes comet 3I-ATLAS – GIF ESA513328.gif

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Summary

Description
English: On 3 October, ESA’s 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 ESA spacecraft. It looked towards the interstellar interloper from 30 million km away during its closest approach to the Red Planet.
ExoMars TGO used its dedicated Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) to capture the comet, an instrument normally used to photograph the bright surface of Mars from a few hundred to a few thousand kilometres away.
Comet 3I/ATLAS is the slightly fuzzy white dot moving downwards near the middle of the image. Despite not being designed to capture something so far away, ExoMars TGO revealed the coma of gas and dust surrounding the icy-rocky nucleus.
For this observation, scientists stacked multiple five-second exposures to reveal 3I/ATLAS.
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[Image description: A black space background dotted with small white stars. Near the centre, a slightly fuzzy, bright white dot moves downward through a set of frames – this is comet 3I/ATLAS.]
Date 7 October 2025 (upload date)
Source ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter observes comet 3I/ATLAS – GIF
Author European Space Agency
Activity
InfoField
Space Science
Mission
InfoField
ExoMars Mars Express

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Captions

On 3 October, ESA’s 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 ESA spacecraft.

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

3I/ATLAS

media type

image/gif

height

280 pixel

width

512 pixel

data size

1,412,819 byte

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determination method or standard: SHA-1

inception

7 October 2025

pHash checksum

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determination method or standard: JImagehash perceptual hash

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