3i/Atlas is only the third interstellar object – something that comes from other star systems – ever observed to pass through our solar system. The comet was discovered a few months ago and is flying through the solar system at incredible speeds, at least around 210,000 kilometers per hour.
It was when 3i/Atlas recently passed quite close to Mars that Tianwen-1 was able to focus its cameras on it. The Chinese probe has been in orbit there since 2021 to study the Red Planet.
Photographing something moving at 85 kilometers per second at a distance of 30 million kilometers is not the easiest thing. But "the images clearly show the comet's distinctive features," the CNSA writes on its website . The comet itself is only about 5.5 kilometers across, but the luminous coma - the gaseous substances around it that give comets their tails - has a "diameter of several thousand kilometers."
CNSA experts continue to study the images and the comet, but most of it will likely remain a mystery. It came from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, which means the central Milky Way. It may be older than anything in our solar system. But more specifically how, when and where it was formed, and why it was thrown into outer space, is unclear.
In any case , the American NASA writes reassuringly that it will not reach Earth's orbit, but will now "continue its journey into interstellar space, never to be seen again."
