ESA's JUICE probe to study comet 3I/ATLAS during interstellar flyby
ESA's JUICE probe, built to study Jupiter's moons, will conduct remote observations in November 2024 of comet 3I/ATLAS—an interstellar visitor zooming through our solar system.
JUICE will swing by as close as 64 million kilometers on November 4 and use five instruments to collect remote data.
Since it's so far away, we won't get the results back on Earth until February 2026.
Comet 3I/ATLAS is a visitor from outside our solar system
Spotted in July by Chile's ATLAS telescope, 3I/ATLAS is only the third confirmed object from outside our solar system to visit us. It zipped closest to the Sun (perihelion) on October 30 inside Mars's orbit.
After hiding behind the Sun for a bit, it'll become visible again in December with big telescopes—and NASA's Hubble and Webb will be able to observe it once it reappears.
JUICE's data will help us understand this interstellar object better
JUICE's unique view will help scientists figure out what this mysterious blue comet is made of and where it came from.
Its odd movements and color changes near the Sun could reveal clues about its origins in a distant molecular cloud.
Teaming up with Earth-based observations, JUICE could give us a much clearer picture of these rare interstellar visitors.