NASA's TESS catches rare interstellar comet in action
Technology
NASA's TESS spacecraft took a break from hunting exoplanets to track the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS from January 15-22, 2026.
Things got a bit bumpy when a solar panel glitch put TESS into safe mode for nearly three days, but the team quickly got it back on track to finish observing the comet as it zipped through our solar system.
All the cool comet data is up for grabs
Curious about what an interstellar visitor looks like? All of TESS's images and data from this observation are now free to explore on the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes.
The mission team even prepped special files so anyone can dig into how this rare comet spins and behaves—perfect if you're into space or just want to see something that came from beyond our solar system.