31/ATLAS: captured from other worlds
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
|December 2025
Mars orbiters repurposed to photograph elusive interstellar visitor
When comet 3I/ATLAS skimmed closest to the Sun on 29 October, astronomers had a problem: Earth-based telescopes couldn't see it. So they improvised in order to catch the action, turning Mars orbiters into comet chasers - despite those spacecraft being built for an entirely different job.
ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Mars Express spacecraft both had their missions repurposed in October to capture images of the comet - first spotted in July by NASA's ATLAS survey telescope in Chile - with the best results so far coming from ExoMars's Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS).
Dit verhaal komt uit de December 2025-editie van BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
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