NASA Mission To Jupiter Snapped Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS: “We Are Very Excited!”
IFLScience••science
Key Points:
- The Europa Clipper spacecraft used its Europa Ultraviolet Spectrograph (Europa-UVS) to observe Comet 3I/ATLAS shortly after its perihelion, detecting escaping gases such as hydrogen and oxygen, with potential traces of carbon from dry ice.
- Despite being 164 million kilometers from the probe, the observations provided valuable data on the comet's activity and composition, though no detailed images were captured.
- The team found that the comet’s ion tail generally matched existing models, but the dust tail's behavior was more complex and not fully explained, prompting further analysis.
- These observations also served to test Europa Clipper’s instruments ahead of its mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa, complementing similar studies by ESA’s JU
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