NASA’s SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer) observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS Aug. 7 to Aug. 15. (Image Credit: NASA/SPHEREx)
This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Hubble photographed the comet on July 21, 2025, when the comet was 277 million miles from Earth. Hubble shows that the comet has a teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust coming off its solid, icy nucleus. Because Hubble was tracking the comet moving along a hyperbolic trajectory, the stationary background stars are streaked in the exposure. [Credit — Image: NASA, ESA, David Jewitt (UCLA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)]