Telescopes Archives

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)]

US government grapples with questions about interstellar object 3I/ATLAS amid shutdown

NASA experts are set to connect with at least one congressional lawmaker about the mysterious object this week.

Nov 4, 2025 By Brandi Vincent

Saturn, imaged Sept. 21, 2023, 01:14 UT at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, DC with the historic 30.5-cm (12-inch) f/15 Clark/Seagmüller refractor and a ZWO ASI183MC CMOS color imager. Note: This image did not come via the Great Equatorial telescope. (USNO image)

Naval Observatory gives rare look through the lens of its ‘prolific’ 150-year-old telescope

DefenseScoop got a firsthand look at the “Great Equatorial," which still supplies the Navy and other Defense Department components with crucial astronomical data.

Nov 15, 2023 By Brandi Vincent

The DefenseScoop Podcast

The U.S. Naval Observatory celebrates the 150th birthday of one of its most important telescopes

U.S. Naval Observatory’s Geoff Chester

Nov 15, 2023 By DefenseScoop Staff