Nasa’s Mars probe goes dark after encounter with interstellar visitor

Published 2 hours ago
Source: metro.co.uk
Comet 3I/ATLAS streaks across a dense star field in this image captured by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on Gemini South at Cerro Pach??n in Chile, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF NOIRLab. This image is composed of exposures taken through four filters ??? red, green, blue and ultraviolet. As exposures are taken, the comet remains fixed in the center of the telescope???s field of view. However, the positions of the background stars change relative to the comet, causing them to appear as colorful streaks in the final image. See a version of the image where the stars have been ???frozen??? here. These observations of Comet 3I/ATLAS were conducted during a Shadow the Scientists program hosted by NSF NOIRLab. A full recording of the session can be found here.
When 3I/ATLAS was discovered in July, the science community was delighted. But as the interstellar object comes closer and closer towards us, things are getting a little bit weird. Nasa has revealed that it has lost contact with a Mars probe just two weeks after its close interaction with the visitor, to the point where it has stopped transmitting and has even changed its orbit. So, what’s going on? (Picture: International Gemini Observatory)
3I/ATLAS showed a complex tail structure early this morning. We observed it at 29 degrees elongation from the Sun. The sum image from 24x35sec green and 2x35 red and 2x35 blue with 11" RASA shows a 5' coma and 4-5 tails or jets: 400? pa 0, 500? pa 316, 900? pa 295, 430? pa 278 and a counter-tail 200" pa 109 At the time of exposure, the comet was 7-10? above the horizon; at the end, twilight interfered with the observation, which took place under bright moonlight. We observed from a mountain location. The comet was 9m1 bright (measured from 6x35 sec green). 3I/ATLAS 2025-11-08 4.10 UT 20min RGB M. J?ger, G. Rhemann, E. Prosperi G00
3I/ATLAS is just the third ever recorded visitor from outside of our solar system. On Monday, the American space agency said the MAVEN spacecraft went dark on December 4 while it was observing the mysterious visitor Nasa says is just a comet. The MAVEN has been orbiting Mars since 2014 and has served as a communications relay for man-made rovers exploring the Martian surface. But as the probe moved behind Mars while tracking the interstellar object, it suddenly stopped transmitting and started rotating in an unusual manner. (Picture: ICQ Comet Observations)
Hubble captured this image of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS 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. Image Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, David Jewitt (UCLA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
As Nasa cannot get direct data from the spacecraft, it has to analyse fragments of tracking information to figure out what’s gone wrong, but the team won’t know for sure how MAVEN’s orbit has changed until it starts transmitting again. MAVEN was 18million miles away from 3I/ATLAS in October when it reportedly took a collection of photographs as 3I/ATLAS passed the Red Planet – images which drew widespread criticism for their poor quality. (Picture: NASA, ESA, David Jewitt)
This NASA image obtained on November 19, 2025, shows the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, circled in the center, as seen by the L'LORRI black-and-white imager on NASA's Lucy spacecraft. This image was made by stacking a series of images taken on September 16, 2025, as the comet was zooming toward Mars and spacecraft Lucy was 240 million miles away from 3I/ATLAS. The image shows the comet's coma, the fuzzy halo of gas and dust surrounding 3I/ATLAS above, and its tail, a smudge of gas flowing to the right of the comet. Vestige of a distant past or extraterrestrial threat? The comet 3I/ATLAS, currently speeding through our solar system, fascinates scientists and captivates social networks, including Kim Kardashian, who speculate it might be an alien spacecraft. From the superstar to a member of the US Congress, and prominent conspiracy theorists, various voices are questioning whether it is not a natural comet but... an extraterrestrial vessel. (Photo by NASA / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / NASA " - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS (Photo by NASA/NASA/AFP via Getty Images)
This is the first time in a decade that something may have actually knocked the probe offline and disrupted its orbit. And it’s led to some wild theories on social media that the space object is actually a ‘UFO’ and the communications blackout is somehow tied to 3I/ATLAS making its closest pass by Earth on today (Friday). (Picture: Nasa/Goddard/SwRI/JHU-APL)
This photo provided by Gianluca Masi shows the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas as it streaks through space, 190 million miles from Earth, on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. The image was taken from Manciano, Italy. (Gianluca Masi via AP)
On social media, users questioned the poor quality images of 3I/ATLAS, with one writing: ‘Either NASA is lying, and won’t release the images because they know what it is, or whatever is piloting 3I/ATLAS knocked MAVEN offline. Either way, NASA is lying.’ Another said: ‘Does anyone still trust NASA? Like, is there anyone out there who really thinks MAVEN just glitched out and NASA isn’t hoarding the data in secret to make sure no new 3I/ATLAS images showing UFO sneak into the public sphere?’ (Picture: Gianluca Masi via AP)
An image of 3I/ATLAS, taken on November 22, 2025 at 19:25 UTC with a 0.5-meter telescope. At that time, 3I/ATLAS was close in projection to the galaxy NGC4454 in the sky. The sunward direction is towards the lower left corner. (Credit: Mitsunori Tsumura)
However, it is important to note that 3I/ATLAS had passed the spacecraft a couple of weeks earlier and was not close to MAVEN when the malfunction occurred. Nasa previously released some of the photos MAVEN took during its close encounter with 3/ATLAS in October, but it’s unknown how many images of the object were still to be transmitted when the probe went dark. (Picture: Facebook / Mitsunori Tsumura)
Today, 3I/ATLAS will come within 170million miles of Earth, which will mark its closest pass by our planet on its journey through the solar system. 3I/ATLAS is the third interstellar object we have on record. The other two are known as ‘Oumuamua, which was spotted in 2017, by the University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS1 telescope. The second was Comet 2I/Borisov, found in 2019. (Picture: Getty)

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