Hubble Delivers Best View Yet of Rare Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Racing Through Solar System

Scientists have been able to see the most detailed image so far of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, in which a dust-filled coma surrounding the object and promising signs of a trail were unveiled. The comet was spotted on July 1, 2025, by the ATLAS survey and is going to town on the solar system at a brisk 130,000 mph (209K kph). Well, a hyperbolic trajectory will indeed send the asteroid off into space after it peeks in at the sun just briefly, but that spells a rare opportunity for scientists on Earth to get what may be their first and last real good look at an object formed around another star.

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Shows Dusty Coma, Faint Tail, and Unusual Speed in Hubble Study

According to NASA’s statement, the Hubble observations show a coma formed from fine dust particles lifted from the comet’s surface, concealing a nucleus estimated between 1,000 feet (320 meters) and 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometres) across. A faint dust plume was detected on its sun-facing side, along with traces of a tail. While these features are typical of solar system comets, 3I/ATLAS’ extreme speed and trajectory mark it as distinctly interstellar.

The comet will be located inside the orbit of Mars and come to perihelion (nearest distance from the sun) on October 29 at a distance just less than that of Mars but has been in an orbit that will take it no closer to Earth than about 1.8 astronomical units (270 million km). It will even be visible from Mars, and the spacecraft at our neighbouring planet will carry on watching it until the asteroid returns to the skylines of Earth in December 2025.

Scientists hope the upcoming launch of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory shall assist them in capturing one such elusive object with more regularity, as they expect to see a number of detections over the years at an increased pace.