Interstellar Object 3I/Atlas Passed Mars Last Night

Re:Interstellar Object 3I/Atlas Passed Mars Last Night by pedalpete on Saturday October 04, 2025 @02:57AM (#45471169)

Thanks for clarifying that. And you're right, I was referring to our solar system, not the universe.

It's in Mars' backyard, but was it, or will it also be in Jupiter's backyard? I couldn't understand that from the original post.

It seemed to me that it was just that our telescopes/cameras near Jupiter would be pointed in that direction.

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Re:Interstellar Object 3I/Atlas Passed Mars Last Night by lrasinen on Saturday October 04, 2025 @04:25AM (#45471676)

It's Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) and it's not yet anywhere near Jupiter. Its trajectory has a few slingshot loops around Venus and Earth, and it's just coming off the Venus encounter.

It's about 0.43 AU from the comet at its nearest, whereas Earth will be pretty much on the opposite side of the Sun, making observations difficult from here.

Edit: Earth, Mars and Jupiter are in roughly 120 degrees from each other as seen from the Sun, with the Earth-Sun-Jupiter angle closing up fast and the E-S-M angle growing slightly slower. In about two months the E-S-M angle will be 180.

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