NASA’s Perseverance rover has been exploring the surface of Mars for evidence of ancient microbial life since 2021, but it’s also pulling off a few other tricks … like photographing interstellar comets.
Since the mysterious object was spotted in July 2025, some people have suggested that it might be an alien craft visiting our solar system. However, the reality is likely more mundane, as the scientific consensus is that it’s actually a comet.
Comet 3I/ATLAS was first spotted by an Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Río Hurtado, Chile. Notably, it’s only the third confirmed interstellar object known to pass through our solar system after the appearance of 1I/ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov in 2017 and 2019, respectively.
While NASA has yet to offer any confirmation — possibly due to the ongoing government shutdown that’s affected its operations — the Perseverance rover appears to have captured two images (below) of the passing comet on October 4 using its onboard Right Navigation Camera, otherwise known as Navcam. If so, it’ll mark the first time for a rover on 06another world to photograph an interstellar comet, providing a unique vantage point with observations that accompany those already made from Earth and other spacecraft.
NASA recently identified Perseverance as one of its assets capable of observing the comet, along with the Hubble and Webb space telescopes, a number of NASA spacecraft currently flying through our solar system, and even its other Mars rover, Curiosity.
3I/ATLAS
3I/ATLAS is characterized by a hyperbolic trajectory and a solid icy nucleus surrounded by a cloud of gas and dust. For scientists, its presence offers a rare natural laboratory for studying the chemistry of distant star systems and potentially the building blocks of planets beyond our solar system. The images also help to confirm the comet’s passage near Mars, and should help to increase our understanding of interstellar objects and their interactions with planets in the solar system.
And fear not. T3I/ATLAS poses no threat to Earth and will remain far from our planet, NASA said, coming only as close as 1.8 astronomical units (about 170 million miles, or 270 million kilometers).
The comet will reach its closest point to the sun around October 30, at a distance of about 1.4 au (130 million miles, or 210 million kilometers) — just inside the orbit of Mars.
