Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Brightens; JUICE Observes

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, the third confirmed interstellar object, was discovered in July and passed perihelion around Oct. 29–31 while traveling faster than 130,000 mph, undergoing an unusual rapid brightening and a dramatic blueward colour shift. Arizona’s Lowell Observatory captured a widely reported optical post‑perihelion image on Oct. 31, and the comet is now detectable with small amateur telescopes from a low eastern horizon across much of the Northern Hemisphere. Multiple space- and ground-based observatories reported non‑gravitational acceleration and an apparent multi‑arcsecond displacement near perihelion. Teams say these measurements most plausibly result from extreme outgassing, fragmentation, or volatile-driven cometary activity, though speculative hypotheses of an artificial origin — most prominently voiced by Avi Loeb — have been publicized and many scientists remain cautious. ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) conducted a confirmed remote‑sensing campaign Nov. 2–25, with a closest approach of roughly 64 million km on Nov. 4 using five instruments to gather additional data. The object poses no impact threat to Earth and is not expected to come closer than about 1.8 AU (≈200 million miles), making naked‑eye viewing unlikely unless it brightens significantly, and public interest and social‑media misidentifications have increased.