ESA's JUICE spacecraft captured its first detailed science image of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on November 6, 2025 — seven days after perihelion, from a distance of roughly 66 million kilometers. The JANUS camera reveals a bright coma surrounding the invisible nucleus, along with a long tail showing hints of jets and filamentary structure.
Five of JUICE's science instruments observed the comet throughout November, but the data only recently reached Earth: the spacecraft had been behind the Sun, relaying information at reduced bandwidth through a secondary antenna. Despite its interstellar origins, 3I/ATLAS behaves like a perfectly ordinary comet. Full analysis is expected when the instrument teams convene in late March.