NASA to Present New Imagery of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS on November 19, 2025

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has scheduled a live broadcast for Wednesday, November 19, 2025, at 3:00 p.m. EST, to display the latest imagery of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. This presentation will take place at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and will feature visual data gathered from various space missions and ground-based observations conducted by the agency.

Comet 3I/ATLAS is the third interstellar object confirmed to traverse our Solar System, following 1I/'Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. It was initially identified on July 1, 2025, by the NASA-funded ATLAS observatory in Chile. The object has garnered significant scientific interest due to its hyperbolic trajectory, which confirms it is not gravitationally bound to the Sun and originates from another star system within the Milky Way Galaxy. The comet reached its closest approach to the Sun, or perihelion, on October 30, 2025, at a distance of approximately 1.4 astronomical units (AU), or about 130 million miles.

NASA has confirmed that 3I/ATLAS poses no threat to Earth, with its closest projected pass to our planet estimated to be no less than 1.8 AU. Observations from the Hubble Space Telescope on July 21, 2025, captured images revealing a teardrop-shaped dust envelope around the comet's nucleus, which helped scientists establish an upper limit for the nucleus diameter at 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers). Data from the James Webb Space Telescope and the SPHEREx mission will also be included in the presentation.

The scientific significance of 3I/ATLAS lies in its offering a rare opportunity to study primordial material from a cosmic environment distinct from our own Solar System. However, subsequent analysis has presented complexities; spectroscopic analysis from the James Webb Telescope indicated an unusually high ratio of carbon dioxide (CO2) to water (H2O), which NASA noted as the highest ever measured in a comet. Furthermore, astronomers suggest the comet's surface has undergone extensive processing by galactic cosmic rays over billions of years, potentially altering its original composition, a finding that tempered expectations for a pristine 'time capsule.'

Observations of the comet are ongoing until November 18, 2025, with scientists closely monitoring its trajectory and composition for further insights. The comet, moving at approximately 245,000 km per hour, is estimated to be up to 7 billion years old and originated from the outer reaches of the Milky Way. It previously passed near Mars on October 3, at a distance of about 19 million miles (30 million kilometers). Amateur astronomers, including Sam Deen, contributed to early detection by noting previous ATLAS observations in June 2025, suspecting the comet was obscured by the dense star field near the Galactic Center. The presence of 3I/ATLAS provides astronomers a valuable natural laboratory to compare its behavior and composition against native Solar System comets, potentially yielding clues about common star and planet formation processes across the galaxy.

For public engagement, questions can be submitted on social media using the hashtag #AskNASA, and some may be addressed during the live broadcast. Media representatives planning virtual participation must submit required credentials via email to Molly Wasser no later than two hours before the event begins. In addition to the official NASA broadcast, The Virtual Telescope Project is scheduled to air a live view of 3I/ATLAS on the same day, November 19, 2025, commencing at 04:15 UTC.