The Chinese photo of the mysterious comet these days

According to IsnaChina’s Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter has imaged the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas during its close flyby of the Red Planet, contributing to global efforts to study this rare interstellar object.

3I/Atlas is only the third object so far confirmed to have arrived in our solar system after originating from another planetary system, following Omoamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. This time, space agencies around the world are looking for every way to study the invading comet, including repurposing spacecraft spread across the solar system.

The European Space Agency and NASA are known to have their rovers, including surface probes, aimed at the comet.

3I/ATLAS is thought to be older than our solar system, and now the China National Space Administration (CNSA) has revealed that its Tianwen 1 spacecraft imaged the comet between October 1 and 4 and released images showing its path during that time, as well as an independent photo of it on October 3.

The probe used its high-resolution imaging camera, somewhat comparable to HiRISE on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), but with a slightly lower resolution, to record the comet’s motion against the stellar background. The operation presented challenges, particularly switching from imaging bright features on the planet’s surface from low Mars orbit to tracking from 29 million kilometers away a faint comet traveling at 58 kilometers per second and only 5.6 kilometers across.

Data acquired by a high-resolution camera was received, processed and displayed by a ground-based application system, according to a Nov. 5 CNSA statement. The images clearly show the distinctive features of this comet, consisting of a nucleus and a halo around it, with a diameter that reaches several thousand kilometers.

China’s space agency says the comet imaging project was an important mission for Tianwen 1, noting that the ability to observe dim celestial objects provided an opportunity to conduct useful technical experiments and gather experience for the second mission in China’s deep space exploration series, Tianwen 2, which launched in May and is on its way to sample a near-Earth asteroid.

“Tianwen 1” is China’s first planetary exploration mission. The mission was launched in July 2020 and entered Mars orbit in February 2021. The Zhurong rover of this mission successfully landed in the Utopia Planitia region of Mars in May 2021 and operated on its surface for about one year.

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