Telescope reveals a growing tail on the comet that’s visiting from another star

By: Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press Posted: 4:41 PM CDT Thursday, Sep. 4, 2025 Last Modified: 10:49 AM CDT Friday, Sep. 5, 2025

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Telescope observations reveal a growing tail on the comet that’s visiting from another star.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Telescope observations reveal a growing tail on the comet that’s visiting from another star.

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This article was published 04/09/2025 (399 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Telescope observations reveal a growing tail on the comet that’s visiting from another star.

Released Thursday, the pictures taken by the Gemini South telescope in Chile late last month are the most detailed yet of the recently discovered comet. They show a wide coma of dust and gas around the ice ball as it speeds toward the sun, and also a tail that’s more extended than it was in previous shots.

These new images confirm that the comet is becoming more active as it plows harmlessly through our solar system, according to the National Science Foundation’s NoirLab, which operates the telescope. It’s only the third known interstellar object to venture our way.

This image composed from multiple exposures and provided by NSF's NOIRLab shows a comet streaking across a star field above the International Gemini Observatory on Cerro Pachon, near La Serena, Chile. (NSF's NoirLab via AP)

As of Thursday, the comet known as 3I-Atlas was 238 million miles (384 million kilometers) from Earth and growing ever nearer, according to NASA. It will make its closest approach to the sun at the end of October and then pass closest to Earth in December from 167 million miles (269 million kilometers) away — farther from Earth than the sun.

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This story was first published on Sep. 4, 2025. It was updated on Sep. 5, 2025 to correct the name of the agency that operates the telescope. It is the National Science Foundation, not the National Space Foundation.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.