Image: TESS, a NASA space telescope designed to detect exoplanets using the transit method, surveys a wide area of the sky while focusing on nearby, bright stars.
Image credit: NASA / MIT / TESS Mission

NASA, via the TESS spacecraft, tracks 3I/ATLAS toward a quiet farewell? A Farewell Quarter for 3I/ATLAS.

Seven months after its discovery, 3I/ATLAS continues its journey out of the Solar System.

For me, it was the event of 2025 — and it may well leave its imprint on 2026 as well.

After passing Mars, slipping behind the Sun and approaching it closely, and gliding past Earth without saying hello, the object is now on its way toward Jupiter. There, on March 16, a small farewell moment will take place — after we assess whether it leaves behind a scientific object of study, or departs with or without any “inheritance.”

Yet the most interesting part may........

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