Caught on the fly-by

 

It may just look like a fuzzy blob, but it's quite a bit more than that. 

I just noticed this in one of my blog roll posts (yes, I have them, over there on the right).  This one is from Space.com, and it was noteworthy for a couple of reasons.  One, the comet is unusual. Two, the manner in which the comet was imaged is unusual (by a European Mars probe).  Three, the comet happened to be passing by Mars.

European Mars orbiter spies interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS zooming past Red Planet

"On Oct. 3, 3I/ATLAS zoomed within 19 million miles (30 million kilometers) of Mars. The European Space Agency's (ESA) ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) was ready for the closeup, snapping imagery of the interloper using its Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS).

"This was a very challenging observation for the instrument," CaSSIS Principal Investigator Nick Thomas said in a statement released by ESA on Tuesday (Oct. 7). "The comet is around 10,000 to 100,000 times fainter than our usual target."

About the comet:

"But interstellar comets are true outsiders, carrying clues about the formation of worlds far beyond our own."

In 3I/ATLAS' case [the I is for "interstellar"], those clues suggest an origin that's ancient as well as exotic: Astronomers think it's the oldest comet ever observed, with a birth that predates that of our own solar system by perhaps three billion years."

OK, that's pretty old.