The European Space Agency (ESA)’s probe JUICE (Jupiter’s Icy Moon Explorer), which is enroute to the icy moons of

Jupiter, caught a preview of the interstellar interloper 3I/ATLAS. The space agency in its latest update mentioned that

during November, JUICE deployed all its five instruments to gather information about the exocomet that has created all

the buzz since its discovery on July 01, 2025.

The data will not arrive on Earth until February, so it's a bummer, earthlings have to wait. But fret not, the

Navigation Camera (NavCam) onboard the probe clicked a grainy portrait of 3I/ATLAS. The NavCam is not a hi-res

instrument but rather just a navigation assistant for JUICE in its exploration of the icy moons of the gas giants. JUICE

will arrive around the jovian planet not before 2031.

ESA remarked

The image was taken on 2 November 2025, during Juice’s first slot for observing 3I/ATLAS. It was two days before Juice’s

closest approach to the comet, which occurred on 4 November at a distance of about 66 million km.

ESA further remarked in its update

We expect to receive the data from the five scientific instruments switched on during the observations – JANUS, MAJIS,

UVS, SWI and PEP – on 18 and 20 February 2026. The delay is because Juice is currently using its main high-gain antenna

as a heat shield to protect it from the Sun, leaving its smaller medium-gain antenna to send data back to Earth at a

much lower rate.

Meanwhile Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb remarked on the fresh ESA pictures

The image displays a glowing halo of gas and dust (coma) surrounding 3I/ATLAS with a hint of two tails.

He added

The fact that 3I/ATLAS will arrive at Jupiter in March 2026 whereas Juice will only get there in July 2031 after their

rendezvous in November 2025, illustrates how much faster is this interstellar visitor compared to a human-made

spacecraft.

See Also: 3I/ATLAS: Observatory That First Spotted Exocomet Compares The 3 Interstellar Objects Ever To Enter Solar

System

See Also: 3I/ATLAS: Harvard Astrophysicist Avi Loeb’s List Of Dos & Don'ts If Exocomet Turns Out To Be Alien Space Probe