Sequence of VLT images of 3I/ATLAS, a new interstellar object

Eso_potw2527b_1024

eso_potw2527b July 8th, 2025

Credit: ESO/O. Hainaut

ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has obtained new images of 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object discovered last week. Identified as a comet, 3I/ATLAS is only the third visitor from outside the Solar System ever found, after 1I/ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov. Its highly eccentric hyperbolic orbit, unlike that of objects in the Solar System, gave away its interstellar origin.  In this image, several VLT observations have been overlaid, showing the comet as a series of dots that move towards the right of the image over the course of about 13 minutes on the night of 3 July 2025. The data were obtained with the FORS2 instrument, and are available in the ESO archive.  Links  Timelapse of the observations Deep stacked image of all observations

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2527b/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
3I/ATLAS
Subject - Solar System
Interplanetary Body > Comet
Eso_potw2527b_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 18h 1m 1.6s
DEC = -18° 39’ 17.8”
Orientation
North is up
Field of View
5.8 x 3.6 arcminutes
Constellation
Sagittarius

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
VLT (FORS2) Optical (R) 655.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Eso_potw2527b_1280
×
ID
potw2527b
Subject Category
A.2.2  
Subject Name
3I/ATLAS
Credits
ESO/O. Hainaut
Release Date
2025-07-08T09:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2527b/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Very Large Telescope
Instrument
FORS2
Color Assignment
Band
Optical
Bandpass
R
Central Wavelength
655
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
270.2566238, -18.6549548
Reference Dimension
1382.0, 867.0
Reference Pixel
691.0, 433.5
Scale
-7e-05, 7e-05
Rotation
0
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
https://www.eso.org
Name
ohainaut
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
None
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
potw2527b
Resource URL
https://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/original/potw2527b.tif
Related Resources
Metadata Date
2025-07-07T14:25:14+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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