Stacked images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS acquired with UVOT, two visits. (IMAGE)

Auburn University Department of Physics

Stacked images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS acquired with UVOT, two visits.

Caption

NASA’s Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS during two visits in July and August 2025. The panels show visible-light (left) and ultraviolet (right) images, where the faint glow of hydroxyl (OH) traces water vapor escaping from the comet. Each image combines dozens of short, three-minute exposures, painstakingly stacked to reach total integration times of about 42 minutes in visible light and 2.3 hours in ultraviolet. Swift’s vantage point above Earth’s atmosphere allowed astronomers to detect these ultraviolet emissions that are normally invisible from the ground.

Credit

Dennis Bodewits, Auburn University

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