China's Mars orbiter observes interstellar object 3I/ATLAS

BEIJING -- The orbiter of China's Mars mission Tianwen 1 has successfully observed an interstellar object, coded 3I/ATLAS, using its high-resolution camera, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

During the observation, the spacecraft was about 30 million kilometers from 3I/ATLAS, making it one of the closest observations by a probe of this interstellar object.

Data received and processed by the ground application system showed clear cometary features in the images. Researchers created an animation from a series of images taken over 30 seconds, demonstrating the object's movement through space. These observations are now being used for further scientific study of 3I/ATLAS.

This successful observation represents an important extended mission for Tianwen 1. The detection of such a faint celestial object serves as a valuable technical test for China's Tianwen 2 mission, which was launched in May -- aiming to collect samples from a near-Earth asteroid and explore a main-belt comet, the CNSA said.