In November 2025, as the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS rounded the Sun, the European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or Juice, happened to be on the far side of the Sun with a clear view. ESA switched on five instruments early to watch it. The JANUS camera took more than 120 images from about 66 million kilometers away.

Getting them home took months. Juice was using its main antenna as a heat shield, and the data didn’t reach Earth until mid-February 2026. On Feb. 26, ESA released the first image: a bright coma hiding a tiny nucleus, a long tail, and hints of rays, jets and filaments. Germany’s space agency said the comet behaved like a typical solar system comet despite its interstellar origin. Avi Loeb noted jets pointing away from the Sun, which he called surprising.

Other results arrived the same month. On March 6, astronomers using the ALMA observatory in Chile reported that 3I/ATLAS is loaded with methanol, a simple alcohol, with methanol-to-hydrogen-cyanide ratios of about 70 and 120. That puts it among the most methanol-rich comets ever measured. “Observing 3I/ATLAS is like taking a fingerprint from another solar system,” said lead author Nathan Roth of American University.

On March 16, the comet made its closest approach to Jupiter, about 53.6 million kilometers, near the edge of the region where Jupiter’s gravity dominates, and kept heading out of the solar system.