Hacker News Reader

Comment by TMWNN | Hacker News Reader

I was surprised to recently learn that NASA has aimed pretty much everything it has at 3I/Atlas, even the Perseverance Mars rover! <https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/3i-atlas/>

View on HN

Genuinely curious: what could the Mars rover possibly capture about this object that other instruments cannot? Is it our highest resolution imagery in the vicinity of Mars?

my favourite sci-fi idea about this is that the aliens know we love shiny things so they give us a comet to look at while they have their annual picnic somewhere nearby.

When you look at images of the comet Siding Spring made from Mars surface and orbit, it’s clear that neither of the instruments are really well suited for that type of observation. In such case, you just use everything you have and hope for the best.

Not much, but just confirmation that it's in the expected part of the sky is quite exciting. There's a probable capture of it from Perseverance here (it's just a tiny faint smudge):

https://bsky.app/profile/stim3on.bsky.social/post/3m2aqnbwlw...

> just confirmation that it's in the expected part of the sky is quite exciting

It would be funny if it behaves "as expected" when in the range of our instruments, but not when it thinks we can't see it :)

Every confirmation is a data point.

I supposed that depends on if the object deploys a probe to go take a selfie with the rover? Would be a damn shame to miss capturing evidence of it up close and personal...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com