"It's fascinated scientists ever since it was first observed in early July. Now, NASA's Mars Perseverance rover has seemingly managed to snap images of the errant visitor as it made its flyby of the Red Planet. Two pictures, shared by the space agency over the weekend after being captured by Perseverance's Right Navigation camera (Navcam), show a singular streak contrasted against the emptiness of space around it."
""If the Navcam images represent single snapshots with an exposure time below 3.28 seconds, then the brightness and angular length of the observed source imply that it is not 3I/ATLAS," Loeb wrote. "In that case, the source might be much closer to the camera - capable of being smeared into an elongated image with a smaller spatial size and a smaller speed.""
Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS passed near Mars while cruising through the solar system and was widely believed to be a comet. Perseverance's Right Navigation Camera captured two images showing a single streak against space when the object was 23.6 million miles from Mars. Avi Loeb calculated the visible stripe would correspond to about 31,000 miles but argued the object likely appears smeared by long integration or stacked images. Loeb concluded the stripe could result from stacking hundreds of Navcam frames over roughly ten minutes since individual snapshots have a maximum exposure of 3.28 seconds. If single short snapshots were used, the source might be much closer to the camera.
Read at Futurism
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