Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
We’re going live with Dr. Cynthia Phillips, Europa Clipper Project Staff Scientist and Science Communications Lead, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to explore a surprising and exciting new chapter in comet science. Recently, the Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft made unique observations of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS at a time when Earth- and Mars-based telescopes couldn’t see it.
In this livestream, communications specialist Beth Johnson and Dr. Phillips will unpack what these observations mean for our understanding of interstellar visitors and how instruments designed for one mission can yield discoveries well beyond their original goals.
We’ll lay out:
• How Europa-UVS captured data on 3I/ATLAS’s tails and coma while other assets were blocked by the Sun, bridging a critical observational gap.
• What signatures of oxygen, hydrogen, and dust the instrument detected, and why that matters.
• Why observations from unexpected vantage points — like those aboard Europa Clipper — can deepen our picture of interstellar objects.
• What this tells us about the composition, activity, and evolution of a comet that formed around another star.
Interstellar comets like 3I/ATLAS are cosmic time capsules from beyond our solar system, carrying clues about alien planetary systems. Capturing data from a spacecraft not originally tasked with comet science is a testament to scientific adaptability and ingenuity — and it gives researchers a rare look inside the workings of an object that has journeyed across the galaxy to visit us.
Press release: science.nasa.gov/blogs/europa-clipper/2025/12/18/nasas-europa-clipper-observes-comet-3i-atlas
#space #science #comet3i #comet #europaclipper #planetaryscience #spaceexploration #podcast
📺 SETI Live is a weekly livestream from the SETI Institute, featuring researchers and discoveries that deepen our understanding of the universe—and our place within it.
If you like science, support the SETI Institute! We're a non-profit research institution focused on understanding the nature and origins of life in the universe. 💸 Donate here: seti.org/donate
Learn more about the SETI Institute and stay up-to-date on awesome science:
🛎 Subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/c/SETIInstitute
🕹 Watch our streams over on Twitch at twitch.tv/setiinstitute
🎧 Listen to our podcast feeds.libsyn.com/462636/rss
📧 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter seti.org/signup
👕 Buy merchandise from Chop Shop chopshopstore.com/collections/seti-institute/SETI
Don't forget to like and subscribe! Ring the bell for notifications of when we go live.
We’re going live with Dr. Cynthia Phillips, Europa Clipper Project Staff Scientist and Science Communications Lead, from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to explore a surprising and exciting new chapter in comet science. Recently, the Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft made unique observations of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS at a time when Earth- and Mars-based telescopes couldn’t see it.
In this livestream, communications specialist Beth Johnson and Dr. Phillips will unpack what these observations mean for our understanding of interstellar visitors and how instruments designed for one mission can yield discoveries well beyond their original goals.
We’ll lay out:
• How Europa-UVS captured data on 3I/ATLAS’s tails and coma while other assets were blocked by the Sun, bridging a critical observational gap.
• What signatures of oxygen, hydrogen, and dust the instrument detected, and why that matters.
• Why observations from unexpected vantage points — like those aboard Europa Clipper — can deepen our picture of interstellar objects.
• What this tells us about the composition, activity, and evolution of a comet that formed around another star.
Interstellar comets like 3I/ATLAS are cosmic time capsules from beyond our solar system, carrying clues about alien planetary systems. Capturing data from a spacecraft not originally tasked with comet science is a testament to scientific adaptability and ingenuity — and it gives researchers a rare look inside the workings of an object that has journeyed across the galaxy to visit us.
Press release: science.nasa.gov/blogs/europa-clipper/2025/12/18/nasas-europa-clipper-observes-comet-3i-atlas
#space #science #comet3i #comet #europaclipper #planetaryscience #spaceexploration #podcast
📺 SETI Live is a weekly livestream from the SETI Institute, featuring researchers and discoveries that deepen our understanding of the universe—and our place within it.
If you like science, support the SETI Institute! We're a non-profit research institution focused on understanding the nature and origins of life in the universe. 💸 Donate here: seti.org/donate
Learn more about the SETI Institute and stay up-to-date on awesome science:
🛎 Subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com/c/SETIInstitute
🕹 Watch our streams over on Twitch at twitch.tv/setiinstitute
🎧 Listen to our podcast feeds.libsyn.com/462636/rss
📧 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter seti.org/signup
👕 Buy merchandise from Chop Shop chopshopstore.com/collections/seti-institute/SETI
Don't forget to like and subscribe! Ring the bell for notifications of when we go live.
