In order to facilitate interplanetary spacecraft observationsof 3I/ATLAS, we have monitored and predicted the optical properties of its coma using both ground and space-based observations. Here, we describe how the data from space-based solar coronagraphs and the PUNCH mission enabled tracking of 3I/ATLAS's optical magnitude throughout its entire perihelion passage, including the period between October 8 and 30, 2025, when it was not visible from Earth.
@article{arxiv.2511.20810,
title = {Tracking the Activity of the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS through its Perihelion},
author = {T. Marshall Eubanks and Craig E. DeForest and Kevin J. Walsh and Simon Porter and Thomas Lehmann and Bruce G. Bills and Adam Hibberd and W. Paul Blase and Andreas M. Hein and Robert G. Kennedy and Adrien Coffinet and Pierre Kervella and Carlos Gomez de Olea Ballester},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.20810},
year = {2025}
}