NASA released the HiRISE image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter yesterday but it's a bit blurred due to "spacecraft jitter" during the 3.2 second observation period , because of course there was.
![[Image: ESP_089922_9081.jpg]](https://static.uahirise.org/images/2025/details/cut/ESP_089922_9081.jpg)
![[Image: 200w.gif]](https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTZjMDliOTUyaG1rdGQxaGdkcTl0ZHRscXdwODc3bnVsdzJ3ZXFiOGc5OGV6N3BqNyZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/ThNsxwX4ORtGhGAOUK/200w.gif)
Quote:In this 3.2 second exposure, HiRISE successfully detected 3I/ATLAS at a scale of 30 km/pixel and a spacecraft distance of roughly 30 million kilometers (19 million miles). However, MRO is not well-suited to exposures of this length. The nucleus, estimated from Hubble Space Telescope images to be at most a few kilometers across, cannot be resolved in our HiRISE image.
Additionally, due to spacecraft jitter during the observation period, 3I/ATLAS is smeared by several pixels. Refinement of the data continues, but we can clearly see the coma. In fact, the full coma spans our entire HiRISE image, but only the brightest inner region is detected given the exposure time used.
https://www.uahirise.org/releases/3i-atlas/