As this is written, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) mission is taking images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, providing an angle Earth-based telescopes can’t offer. Yet if you look at a map of the Solar System, you might wonder why on earth Juice is in this location, well-suited to spotting the cometary interloper as it passes by. After all, Juice was launched 2.5 years ago on a mission to the outer Solar System, and yet it’s currently barely further from the Sun than the Earth is, albeit on the other side. Indeed, on November 2, when observations started, Juice was actually inside the Earth’s orbit, having apparently gone backwards. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

The reason Juice is taking such a roundabout rout

See Full Page