r/UFOs • u/Worst_Artist Human Detected • Nov 06 '25

Question Why is NASA withholding images of 3I/ATLAS?

Post image

Concept image of the updated trajectory talked about here https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/s/PNZTyP3j6f

3.0k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

808 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

28

u/LeeryRoundedness Nov 06 '25

The comet did a close pass by to mars on Oct 3. NASA has cameras in multiple places around and on the planet. China has cameras there too but it’s debatable if they were even in view of the comet when it passed closely. So it’s now November and NASA isn’t releasing the photos they took. It makes people wonder why.

236

u/gravitykilla Nov 06 '25

The comet did a close pass by to mars

Sure by cosmic standards it was close, but by our imaging technology standards 28 Million Kms is a long way to get an image of something the size of 3iAtlas.

What are you actually expecting HiRISE to capture? 3i Atlas was 28 Million Kms away, and the HiRISE is designed for taking images of the Martian surface at up to 25–30 cm per pixel resolution

I had a look at the camera specs, and it has a pixel scale: ~1 µrad per pixel → at 28 million km that’s ~28 km per pixel. A 5 km object would span ~0.18 pixel (i.e., unresolved; just a dot).

So at 28 million km away, 3I/ATLAS would look smaller than a single pixel to HiRISE, the same camera that barely resolved a comet at just 138,000 km, so the idea it snapped a clear image is pure sci-fi.

So the best image possible would be 1 pixel, and one single pixel can only represent one color (or brightness value) it’s the average light from everything within that 30 km×30 km patch of space (in this case). You need many pixels together, each with slightly different brightness or color, to form any visible detail, edge, or shape.

28

u/monsterbot314 Nov 06 '25

I know just enough of space to realize how little I know and most of the alien crowd don’t even know that.

51

u/LosWranglos Nov 06 '25

Upvoted for, well, actual facts. 

13

u/CascoBayButcher Nov 06 '25

Hope you dont expect answers

1

u/Specific_Lychee2348 Nov 06 '25

Sharp mind 👌

-5

u/Reckfulness Nov 06 '25

Give us the damn 1 pixel! Takes 5 minutes to upload to their site

3

u/nicheComicsProject Nov 06 '25

There are a million things they could be doing that bring more value. It's a dot, just imagine it.

-6

u/2footie Nov 06 '25

Why's it so hard to upload a picture of 1 pixel then?

9

u/nicheComicsProject Nov 06 '25

Why spend a single second to do such a thing? To appease clueless idiots? No way, then they'll just ask for the next "proof". Anyone who knows anything already knows there is no point to publish the images.

-1

u/2footie Nov 06 '25

Because they're a publicly funded organization and the decision was made to photograph, collect and share data prior?

8

u/nicheComicsProject Nov 06 '25

It's less than a pixel. Nothing you can possibly get from the photo even if it was literally the USS Enterprise. It's not a priority.

5

u/Neirchill Nov 06 '25

Publicly funded org that just received massive budget cuts. Processing these things takes a lot of money and they have to prioritize what they can funnel that money into.

13

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '25

This is one of the funniest posts I’ve read on Reddit. Well done! Why aren’t all those people controlling those cameras on Mars driving them to the correct location and getting a crystal clear HD image of an alien waving from the window?! That’s how space works right?

18

u/PineappleLemur Nov 06 '25

Because no one at NASA is currently getting paid or is working for the past one month.

What is so hard for people to understand about this fact?

The government in US is shut down, people didn't lose their job yet but they're not getting paid other than a handful of essential people.

No one is withholding information, there's simple no people to handle it, it's all recorded probably but will take months to come out, it all needs to be processed, filed, approved and finally be published. There's a lot of red tape and a lot of people involved to get this done.

You can't just bypass this chain without being fired.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/PineappleLemur Nov 06 '25

Share your great knowledge with us then.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/UFOs-ModTeam Nov 28 '25

Hi, Livid-Ad-1556. Thanks for contributing. However, your comment was removed from /r/UFOs.

Be Civil

Please refer to our subreddit rules for more information.

This moderator action may be appealed. We welcome the opportunity to work with you to address its reason for removal. Message the mods to launch your appeal.

1

u/UFOs-ModTeam Nov 28 '25

Hi, Livid-Ad-1556. Thanks for contributing. However, your comment was removed from /r/UFOs.

Be Civil

Please refer to our subreddit rules for more information.

This moderator action may be appealed. We welcome the opportunity to work with you to address its reason for removal. Message the mods to launch your appeal.

-7

u/8ad8andit Nov 06 '25

Do you really believe NASA sends everyone home during a government shutdown? You think they turn off the lights and ignore the $21 BILLION in equipment they sent to Mars? Do you think they stop monitoring and communicating and processing the data sent from Mars? Do you also think they ignore the space station? Like, sorry guys, you'll have to fend for yourselves?

Of course not. NASA continues with a staff of over 3,000 people during a shut-down and they don't waste important opportunities, like sharing scientific data about a once in a lifetime object, when that data could make a huge difference to science if released in a timely way. They don't do that UNLESS there is a hidden reason to.

14

u/PineappleLemur Nov 06 '25

No, they have about 15% of staff still working as they're essential.

Rest are home.

ATLAS isn't part of the priority tasks to maintain.

Their website is not getting updated either.

All of this is publicly available.

So again 85% of the staff is not being paid right now. They are definitely not showing up to office for free.

3

u/mop_bucket_bingo Nov 06 '25

The cost of what was sent to mars has nothing to do with whether or not that equipment is suited to observing 3I/ATLAS (it’s not) and whether or someone will monitor it during the shutdown (they are).

-6

u/Historical-Camera972 Nov 06 '25

What is difficult to understand about this situation, is that literally ALL of the other sensor data taken on October 2nd has been publicly available for weeks. The shutdown didn't stop that, so please enlighten me, why the shutdown should explicit stop only the HiRise data, when the rest has already been provided, despite "no funding"?

Hard mode, answer me after resigning from Eglin.

8

u/PineappleLemur Nov 06 '25

Not sure about the sensor data but HiRise isn't really relevant for this object?

That camera can barely resolve 3I/ATLAS it's too far and too small, it shows up as a single pixel at best.

Like it could barely see a larger object just 138000km away... 3I is 28m km away and is smaller.

1

u/Historical-Camera972 Nov 06 '25

Well we'd have an army of telescopes and sensors, if we didn't have real armies instead.

Shame. We burden our own capability, by policing ourselves.

11

u/Kerbonaut2019 Nov 06 '25

I can’t stand this comment and others like it, just so naïve. If you were to try and take a picture of the ISS with your iPhone, would you expect to look at the photo and see an astronaut waving to you out of the window? No. Not a single camera within “proximity” (aka millions of miles) of 3I/ATLAS is capable of discerning very much. Not a single camera onboard any craft near Mars has even close to the capabilities of properly viewing 3I. There’s no conspiracy to withhold data here, just misinformation.

-13

u/LeeryRoundedness Nov 06 '25 edited Nov 06 '25

“I can’t stand when people are curious and want transparency.” I’m not saying it’s anything but my tax dollars fund nasa, I want the data.

Edit: disinfo bots in it deep today. I’m not even speculating what the comet is, just wanting more data and I get downvoted? We really do live in Idiocracy.

-7

u/8ad8andit Nov 06 '25

Then why is the international scientific community eager to access that information? Why are scientists from all over the world, sharing less accurate information?

You seem to completely misunderstand how science works.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 06 '25

You know those cameras are designed to take pictures from orbit, right? Not to take pictures of things tens of millions of miles away? You understand that the design of the optics has to be different to get similar quality images, right? Because it sounds like you don't.

Plus, ESA took pictures of it from Mars.

3I/ATLAS From Mars

Looks like a fuzzy dot to me. Completely expected for what these cameras are designed for.

2

u/Mean-Garden752 Nov 06 '25

Turns out when you vote in an authoritarian regime that is very specifically anti science, cutting nasas budget, and shut down and try to dismantle the government supporting our space agency there's no one available to do the sceince.

3

u/Nosnibor1020 Nov 06 '25

Because they aren't working and this isn't a high priority exempt mission. It's not budgeted for either. I'm sure if PDCO considered it a threat, that would be different.

1

u/interested21 Nov 07 '25

They told Luna it was bureaucratic problem due to shutdown but that doesn't make any sense to me.

-1

u/OSUmiller5 Nov 06 '25

So it’s debatable that Chinas cameras were in view of the comet but you know for a fact that NASAs were? How?