Intercepting 3I/ATLAS at Closest Approach to Jupiter with the Juno spacecraft
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866908553876340736 |
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| author | Loeb, Abraham Hibberd, Adam Crowl, Adam |
| author_facet | Loeb, Abraham Hibberd, Adam Crowl, Adam |
| contents | The interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is expected to arrive at a distance of $53.56(\pm 0.45)$ million ${\rm km}$ ($0.358\pm 0.003$~au) from Jupiter on March 16, 2026. We show that applying a total thrust $Δ$V of $2.6755 {\rm km~s^{-1}}$ to lower perijove on September 9, 2025 and then execute a Jupiter Oberth Maneuver, can bring the Juno spacecraft from its orbit around Jupiter to intercept the path of 3I/ATLAS on March 14, 2026. We further show that it is possible for Juno to come much closer to 3I/ATLAS ($\sim{27}$ million km) with 110 kg of remaining propellant, merely 5.4% of the initial fuel reservoir. We find that for low available $Δ$V there is no particular benefit in application of a double impulse (for example to reach $\sim{27}$ million km from 3I/ATLAS), however if Juno has a higher $Δ$V capability there is significant advantage to a second impulse with typically a saving of propellant by a factor of a half. A close fly-by might be able to probe the nature of 3I/ATLAS far better than telescopes on Earth. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_21402 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Intercepting 3I/ATLAS at Closest Approach to Jupiter with the Juno spacecraft Loeb, Abraham Hibberd, Adam Crowl, Adam Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Astrophysics of Galaxies Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics The interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is expected to arrive at a distance of $53.56(\pm 0.45)$ million ${\rm km}$ ($0.358\pm 0.003$~au) from Jupiter on March 16, 2026. We show that applying a total thrust $Δ$V of $2.6755 {\rm km~s^{-1}}$ to lower perijove on September 9, 2025 and then execute a Jupiter Oberth Maneuver, can bring the Juno spacecraft from its orbit around Jupiter to intercept the path of 3I/ATLAS on March 14, 2026. We further show that it is possible for Juno to come much closer to 3I/ATLAS ($\sim{27}$ million km) with 110 kg of remaining propellant, merely 5.4% of the initial fuel reservoir. We find that for low available $Δ$V there is no particular benefit in application of a double impulse (for example to reach $\sim{27}$ million km from 3I/ATLAS), however if Juno has a higher $Δ$V capability there is significant advantage to a second impulse with typically a saving of propellant by a factor of a half. A close fly-by might be able to probe the nature of 3I/ATLAS far better than telescopes on Earth. |
| title | Intercepting 3I/ATLAS at Closest Approach to Jupiter with the Juno spacecraft |
| topic | Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Astrophysics of Galaxies Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21402 |