Did comet 3I/ATLAS knock MAVEN offline? NASA faces questions

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has shared a troubling update that one of its spacecraft orbiting Mars has gone dark since its close encounter with comet 3I/ATLAS.

In an update on Monday, the American Space Agency revealed that MAVEN went offline on December 4, when it came within 1,800 miles of the mysterious comet while observing it.

Maven, orbiting the red planet since 2014, lost contact with all NASA ground stations before passing behind Mars during its routine orbit.

It recently reemerged within view of Earth; however, scientists have been unable to make any contact with the spacecraft. Experts believe that the probe has also changed its orbit but without direct data from Maven, they might not be able to know for sure.

Just before going dark, the probe also took pictures of 3I/ATLAS, images that drew widespread criticism due to their poor quality.

Though Maven faced several technical issues in the past, this marks the first time that it has gone dark, raising concerns that something may have disrupted its orbit.

Several social media users have slammed NASA, accusing it of not releasing full information of 3I/ATLAS as one user wrote: “NASA is lying. 3I/ATLAS knocked MAVEN offline.”