Scientist says ‘spaceship’ 3I/ATLAS has ‘actual bodily jet’ simply days earlier than Earth method
The Manhattan-sized interstellar visitor hurtling through space has captured the imaginations of UFO watchers for months, now one scientists fears new pictures prove it has a “real, physical jet”
A mystery object approaching Earth has been pictured with a “real physical jet” as it hurtles towards us, a space boffin has warned.
Theoretical physicist Avi Loeb said new photos of 3I/ATLAS show it still has its anti-tail as it bursts through our Solar System at 150,000mph.
The interstellar visitor’s anti-tail was first pictured in July as it approached the Sun. Most boffins think it’s a comet that has been travelling for billions of years and the “anti-tail” is ice melting from the speeding space rock.
But Loeb insisted the fact it it still visible as the object zooms away from the Sun adds to his fears it could be an “extraterrestrial artefact” about to make first contact.
He said: “The rotational-gradient brightness map shows a prominent anti-tail, uncommon for comets, pointing in the direction of the Sun.
“Whereas an anti-tail had been seen for solar system comets as a temporary perspective effect when the Earth crossed the comets’ orbital plane, this is clearly not the case with 3I/ATLAS.”
In a recent blog post, he added: “The anti-tail of 3I/ATLAS is therefore not a perspective effect. It is a real physical jet, with a glow extending from 3I/ATLAS towards the Sun.
“Its nature is a mystery because gas and micrometer-dust particles are expected to be pushed away from the Sun by solar radiation pressure and the solar wind, creating the appearance of a tail — as routinely seen in solar-system comets.”
The object is set to make its closest approach to Earth on December 19.
Loeb has previously raised fears this may present the best chance for it to deviate from its course and make contact with humans if it is alien techonolgy.
He added in his recent blog post that the anti-tail could be explained by the scattering of sunlight by fragments of ice shed from the sun-facing side of 3I/ATLAS.
Or it could with a “swarm of objects that lag behind 3I/ATLAS because of its non-gravitational acceleration away from the Sun”.
He added: “Analysis of the latest Hubble image could potentially favor one of these explanations. By recognizing anomalies, we can learn something new. By ignoring them, we remain ignorant.”
Discovered on July 1, 2025, 3I/ATLAS is the third known object from outside our solar system to be discovered hurtling through space.
At a press conference in November, eggheads at Nasa said their analysis was that the Manhattan-sized object was a comet.
Many scientists think it is potentially the oldest of its kind ever seen and it was catapulted out of an alien star system in the “frontier” region of the Milky Way up to seven billion years ago.
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