3I/ATLAS interstellar object might be steered by ‘technological thrusters’ after anomalies in rotation
The mystery 3I/ATLAS could be controlled by ‘technological thrusters’ after unexplained changes to rotations show the interstellar object not acting the way you would expect
A mystery object feared to be an alien ship heading to Earth could be steered by ‘technological thrusters’, a boffin fears. Photos of the “interstellar anomaly” known as 3I/ATLAS show its jets are not smeared by rotation, astrophysicist Avi Loeb says.
And the Harvard professor believes this is further evidence it is being powered by thrusters. It comes after prof Loeb said mystery surrounds a series of baffling anomalies, including its survival of a close solar flyby, massive unexplained jets and an unusual “anti-tail”.
He said ‘jets’ from the mystery spacecraft should have been ‘smeared by the rotation’ and questioned how the object is still maintaining its orientation if it is rotating every 16.16 hours.
In a recent update to his Medium blog, Avi Loeb wrote: “Last week, preliminary images revealed a network of jets around 3I/ATLAS. These observed jets from 3I/ATLAS should have been smeared by the rotation.
“Instead, the image taken by F. Niebling and M. Buechner on November 9, 2025, shows tightly-collimated jets extending to distances larger than a million kilometers.
“At the expected thermal speed of sublimated volatiles from a natural comet, 400 meters per second, it takes about a month for the material to traverse a million kilometers. How could these jets maintain their orientation if 3I/ATLAS is rotating every 16.16 hours?”
A ‘more speculative possibility,’ according to the aliens expert is that the jets are able to maintain their direction because ‘they are produced by technological thrusters which preserve global orientation for navigation purposes.’
It comes as earlier this week, astronomers picked up a bizarre radio signal from the mysterious interstellar object 3I/ATLAS as it hurtled through our solar system, fueling wild speculation it could be an alien craft.
The so-called “anomaly” has stunned scientists by surviving a fiery brush with the Sun without breaking apart, a feat no ordinary comet could pull off.
Instead of disintegrating, 3I/ATLAS emerged as a single, glowing body, complete with a strange “anti-tail” and two gigantic jets blasting material in opposite directions, phenomena experts say defy the laws of physics.
As a result, Avi Loeb has newly reckoned these oddities could be the work of “technological thrusters”, hinting the object might be a mothership from another world.
New photographs from the Nordic Optical Telescope, a 2.56-meter research telescope located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, Spain’s Canary Islands revealed that 3I/ATLAS is still sporting a baffling “anti-tail”.
The “anti-tail” was observed to be a streak of debris bizarrely pointing towards the Sun, even as the object speeds away from it. Normally, a comet’s tail trails behind, blown by solar winds, but this odd reversal has left experts scratching their heads, with some suggesting it’s just a trick of the light.
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