3I/ATLAS stuns scientists with Sun pointing jet – what could it be?

The question of whether 3I/ATLAS is a normal comet or an alien probe doesn’t have a clear answer yet. Scientists are very interested in this interstellar object because of the unusual discoveries they are making.

According to Harvard scientist Avi Loeb, two British astronomers, Frank Niebling and Michael Buchner, took a very detailed photo of 3I/ATLAS between 5:08 and 5:22 UT on November 9, 2025. They used two telescopes and combined five long exposures of three minutes each to create a clear image.

The picture shows three main jets: two “anti-tail” jets pointing toward the Sun and one long tail stretching away from the Sun. The tail is about 2.85 million km long, while the sunward jets are around 0.95 million km long—a thousand times larger than what Hubble saw in July.

What Do the Jets Mean?

Images from November 8 show seven bright jets coming out of 3I/ATLAS in different directions. Some even point toward the Sun, which is unusual. Avi Loeb suggested:

“Is the network of jets associated with pockets of ice on the surface of a natural cometary nucleus or are they coming from a set of jet thrusters used for navigation of a spacecraft? We do not know.”

For a normal comet, gas usually escapes at only 0.4 km per second, meaning the jets must have been active for one to three months to reach this size. But the anti-tail jets of 3I/ATLAS are unusually dense—a million times denser than the solar wind, which moves at 400 km per second. This is extremely uncommon for a natural comet.

Loeb estimates that 3I/ATLAS could be more than 10 km wide and weigh over 50 billion tons, which is a million times heavier than the first interstellar object, Oumuamua.

Could 3I/ATLAS Be Artificial?

In a normal comet, strong jets mean it must lose a lot of material near the Sun. But Loeb suggests that if 3I/ATLAS uses technological thrusters, it could produce these jets with far less mass.

Rockets and ion thrusters shoot out gas much faster than natural comet vents. That means it could move the same way without losing much mass.

This raises the possibility that 3I/ATLAS could be an artificial object, not a natural comet.

What Scientists Will Do Next

Upcoming studies using spectroscopic instruments will measure the speed, composition, and strength of the jets. These results may finally reveal whether 3I/ATLAS is a natural comet or a piece of alien technology.

Currently, 3I/ATLAS is about 326 million km from Earth. At its closest on December 19, it will still be 269 million km away, so no spacecraft can reach it. Even NASA’s Juno and ESA’s JUICE are too far to study its jets directly.

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