![\"Bafflement](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SEC_273683072-ceb3.jpg\")
\n\t\tThe object was first spotted by us Earth-dwellers in July (Picture: International Gemini Observatory\/Qicheng Zhang\/Lowell Observatory)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tThe object was first spotted by us Earth-dwellers in July (Picture: International Gemini Observatory\/Qicheng Zhang\/Lowell Observatory)<\/p>\n
Our solar system\u2019s interstellar visitor<\/a> \u2013 3I\/ATLAS \u2013 apparently has \u2018jet thrusters\u2019, a scientist has suggested. <\/p>\n The comet is the third time an object not from our star system has wound up in our celestial neighbourhood, which happens from time to time.<\/p>\n For the most part, 3I\/ATLAS has behaved like your standard, run-of-the-mill comet \u2013 a gigantic, dirty snowball made from dust that orbits the sun.<\/p>\n Some believe it\u2019s anything but this<\/a>, with Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb proposing the object could be of alien origin<\/a>, such as a probe.<\/p>\n \t\t He\u2019s once again questioning what this object is after new images of the space rock were shared this week.<\/p>\n One sighting described yesterday<\/a> by the Austrian astronomer Michael\u00a0J\u00e4ger captured a \u2018complex tail structure\u2019.<\/p>\n The sighting captured a halo stretching half a million kilometres into space and seven \u2018jets\u2019, eruptions of gas from under the comet\u2019s surface as it warms up.<\/p>\n Dr Loeb told Metro: \u2018Is 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?\u2019 <\/p>\n \u2018We do not know. For now, let us enjoy the view. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.\u2019<\/p>\n The clump of ice was also spotted by Arizona\u2019s Lowell Observatory <\/a>and the Ramon Naves Observatory<\/a> in Spain as it slinked away from the sun.<\/p>\n \t\t \t\t Dr Loeb said the images of the object show it appears \u2018intact\u2019 and has a \u2018compact source of light\u2019.<\/p>\n \u2018The coma is not very different in morphology than its appearance in the Hubble Space Telescope on July 21, 2025,\u2019 he said, referring to the fuzzy aura comets have as the sun vaporises ice.<\/p>\n Dr Alfredo Carpineti, an astrophysicist and science writer for IFLScience<\/a>, says there are many explanations for this week\u2019s images, however.<\/p>\n \u20183I\/ATLAS is a dynamic object. It\u2019s not a comet cutout in a nativity play,\u2019 Dr Carpineti told Metro.<\/p>\n \u2018It is supposed to change. If its tail was blown away [by solar winds], it is perfectly natural.\u2019<\/p>\n Why the celestial visitor has no tail might be even simpler than that, the author of the upcoming astronomy book, Invisible Rainbows, said.<\/p>\n \t\t To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web \u2018Some observations suggest we simply are aligned in such a way we can\u2019t see it at the moment,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n In other words, because we\u2019re seeing the tail roughly head-on, it\u2019s right behind the comet.<\/p>\n Dr Loeb has put the odds of an artificial origin for the 3.5-mile-wide 3I\/ATLAS at 40%, questioning <\/a>how it already had a tail long before it came close to the sun and has an odd chemical composition.<\/p>\n As it made its closest approach to the sun last month, it even brightened considerably and flashed a blue-green hue. <\/p>\n Dr Loeb has even noted that it arrived in the solar system from roughly the same direction as the \u2018Wow! Signal\u2019, an alphanumeric\u00a0sequence detected in 1977 scientists have never quite been able to explain<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u2018If the hypothesis about a technological artifact ends up being correct, then there are two possible implications:\u00a0first\u00a0that the intentions of 3I\/ATLAS are entirely benign and\u00a0second\u00a0that they are malign,\u2019 Dr Loeb said. <\/p>\n \t\t \u2018In the first case, humanity need not do anything but await the arrival of this interstellar messenger with open arms. It is the second option which is of great concern.\u2019<\/p>\n But for Dr Carpineti, humanity has no need to worry just yet. <\/p>\n Nasa <\/a>has said that the comet poses no threat to Earth and will only get as close to us as a whopping 17million miles on December 19 before ending its brief holiday in the solar system.<\/p>\n \u2018They claimed 3I\/ATLAS would manoeuvre towards Earth at the closest point to the sun,\u2019 Dr Carpineti said. \u2018That day came and went, the comet still on its orbit, coming nowhere near Earth.<\/p>\n \u2018The boys who cry \u201calien<\/a>\u201d should probably get a new line now.\u2019<\/p>\n \t\t\t\tWhy does 31\/ATLAS glow green?\t\t\t<\/p>\n As comets approach the sun, the ice heats up and turns to gas, releasing dirt and giving the icy clump a fuzzy hue called a \u2018coma\u2019.<\/p>\n Its atmosphere includes carbon-based that get \u2018sunburnt\u2019 by our star\u2019s ultraviolet light, breaking them apart and creating dicarbon.<\/p>\n Qicheng Zhang, a researcher at the Lowell Observatory, told Live Science<\/a> that he detected dicarbon, made up of two chunky carbon molecules that glow emerald. <\/p>\n As the comet\u2019s ice is vaporised, dust particles trapped within get released. The solar radiation and solar wind blow it from the comet\u2019s core, called a nucleus, creating a tail. <\/p>\n When comets get baked by a star, they don\u2019t warm up all at once. Instead, the side facing the sun heats up and, if any spots are weak, gases under the surface shoot up, called jets.<\/p>\n Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n For more stories like this, check our news page<\/a>.<\/p>\n Arrow Arrow Arrow![\"3I\/ATLAS](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SEI_273685474-aee9.jpg\")
\n\t\tThe comet was observed at 29 degrees elongation from the sun (Picture: ICQ Comet Observations)<\/p>\n![\"Qicheng](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SEI_273682501-fc21.jpg\")
\n\t\tAn American observatory snapped an image of the comet without a tail (Picture: Qicheng Zhang\/Lowell Observatory)<\/p>\n![\"Qicheng](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SEI_273682630-bc54.jpg\")
\n\t\tStar-gazers in Spain saw a similar sight (Picture: R. Naves Observatory)<\/p>\n![\"Comet](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SEI_264718266-5099-e1762691638556.jpg\")
\n\t\tComet 3I\/ATLAS has been photographed several times as a glowing streak in the sky (Picture: International Gemini Observatory)<\/p>\n
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\n\t\tInterstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS seen on July 21, 2025 (Picture: AP\/NASA\/ESA)<\/p>\n
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