Forget everything you know about comets. A new, high-resolution image of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, captured on Nov. 28, 2025, from a powerful telescope in Utah, presents a forensic snapshot that not only defies classical astrophysics but also elevates the mystery surrounding the visitor from beyond our solar system. Discovered in July 2025 by the ATLAS survey, 3I/ATLAS is only the third confirmed object to enter our solar system from interstellar space, following 1I/’Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov.
It is travelling on an unbound, hyperbolic trajectory and is not gravitationally tied to the sun, confirming its alien origin. It isn’t just a blurred blob of ice and dust; it’s an object whose behaviour is so consistently anomalous that it begs the question: Are we looking at a natural phenomenon, or something far more organised?
The clarity of the photograph, provided by astronomer Roberto Colombari, is achieved by tracking 3I/ATLAS itself, which keeps the object sharp while the background stars stretch into elongated trails. This technique isolates the object’s tail geometry, its coma’s morphology and the directionality of its activity with a precision that makes the unsettling irregularities impossible to dismiss. This image is a piece of pivotal evidence in a celestial mystery that appears to be escalating as the object hurtles towards its critical visibility window.
NASA’s HiRISE camera captures a faint, unresolved view of 3I/ATLAS.
NASA
The Impossible Anti-Tail: Unnatural Asymmetry in 3I/ATLAS
The first, and perhaps most immediate, piece of evidence lies in the object’s tail geometry. Forensic examination of the Utah image reveals an unmistakable plume extending subtly but certainly in the sunward-facing direction, towards the lower left where the sun’s influence is strongest. This is the anomaly that shouldn’t exist. Under classical comet dynamics, the solar wind and radiation pressure should sweep all particulate matter away from the sun. Yet, 3I/ATLAS continues to form a coherent anti-tail with a forward-projected plume pointing directly into the solar radiation field.
Further scrutiny of the frame shows a brightly defined core surrounded by an asymmetric envelope of light that widens conventionally anti-sunward, whilst a fainter, yet distinct, dense plume extends towards the sun. This glaring directional contradiction is fast becoming the defining feature of the object’s anomalous nature, as documented in this new Utah image of 3I/ATLAS.
NASA’s New 3I/ATLAS Images Reveal Stunning Activity During Its Approach From Mars
Image: NASA, ESA, David Jewitt UCLA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI
Controlled Emission and Engineered Stability: The Core of the 3I/ATLAS Mystery
The perplexing behaviour extends to the object’s central luminosity. The Utah image shows an unnaturally stable central brightness — a tight, concentrated point that looks less like the diffuse, chaotic outgassing typical of comets and more like a structured emission source. Forensic enhancement highlights a gradient uniformity in the inner coma that is inconsistent with a turbulent ice-dust mixture. Instead, the light distribution resembles a controlled emission pattern, where energy disperses in a predictable arc rather than in the stochastic sprays expected from sublimating volatiles. This type of signature is precisely what Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has suggested may indicate non-natural behaviour or technological influence.
Moreover, the object’s sheer structural stability is alarming. Previous USA Herald reporting from October and early November showed internal wave patterns, rotational asymmetry and multi-week consistency in shape. The new image independently confirms these observations. 3I/ATLAS’s geometry has remained stable across thousands of miles and multiple observation platforms, which would be astronomically improbable for a natural comet whose morphology should rapidly change due to fragmentation, rotation and solar heating irregularities. The continuity of form displayed by 3I/ATLAS borders on engineered symmetry.
Anomalous Velocity and the Shock-Front Signature of 3I/ATLAS
The object’s structural anomalies coincide with a major violation of orbital mechanics: its non-gravitational acceleration. The timing of this new image intersects with that controversial element. Critically, 3I/ATLAS had already passed its closest approach to the sun (perihelion) on Oct. 29, 2025. NASA JPL’s Horizons data confirms that 3I/ATLAS received an anomalous energy boost near Oct. 30. This timing is acutely significant, as it aligns with the date physicist Michio Kaku stated the world should watch for ‘extra energy’ as a sign that we are being visited.
The Utah image, taken nearly a month later, appears to capture the downstream effects of that acceleration, with the anti-tail plume and inner-core luminosity aligning with a directional force not fully accounted for in the gravitational model. Further complicating matters is a faint, almost blade-like extension visible on the right side of the object, diverging from the primary tail axis. This secondary jet or shock-front structure was previously captured in November imaging and AstroPhotoG’s October dataset. Three independent observers, using differing optical systems, have now photographed the same inexplicable lateral feature, confirming it is tied to 3I/ATLAS itself and not merely a photographic artefact.
The accumulating evidence points towards consistency, not chaos. Comets are inherently unpredictable; 3I/ATLAS, by contrast, behaves as though its internal and external dynamics are controlled or, at minimum, organised by physical mechanisms that are fundamentally different from traditional cometary physics.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/NASA
If its anti-tail is driven by a mechanism that produces a thrust-like expulsion, if its inner luminosity is constrained by an internal structure, and if its acceleration profile continues to break from gravitational prediction, then the upcoming December observation window will force the scientific community to confront the question Avi Loeb has repeatedly raised: ‘Is this object natural, or is it something else?’
This period, culminating with the object’s closest approach to Earth on Dec. 19, 2025, marks the final, best opportunity for comprehensive ground and space-based study before it recedes back into interstellar space forever. This Utah image is a vital timestamp in that unfolding confrontation. It solidifies the anomaly. It preserves the evidence.
With the structural and kinetic anomalies of 3I/ATLAS solidified by the Utah image, the scientific community — and the public — must now reckon with the possibility that its behaviour is not natural, but controlled. The upcoming close approach to Earth on Dec. 19, 2025, marks our final, precious window for decisive observation before this extraordinary visitor recedes into the void of interstellar space forever.