{"id":331691,"date":"2025-10-25T14:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T14:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/331691\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T14:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T14:10:10","slug":"manhattan-sized-interstellar-object-3i-atlas-has-grown-a-tail-as-it-approaches-the-sun-which-could-be-sign-of-a-maneuver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/331691\/","title":{"rendered":"Manhattan-sized interstellar object 3I\/ATLAS has grown a tail as it approaches the sun — which could be sign of a ‘maneuver’"},"content":{"rendered":"

New images reveal the Manhattan-sized interstellar object 3I\/ATLAS has started to sport a tail, indicating that it could possibly be a \u201cmaneuvering\u201d alien craft, one Harvard scientist suggested.<\/p>\n

After exhibiting signs of an incredibly strange \u201canti-tail\u201d<\/a> since first cropping up in the solar system in July, 3I\/ATLAS is now showing evidence of a true cometary tail, images taken by Spain\u2019s Nordic Optical Telescope in the Canary Island in September revealed.<\/p>\n

These new images shows materials being peeled off behind the 33-billion ton object as it travels toward the sun and is hit with up to 33 gigawatts of solar radiation, Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb wrote in a recent paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n

New images from the Nordic Optical Telescope show the transition of 3I\/ATLAS\u2019s anti-tail to a true tail. Jewitt and Luu 2025<\/p>\n

However, the succession of an anti-tail and then the presence of a tail could be indicative of \u201ccontrolled maneuvering\u201d and a high-impact Black Swan event<\/a>.<\/p>\n

3I\/ATLAS\u2019s anti-tail was a plume composed of mostly carbon dioxide and water with trace amounts of cyanide and a never-seen-in-nature nickel alloy that has only been used in human manufacturing.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I]f the object is an alien spacecraft slowing down,\u201d Loeb wrote, then the anti-tail would be evidence of a \u201cbraking thrust\u201d maneuver which would naturally change to a tail as the slowing procedure completed.<\/p>\n

The International Asteroid Warning Network<\/a> added 3I\/ATLAS to its list of targets earlier this week, and began monitoring the object for scientific purposes.<\/p>\n

The group wrote on its website<\/a>: \u201cWhile it poses no threat, comet 3I\/ATLAS present a great opportunity for the IAWN community to perform an observing exercise due to its prolonged observability from Earth and its high interest to the scientific community.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope observed interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS Aug. 6, with its Near-Infrared Spectrograph instrument. NASA\/James Webb Space Telescope<\/p>\n

This image of interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope\u2019s Wide Field Camera on July 21, 2025. NASA<\/p>\n

Researchers around the globe are waiting with bated breath for the images taken earlier this month by NASA\u2019s HiRISE camera \u2014 the highest resolution images of 3I\/ATLAS yet \u2014 onboard the Mars orbiter when the object came within 12 million miles of the Red Planet.<\/p>\n

They have yet to be shared by the US space agency due to the ongoing government shutdown.<\/p>\n

3I\/ATLAS will come closest to the sun on Oct. 29 when it will be 1.8 times further than the Earth is to the Sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New images reveal the Manhattan-sized interstellar object 3I\/ATLAS has started to sport a tail, indicating that it could…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":331692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[15875,20907,916,159,783,67,132,68,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-331691","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-comets","9":"tag-hubble-space-telescope","10":"tag-nasa","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-space","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115435210451446636","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}