3iAtlas update
Spiral jets erupting from interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, captured by Spain's Joan Oró Telescope, have sparked debate about whether the phenomenon is purely natural or represents something more unusual. Michael Jäger

The interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, initially predicted to be a dormant fragment of ice, has confounded astronomers by exhibiting violent, explosive activity as it traverses the inner Solar System.

Telescopes in Spain have captured the body erupting with what scientists describe as 'ice volcanoes', blasting frozen gas and dust into space in a display that has ignited a fierce debate between geologists and those searching for signs of extraterrestrial technology.

'Remarkably Similar' to Our Own Solar System

Josep Trigo-Rodríguez runs the team at Spain's Institute of Space Sciences that's been tracking this comet. His explanation sounds reasonable enough. That heat turned solid carbon dioxide trapped inside into gas almost instantly, creating immense pressure until the surface cracked open.

But here is what has everyone talking. When Trigo-Rodríguez's team analysed what the comet is made of, they found something bizarre.

'We were all surprised,' he told Live Science. 'Being a comet formed in a remote planetary system, it is remarkable that [it resembles] bodies belonging to our planetary system.'

Specifically, the chemical fingerprint matches the icy bodies found in the Kuiper Belt, past Neptune. So this visitor from an unknown star looks exactly like stuff we have got floating around in our own backyard. It is both comforting and slightly eerie—a convenient scientific explanation that tells us to move along, nothing strange to see here.

Spiral Jets Raising Questions

The official story makes sense until you look closely at those eruptions. They are not random. Images captured by the team show spiral jets shooting off in what looks like a controlled pattern. That has caught people's attention because natural explosions tend to be messy. This looks organised.

Amateur astronomers and space enthusiasts online have been having a field day with this. Some reckon the jets could be adjusting the comet's trajectory. Others think they might be venting excess thermal energy to cool down internal systems as the comet gets close to the Sun. There is even speculation about stabilisation thrusters.

The phrase 'von Neumann probe'—basically a dormant machine that travels the stars—keeps popping up, though nobody credible is actually claiming that is what we are looking at. Still, when a supposedly dead rock starts firing off organised jets, questions get asked.

Racing Against Time

The frustrating bit? We might never get proper answers. 3I/ATLAS is doing 137,000 mph, and it's got a one-way ticket out of here. NASA's confirmed it'll get closest to Earth on 19 December—still a comfortable 270 million kilometres away—before it disappears back into the darkness forever next year.

The Joan Oró Telescope at Montsec Observatory in Spain has been working overtime trying to capture every detail. They watched the comet hit its closest point to the Sun on 29 October. That's when things really kicked off. Around 378 million kilometres out, the comet suddenly brightened. The jets became visible. The team grabbed the sharpest images anyone's got so far, showing those gas and dust plumes in detail.

Rewriting the Comet Playbook

Their yet-to-be-peer-reviewed research paper suggests melting ice on the surface is reacting with tiny metal grains buried inside the comet. That reaction releases energy and more gas, feeding the whole eruption cycle.

If that is accurate, our entire understanding of comet formation needs updating. The old model said comets are basically ice, rock and trace amounts of metal mixed uniformly. 3I/ATLAS suggests it is messier than that. Maybe comets from different star systems form under wildly different conditions.

The researchers put it diplomatically: 'Interstellar visitors like 3I/ATLAS continue to challenge and refine our understanding of planetary-system formation. Each newly discovered object reveals unexpected properties that test and expand current models.'

Why This Matters

This is only the third interstellar object we have ever confirmed after 'Oumuamua and Borisov. What makes 3I/ATLAS special is its pristine condition. It's never been near a star before, or at least not for an extremely long time. It's essentially a frozen time capsule from another solar system, possibly billions of years older than ours.

Observatories worldwide have trained their instruments on it. Hubble is watching. Mars orbiters are tracking it. Scientists are gathering information at a frantic pace because once it is gone, it is gone forever. Whether those spiral jets are natural cryovolcanism or something we have not seen before, the universe is vast, and coincidences happen. But when a dead rock starts spiralling exhaust, it forces us to ask the big questions.

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