Harvard's Avi Loeb Claims 'Coming Weeks Will Be Decisive' for 3I/ATLAS Mystery

With the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS making its first appearance since vanishing behind the Sun for the past several weeks, scientists are looking to capture every single detail. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb claims that the coming weeks may bring about new information about the third interstellar traveller.

Speaking with NewsNation's Elizabeth Vargas on Monday, 10 November, Loeb said that 3I/ATLAS images show jets coming out of it after it passed by the Sun in recent days. The outer galaxy comet, which scientists first discovered early this year, was found to be losing a lot of mass. The scientist added that this may mean the comet has potentially broken up into smaller pieces.

'What we see are seven jets coming out of these objects, more than seven actually after it passed closest to the Sun on 29 October,' said Loeb. 'And we can see that some of these jets are pointed towards the Sun and they penetrate over a million kilometres through the solar wind.'

'We know the properties, we know the speed of the solar wind,' Loeb continued. 'So we can figure out that for a natural comet with the characteristic outflow speed of these jets that come off pockets of ice on a natural comet, given that speed, we can tell that there is a lot of mass carried by these jets so that they can penetrate through the solar wind, about five billion tonnes.'

Loeb also said that the comet's jets may be coming from thrusters, which may be capable of reaching faster speeds for the gas that comes out of them. In this case, they would not require much mass, according to the scientist.

'The fuel can be a small fraction of the mass of the spacecraft,' Loeb added. 'So the coming weeks will be really decisive.'

Astronomers Detect Radio Signal from 3I/ATLAS

While NASA has yet to formally give updates, space agencies around the world are leading the study of the interstellar comet. Scientists from South Africa's MeerKAT Radio Telescope have detected what might be radio waves coming from 3I/ATLAS. This occurred when the astronomical object passed the halfway mark on its journey through the Solar System.

The purported radio waves could be taken as proof of Loeb's theories on possible alien life on the comet. However, the South Africa astronomers have concluded that the radio signals did not have any technical origin.

Instead, the radio signals are a result of a specific wavelength of absorption related to the presence of hydroxyl radicals. These are also known as OH molecules, in the coma of the comet. The radicals are formed by the breakdown of water molecules as they are released from the comet, known as outgassing, a sign of cometary activity.

This is not the first time astronomers have detected the presence of water on these comets, however. NASA researchers in early October found that water was coming out of the comet 'like a fire hose.' The latest discovery now shows that the water it was releasing was being broken down by solar radiation.