'Spaceship Engine' Found in New Images of 3I/ATLAS? - Here Is the Truth

When a recent post on X posted images that showed that 3I/ATLAS might be more than a comet, claiming it glows in X-rays 'the same way a spaceship engine does,' the internet lit up with theories because the claims made do have some credence, but do they pass the test of science?

Now, according to the post, a new X-ray image released sometime between 6-8 December 2025 by XRISM shows 3I/ATLAS with a 'glow ... too much green-blue carbon and nitrogen, almost no oxygen,' shining sunward rather than trailing away, and steady 'like a light left on, not flickering like a campfire.'

Is 3I/ATLAS a Spaceship?

On that basis, the post claimed many scientists were 'quietly saying.. this thing might actually be a probe.' The idea is controversial, as perhaps this interstellar visitor is not a natural comet at all, but an alien ship. The idea has obviously gone viral, but does evidence support it?

The theory's foundation rests on the XRISM X-ray image. According to the post's claims, the glowing region around 3I/ATLAS in X-ray light apparently matches the appearance of rocket engine exhaust and not a dusty comet's coma.

Moreover, the arguments given include three main observations: firstly, the dominant colours (claimed to reflect strong carbon and nitrogen emissions, with little oxygen), which the post claims mirror terrestrial rocket-engine plumes when fuelled by carbon- or nitrogen-based propellants.

Secondly, the glow reportedly shines forward toward the Sun rather than forming a tail trailing behind the comet, which is contrary to what one might expect from a 'melting snowball' sublimating dust and gas behind it.

Thirdly, the glow is described as steady and smooth rather than flickering or chaotic, suggesting a stable engine rather than a turbulent gas-and-dust outflow. Taken together, these clues are presented as a 'smoking gun' that 3I/ATLAS could be an artificial probe, like an alien spaceship, rather than a natural comet.

It is easy to see why such a claim spreads quickly because the idea that we might be watching an alien spacecraft in X-ray light, no less, is tantalising. The post's language and reference to a 'brand-new space X-ray camera' observing an 'entirely different' phenomenon play into our fascination with the unknown.

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What Science and Observations Actually Say

Firstly, it is true that XRISM observed 3I/ATLAS. The Japanese space agency behind XRISM reported on 6 December 2025 that the telescope had conducted a 'Target of Opportunity' observation of the comet, using its soft X-ray imager Xtend. Furthermore, the data show a faint X-ray glow extending roughly 400,000 kilometres around the nucleus, which is a surprisingly large spatial extent for X-ray emission.

That said, XRISM's team immediately revealed that this structure might be due to instrumental effects, such as vignetting or detector noise, so a firm conclusion that the glow is 'real' has not yet been reached.

Moreover, the idea that X-ray emission from a comet necessarily means an engine ignores the well-understood mechanism by which comets emit X-rays. Since the first discovery in 1996, as per an article in Science, scientists have known that cometary X-rays arise from the interaction of the solar wind, a stream of highly charged ions from the Sun, with neutral atoms and molecules in the comet's coma.

High-speed solar wind ions capture electrons from neutral species, and the resulting excited ions then emit X-ray photons as they relax. This process, known as 'charge exchange,' has been observed in many comets.

This mechanism explains why X-ray emission from comets is almost always diffuse and spatially extended, forming a halo or crescent around the nucleus rather than a linear tail, as in the dust tail seen in visible light. In fact, in earlier comets such as Comet Hyakutake, the X-ray emission was brightest in a crescent shape pointing away from the Sun, which is very different from a directional 'engine-like' plume.

In the case of 3I/ATLAS, even XRISM's own preliminary image appears as a diffuse cloud, extending hundreds of thousands of kilometres, consistent with a coma glowing in X-rays rather than a compact engine exhaust.

Finally, independent assessments by other space agencies and observatories reinforce the consensus that 3I/ATLAS behaves like a comet. As recently as December 2025, reporting from NASA and ESA concluded that the object 'looks and behaves like a comet.' Officials, as per this report by Space, said.

'We certainly haven't seen any technosignatures or anything from it that would lead us to believe it was anything other than a comet.'

Furthermore, various observations from different instruments (optical, infrared, ultraviolet) confirm that 3I/ATLAS has a dusty, gaseous coma and tails, consistent with volatile-driven outgassing rather than active propulsion.

So, the scientific consensus remains that 3I/ATLAS is a natural interstellar comet, not an alien engine.