'That Shouldn't Exist' - New 3I/Atlas Observations Shock Social Media

Something weird about interstellar object 3I/ATLAS has lit up conjecture across social media, and one Twitter post summarises it aptly, posing as a newly released scientific analysis.

The object or the comet, however one calls it, is only the third confirmed interstellar visitor ever observed passing through our Solar System, and is once again refusing to allegedly behave as astronomers expect. This time, the anomaly is not just its origin, but a strangely precise alignment that, according to some, should be vanishingly improbable.

The New Insane 3I/Atlas Theory

The discussion here is on a narrow, sun facing jet seen emerging from 3I/ATLAS, sometimes described as an anti-tail. What makes it very strange is not simply its presence, but its behaviour, which appears almost unnervingly orderly for a small body drifting in from another star system. This tweet summarises it very well.

According to the new paper referenced in this tweet, detailed looks show that the jet emitted by 3I/ATLAS wobbles in a consistent and repeating pattern. This apparent wobble then allows astronomers to infer the orientation of the object's rotation axis. The conclusion is shocking at best because the axis appears to be in place with the Sun to within just eight degrees, even when the object was more than five astronomical units away, placing it well beyond the orbit of Jupiter.

In simple words, the odds of a randomly oriented interstellar object lining itself up with the Sun so precisely are extremely low, which, according to this theory, are at around half a per cent. Moreover, for a normal comet, such a sync should not remain stable. This is because, as a comet spins, sunlight heats different regions of its surface, causing jets of gas and dust to switch on and off. This produces changing, messy outflows that swing around as the body rotates.

But that is not what astronomers see with 3I/ATLAS, allegedly. Instead, the jet remains narrow, steady and locked in a sun facing direction, as if the object has a permanent day side and night side, even at enormous distances where solar heating should be weak. The object's rotation period, measured at roughly 16 hours, is calm and regular, with no sign of tumbling or chaotic motion that might explain the behaviour.

Furthermore, the weirdness seemed to increase after perihelion, when 3I/ATLAS made its closest approach to the Sun on 29 October 2025. At that point, the original jet source faded, as expected. But almost immediately, a new sun facing jet appeared, coming from the opposite side of the object, and aligned just as precisely as the first.

So, for a conventional comet explanation to hold, researchers would need to assume an extraordinary coincidence. One active ice pocket would have to exist near one rotational pole before perihelion, while a second, equally well positioned pocket would have to sit near the opposite pole after perihelion.

Then, both would need to align with the Sun within eight degrees, both would need to produce tightly collimated jets, and one would have to shut down almost exactly as the other switched on. The combined probability of this sequence occurring naturally has been estimated in this theory at just 0.0025%.

Finally, adding to the oddness is the jet's extreme stability. Even after perihelion, when radiation pressure and solar wind should push material away and cause spreading, the anti-tail remains super straight for more than half a million kilometres. This is bigger than the distance from Earth to the Moon. It does not fan out, bend or drift in the way cometary material usually does.

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What Science Actually Says

Despite the very convincing arguments in that theory, there is currently no peer reviewed research saying that 3I/ATLAS is artificial or alien. Astronomers involved in tracking the object have repeatedly said that, while its behaviour is unusual, it still displays overall cometary characteristics.

Moreover, reports from NASA Space News state that around its 29 October 2025, perihelion, 3I/ATLAS showed a visible coma, dust tail and green diatomic carbon emissions, which are all features usually associated with active comets, even if their geometry appears atypical.

Now to fact check what has drawn a lot of scientific conspiracy theories is the presence of a persistent sunward anti-tail. According to a report by IFLScience, this feature is unlikely to be a simple line of sight illusion seen in some Solar System comets. Instead, here, it may represent a real physical structure created by directional dust emission.

Furthermore, independent observational reports by Live Science also confirm that interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is behaving differently from typical long period comets, but still within the general limits of known physics, especially when accounting for unfamiliar composition and formation beyond our Solar System.

Moreover, more detailed thoughts come from an observational preprint hosted on arXiv, which documents a high-latitude jet that remains synced over many nights and exhibits a slow, periodic wobble consistent with a stable rotation period of roughly 16 hours. Additionally, a study discussed in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society shows how anisotropic sublimation of dust grains could plausibly produce a narrow, sun facing jet without invoking exotic explanations.

So, for now, astronomers agree that further spectroscopic observations are definitely needed, and that 3I/ATLAS remains a scientific puzzle rather than proof of something unnatural.