WATCH: Viral Video of Unusual Activity on 3I/ATLAS Sends Social Media Into Meltdown

Perhaps the most famous comet of the past few years is going viral again as an astrophotographer known as 'Chuck' released fresh images of 3I/ATLAS from 2 December 2025, which led to an online uproar. According to a viral post, the object displayed features 'highly unusual for a typical comet.'

The New Conspiracy Regarding 3I/Atlas

As per the viral post, the comet's coma was reportedly bright yet showed no visible tail, not even in long exposures. Instead, observers noted a perfectly symmetric glow, a sharply defined central point resembling a star more than a typical fuzzy nucleus, and a coma gradient strikingly smooth and uniform.

There were no signs of the jets or structural irregularities common in icy bodies. Even the colouring seemed unusually uniform. This triggered a wave of speculation across social media about whether 3I/ATLAS might be far stranger than scientists initially assumed. Here is the viral post:

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What Science Says

First, some context. 3I/ATLAS is only the third confirmed interstellar object ever observed passing through our solar system, after 1I/ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov. It was discovered on 1 July 2025 by the survey telescope that gives it part of its name. Its orbit is hyperbolic, meaning it is not bound to the Sun; instead, it simply passes through our solar system before heading back out into deep space.

Measurements from NASA suggest the nucleus of 3I/ATLAS lies somewhere between about 440 metres and 5.6 kilometres in diameter. Moreover, as it moves closer to the Sun, the comet is heated, causing ices to sublimate; this reportedly generates a coma (a cloud of gas and dust around the nucleus), which is precisely what happens with comets formed in our solar system.

Indeed, the early observations of 3I/ATLAS often described it as comet-like: with a coma and subtle greenish or bluish tint from carbon compounds, according to a report by The Times of India. In other words, on first glance, 3I/ATLAS behaved very much like a regular comet, which is precisely why its arrival excited astronomers.

However, as more data came in, the picture became more complicated. Some observations, per Arxiv, describe 3I/ATLAS producing water vapour and other outgassing products. For example, ultraviolet observations detected hydroxyl (OH) emissions, which are a known by-product of water sublimation, especially at large distances from the Sun, indicating early activity.

Infrared spectroscopy from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) further revealed a coma dominated by carbon dioxide (CO₂), alongside water, carbon monoxide (CO), water ice, and dust. According to a report by National Geographic, these chemical signatures and the speed at which 3I/ATLAS travels strongly support the consensus that it is a natural comet, albeit one from outside our solar system.

Is Science Able to Answer All Questions?

Still, the images from early December and that viral post in question are puzzling. The described 'star-like' nucleus, symmetric coma and absence of a visible tail stand in contrast to many classical comet images.

Moreover, that contrast partly explains why some observers suggested 3I/ATLAS might not be what it appears. But scientists and many independent observers as well caution that such observational anomalies do not necessarily imply something exotic. There are several plausible natural explanations.

According to studies, dust composition, grain size, and ejection speeds can dramatically affect how a coma and tail appear (or do not appear) from Earth. For example, recent scientific analyses of polarimetric observations found that 3I/ATLAS exhibits a 'deep and narrow negative polarisation branch' at small phase angles, a behaviour unprecedented among known comets or asteroids but similar to some distant trans-Neptunian objects.

Further studies suggest that 3I/ATLAS may be unusually rich in carbon dioxide, which drives its activity more strongly than water ice. The dominance reportedly of large dust grains, as opposed to the tiny particles that typically create a visible tail, could mean solar radiation pressure fails to push the materials outwards quickly enough, and so the tail lags behind, appears faint, or even becomes invisible against the background dust.

Moreover, the apparent absence of jets or irregular structures in the coma does not rule out outgassing. The uniform brightness and lack of visible jets could indicate that any outgassing is widespread across the surface rather than concentrated in isolated vents.

Therefore, while the images are indeed unusual and certainly worthy of attention, they do not yet constitute proof of an artificial origin or a new kind of celestial object.