3I/Atlas Images....For Real This Time?

ExoMars TGO images comet 3I/ATLAS (gif) ~ ESA

The title of this post....well, I'll get to that in a minute but let's first take a look at the above gif that came out of ESA's website (here). Kudos to them for posting this, although it's my opinion that they sound very eager to emphasise that this object is a Comet. Hmmm..... a Comet without a distinguishable tail so close to our Sun where sublimation is certain to occur.

So now back to the title of this post. ESA's site popped up when I was searching for news about our Visitor. What also came out was an NBC video featuring Avi Loeb so I listened in. He made a somewhat ambiguous statement (around 3:20-min mark) that the previous elongated images he had analysed could be one of Mars' two moons, and then another saying maybe it could be 3I/Atlas (4:10-min mark). Eh? Lovely. His page still has this caption though, saying it's 3I/Atlas:

As if there isn't enough doubt, confusion and suspicion surrounding this topic! So anyhoooo....whatever, OK. His opinion of "....terrestrial stupidity" is commendable, though. If the images were that of Mars' moon, why did Nasa post them in the midst of a shutdown, and nothing of our Visitor? Are we being distracted?

 

Moving on. I also came across this zoomed-in clip from this site:

It looks nothing like a Comet. They must think we have an IQ of 12.

So the mystery continues....

Namarie! 🩵 

3I/Atlas: Images From Mars Perseverance Rover ~ 4 October 2025

Nasa

We have images! Both these images from Nasa's website were courtesy of the Mars Perserverance Rover, and referenced by Avi Loeb.

Nasa

My first reaction to these images was "It's cylindrical?!" Or, as a Ufologist would say, "cigar-shaped". The second reaction I had was the puzzling thought of why the background of these images look so....bare.

Of course, what do I know since I'm just a layperson on this topic 😄 but can't blame me for having those reactions for all the obvious reasons.

Anyway, Avi Loeb offers a mathematical explanation for the elongated shape of this mysterious Visitor, please read it here. (Basically, a time-integation composition of images.) He did not state the probable size of 3I/Atlas, though. If memory serves, I do remember reading that he believes this Visitior to be much larger than the maximum size determined by Nasa (5.6 km diameter) but did not provide statistics.

We're still left with several unanswered questions....

Namarie! 💚 

Comet 3I/Atlas Update: 21 August 2025

SpaceWeather

 SpaceWeather has an interesting update on Comet 3I/Atlas:

The tail of 3I/ATLAS points almost straight toward the sun. Normally, comet dust tails are pushed away from the sun by radiation pressure. 3I/ATLAS is doing the opposite—it's backwards. 

Please read the rest of the report here.

 

There's also an article suggesting that 3I/Atlas is producing its own light, as per the very same Avi Loeb:

In the blog post, Loeb looks to the recent Hubble Space Telescope image of 3I/ATLAS.

"The image shows a glow of light, likely from a coma, ahead of the motion of 3I/ATLAS towards the Sun. There is no evidence for a bright cometary tail in the opposite direction," he writes.

"This glow was interpreted as evaporation of dust from the Sun-facing side of 3I/ATLAS."

After analysis of the light emitted by 3I/ATLAS, as described in a science paper published on 20 August 2025, Loeb then writes:

"The simplest interpretation is that the nucleus of 3I/ATLAS produces most of the light."

For more details, please visit Sky At Night Magazine.

3I/Atlas Update ~ 22 July 2025

The colors in the new image were the results of different filters being used to image the comet's coma. (Image credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/K. Meech (IfA/U. Hawaii)Image Processing: Jen Miller & Mahdi Zamani (NSF NOIRLab))

Link: LiveScience 

It's been a while since I checked in on the news to see if there was any update about Comet 3I/Atlas ~ that was what I was thinking last night as I was finishing up my post. It was already very late so I told myself I would do that the next day, and that's today.

In a happy act of Synchronicity, SpaceWeather.com had an update about 3I/Atlas! I had to nudge my lower jaw back into place when I read the article they had featured ~ after the massive fightback by "experts" to "debunk" speculations about Oumuamua (that it's an extra-terrestrial craft or device from an advanced civilisation) I did not expect SpaceWeather to be (albeit guardedly) featuring research that suggests 3I/Atlas has intelligent design and purpose instead of being a mere Comet, interstellar or otherwise.

Please read SpaceWeather's summary of Avi Loeb & Colleagues' research here:

https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=22&month=07&year=2025

This is the same Avi Loeb who also said Oumuamua wasn't a comet ~ most of his fellow Scientists did not agree and proceeded to thoroughly debunk his theories.

I am far from an expert on such matters, but simple logic suggests to me that a "comet" of this size (24 km) and zipping across Space at over 60km/sec (216,000km/hr) may be on some sort of important mission. When it comes to Comets, I always ask about its payload. Of course I would also like to know who sent them 😁

Its trajectory looks like an intentional avoidance of colliding with Mars:

https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/comets/3i-atlas/

 

Recent research also implied that this is the oldest Comet we've seen:

https://www.space.com/astronomy/asteroids/astronomers-say-new-interstellar-visitor-3i-atlas-is-very-likely-to-be-the-oldest-comet-we-have-ever-seen

 

Let's keep track. Namarie! 💜

P/S. I referred to this in my previous post about 3I/Atlas and I'll bring it up again here ~ Strange New Worlds: Children of the Comet. Brilliant story.