The interstellar visitor blazing through our solar system shows startling signs that it may not be a comet, but something truly alien.
The object, known as 3I/ATLAS, recently survived a scorching flyby of the sun completely intact, something no natural comet should be able to do.
A Harvard professor had said that humans would learn the truth about the visitor's origins after it reached its closest point to the sun on October 29, when it should have begun to melt and a huge cloud of dust should have formed around it.
However, the latest data has revealed that 3I/ATLAS is still a single, bright object with no pieces breaking off and no cloud of fragments or debris, further supporting Loeb's theory that the object could be an alien mothership maneuvering around the sun.
Instead of a shattered mess, astronomers David Jewitt and Jane Luu found an intact body surrounded by a glowing coma, a fuzzy envelope of gas that is stretched out in two directions, one pointing toward the sun and another away from it.
The new images captured by the Nordic Optical Telescope in Spain also revealed that 3I/ATLAS still has a mysterious 'anti-tail' pointing toward the sun, despite the object now moving away from our home star. Scientists have argued this could be an optical illusion.
A comet's tail is a trail of dust and debris behind it as the rocks are blasted by sunlight and solar wind.
However, the new photos taken on Tuesday also spotted two giant jet-like streams blasting out for hundreds of thousands of miles from the object's surface, which defy the laws of science.
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