Scientists say they are baffled after spotting an alien UFO making a mysterious maneuver toward the sun.
Dubbed 3I/ATLAS, this enigmatic comet—identified in July as the third confirmed object from beyond our solar system—has left scientists scratching their heads with a bizarre maneuver: a jet of material inexplicably pointing toward the sun, defying the physics of every comet observed before it.
Endtimeheadlines.org reports: Discovered soaring past Mars on October 3, 3I/ATLAS is hurtling toward its closest solar encounter on October 29, before swinging by Jupiter at a safe distance of 125 million miles.
NASA’s recent images reveal a strikingly cylindrical shape, while color-enhanced photos shared by stargazers highlight an eerie green glow. Yet it’s the comet’s anomalous behavior, captured in stunning detail by the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories, that has sparked intrigue and debate.
In late July, Hubble snapped an extended glow stretching roughly ten times longer than it was wide, forming a jet aimed squarely at the sun—a configuration unlike any known comet tail, which solar radiation and wind typically push away from our star.
By August, the Two-Meter Twin Telescope in the Canary Islands confirmed the oddity: a faint “anti-tail” jet extending about 3.7 miles from the nucleus, once again directed sunward. As Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb explains, this contradicts fundamental comet mechanics. “When a comet gets close to the sun, solar radiation heats its icy nucleus.
Volatile ices like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, or water sublimate directly into gas, carrying away dust and small rocks,” Loeb writes. “This process can cause the comet to break apart if the mix of ice and dust cannot withstand the thermal stress.”
The anomaly prompts two burning questions, according to Loeb: “What is the nature of the anti-tail? Why are comet experts ignoring this anomaly while insisting that 3I/ATLAS is a familiar comet?” He likens the oversight to a family mistaking a bizarre creature for a stray: “Realizing this is as shocking as photographing an animal your family thinks is a street cat, only to see a tail coming out of its forehead.”
While NASA classifies 3I/ATLAS as a natural comet, Loeb ventures bolder territory, estimating a 30 to 40 percent chance it “does not have a fully natural origin.” Could it be a cosmic “Trojan Horse,” he wonders—a technological artifact disguised as a comet, potentially releasing “mini-probes” like a mothership?
If natural, the object should “disintegrate into fragments” under solar heat, appearing as a fuzzy ball of light or scattering into smaller dots. Either way, the coming months promise revelations: terrestrial telescopes and the European Space Agency’s Juice probe, orbiting Jupiter’s icy moons, will have a front-row seat through November and December.
“During November and December, terrestrial observatories will also be able to monitor 3I/ATLAS and check whether it disintegrated like a natural comet or released mini-probes as a technological mothership,” Loeb notes.