New image of “alien spacecraft” 3I/ATLAS stuns astronomers
Tengrinews.kz – The US space agency NASA has released a new image of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS that has cast doubt on existing models of comet behavior. This was reported by researchers from the All Day Astronomy project on the social network X.
“The image looks ordinary at first glance, almost familiar—until it doesn’t. What appears as a faint interstellar visitor suddenly reveals an organized, sunward-facing structure that defies the assumptions baked into decades of cometary models,” the astronomers noted.
“And when an official image creates more unanswered questions than it resolves,” the post says.
NASA
3I/ATLAS is an interstellar comet that has entered our Solar System from the depths of space. The object was first spotted on 1 July 2025. Scientists call it “interstellar” because it is not bound to the Sun – its orbit is hyperbolic, and after flying past our star it will leave the Solar System forever.
3I/ATLAS became the third interstellar object ever identified by astronomers in the history of space observations. Before it, the asteroid ‘Oumuamua was discovered in 2017 and the comet 2I/Borisov in 2019.
Most scientists lean toward the view that this is indeed an interstellar comet. However, Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb allows for the hypothesis of an artificial origin of the object and believes it could be a gigantic “alien spacecraft,” since the object displays signs of artificial origin.
“The image looks ordinary at first glance, almost familiar—until it doesn’t. What appears as a faint interstellar visitor suddenly reveals an organized, sunward-facing structure that defies the assumptions baked into decades of cometary models,” the astronomers noted.
“And when an official image creates more unanswered questions than it resolves,” the post says.
NASA
3I/ATLAS is an interstellar comet that has entered our Solar System from the depths of space. The object was first spotted on 1 July 2025. Scientists call it “interstellar” because it is not bound to the Sun – its orbit is hyperbolic, and after flying past our star it will leave the Solar System forever.
3I/ATLAS became the third interstellar object ever identified by astronomers in the history of space observations. Before it, the asteroid ‘Oumuamua was discovered in 2017 and the comet 2I/Borisov in 2019.
Most scientists lean toward the view that this is indeed an interstellar comet. However, Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb allows for the hypothesis of an artificial origin of the object and believes it could be a gigantic “alien spacecraft,” since the object displays signs of artificial origin.