The researchers concluded:
“Overall, 3I shows characteristics typical of weakly active outer Solar System comets, despite its interstellar origin.”
31/ATLAS Heartbeat Pattern
But they also stressed the importance of ongoing study:
“Continued monitoring around perihelion is necessary to track changes in activity… which will provide insights into the evolution of interstellar materials under solar radiation.”
Loeb, however, notes that the pattern resembles a rotating comet’s active regions—or possibly something engineered.
“This heartbeat pattern… can resemble a heartbeat with a puff of gas and dust… over the rotation period of 16.16 hours,” he wrote.
Cometary Jet or Technological Beacon?
One key clue lies in 31/ATLAS’s anti-tail, a reversed-looking stream believed to be the result of trapped ice pockets that release material only when facing the Sun.
Loeb explains:
“As a result, the coma will get pumped up every time the ice pocket is facing the Sun.”
But he also leaves room for another possibility:
“For a technological object, the direction of the pulsing jet could be arbitrary and not necessarily pointing towards the Sun.”
