3I/ATLAS Is Bleeding Matter In A Way No Comet Should

Here is the overlooked detail: those particles must be replenished continuously and at nearly the same rate over weeks. If the supply faltered, the anti-tail would shorten. If it surged, the structure would blur or fragment. Instead, across observation windows separated by weeks and millions of kilometers of travel, the geometry remains stable.

That stability implies regulation.

The estimated dust mass-loss rate — about 0.7 percent of the total gas loss — mirrors the dust-to-gas ratio of the Milky Way’s interstellar medium. But there is a critical difference. In interstellar space, most dust is smaller than one micron. Ten-micron grains are rare outside dense molecular clouds, where dust can grow, stick, and settle. If 3I/ATLAS is shedding ten-micron dust preferentially, it suggests not only where it may have formed, but how its surface may be structured — layered, cohesive, and capable of releasing particles of a specific size range without cascading failure.

That is not how fragile, loosely bound cometary rubble behaves.