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Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has revealed that 3I/ATLAS, the interstellar object that passed closest to the Sun on its perihelion journey, displayed the first confirmed evidence of non-gravitational acceleration during its solar approach.

NASA engineer Davide Farnocchia from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory documented the anomaly at a distance of 203 million kilometers from the Sun, measuring two distinct acceleration components: a radial push away from the Sun at 135 kilometers per day squared and a transverse acceleration of 60 kilometers per day squared relative to the Sun's direction.

The object's trajectory shifted during the period when it endured intense solar blasts while positioned behind the Sun, raising fundamental questions about whether this behavior stems from natural outgassing or represents something far more unusual.

Scientists now face two competing explanations for the acceleration. If conventional comet-like outgassing drives the movement, momentum conservation calculations suggest 3I/ATLAS would lose approximately ten percent of its total mass during its month-long transit through the perihelion region, with a complete half-life of just six months at current ejection rates. Such dramatic mass loss should produce an enormous detectable gas plume surrounding the object throughout November and December 2025.

The European Space Agency's Juice spacecraft is positioned to observe any such plume during the first week of November, while hundreds of ground-based telescopes plus the Hubble and Webb space telescopes will train their instruments on 3I/ATLAS when it makes its closest approach to Earth on December 19, 2025, at a distance of 269 million kilometers.

The acceleration measurements align with troubling observations from September and October 2025 captured by STEREO, SOHO and GOES-19 instruments, which recorded an unusual rapid brightening of the object.

The brightness increased inversely with distance from the Sun to the power of negative 7.5, a relationship that defies typical comet behavior and suggests either massive volatile evaporation or an alternative mechanism entirely. Adding to the mystery, recent reports indicate 3I/ATLAS appeared bluer than the Sun during perihelion, representing the ninth documented anomaly in the object's already peculiar profile.

Natural comets typically display reddened light from dust scattering, and with surface temperatures expected to reach only one-twentieth of the Sun's 5,800 degrees Kelvin photosphere, the blue coloration challenges conventional explanations.

Professor Loeb acknowledges the blue appearance could potentially indicate ionized carbon monoxide emissions consistent with natural comet chemistry, yet he refuses to dismiss the alternative hypothesis that has made 3I/ATLAS a subject of intense debate since its discovery.

The possibility of an internal propulsion system or artificial light source remains on the table as scientists await definitive observational data. The measured acceleration level produces only a modest spatial deviation of roughly ten times Earth's radius over a month, insufficient to significantly alter the object's gravitational path toward any Solar System planet, yet substantial enough to confirm something beyond pure gravitational forces is acting on 3I/ATLAS.

Drawing from his experience leading Harvard's Institute for Theory and Computation, Loeb emphasized during a recent astrophysics luncheon that dismissing observational anomalies simply because they lack elegant theoretical explanations represents poor scientific practice.

The comment, made in the context of cosmological puzzles regarding universe expansion rates, applies directly to the 3I/ATLAS situation. With thermal ejection speeds for natural comets typically reaching only a few hundred meters per second, the documented acceleration demands either unprecedented volatile activity or a reconsideration of the object's fundamental nature.

What's Next

The ESA Juice spacecraft observations during the first week of November 2025 will provide the initial crucial data on whether massive gas plumes surround 3I/ATLAS, offering the first test of the natural outgassing hypothesis.

The definitive observational window arrives December 19, 2025, when 3I/ATLAS reaches its closest point to Earth, allowing multiple space telescopes and hundreds of ground-based observatories to conduct detailed spectroscopic analysis, thermal imaging and mass-loss measurements.

These observations will determine whether the object lost approximately ten percent of its mass during perihelion passage, effectively resolving whether conventional comet physics can account for the non-gravitational acceleration or whether the scientific community must confront more extraordinary possibilities.

Any detection of artificial signatures or failure to observe expected natural outgassing would intensify scrutiny of 3I/ATLAS as potentially the first confirmed technological artifact from beyond our Solar System.

Sources

Harvard Professor Avi Loeb's research paper, October 31, 2025

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory navigation report by Davide Farnocchia

Observational data from STEREO, SOHO and GOES-19 instruments, September-October 2025