Key Findings
- The latest filtered capture exposes jet vectors no natural model can comfortably explain.
- The anti-tail is firing directly into the Sun as if pushed from within.
- Every new image narrows the field of possibilities—and none of them are ordinary.
A filtered rotational-gradient view from Thailand exposes jet geometry that defies natural comet physics and forces a deeper question: what exactly is 3I/ATLAS doing?
By Samuel Lopez | USA Herald – The newest image of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, captured on November 29, 2025 at 21:53 UTC by observer Teerasak Thaluang in Rayong, Thailand, represents one of the most revealing rotational-gradient analyses of the object to date. Using a Larson–Sekanina filter to strip away the coma and reveal underlying structural geometry, this frame isolates two crisp, collimated jets—each emerging in opposite directions—while also confirming a sunward-pointing anti-tail projected toward the lower left.
In ordinary comet science, such features should be inconsistent, asymmetric, and dependent entirely on solar heating. But this image denies those expectations at every level.
The first undeniable anomaly, and the one that repeats across nearly every international capture for the past thirty days, is directional discipline. These jets are not diffuse dust plumes. They are narrow, linear, and appear to hold a consistent vector orientation even after rotational gradients remove noise and coma distortion.
From a legal-forensic perspective, this is the kind of pattern—stable, repeatable, and geometrically coherent—that would constitute evidence of controlled action if we were analyzing aircraft, missile plumes, or mechanical exhaust. You do not get this kind of stability from random sublimation occurring on a spinning icy nucleus. You get it from a source that fires in lines rather than clouds.
The second anomaly arrives from the sunward anti-tail, which is illuminated here with unmistakable clarity. Under known physics, solar radiation pressure pushes dust away from the Sun, producing a tail that always flows anti-sunward. Yet 3I/ATLAS continues to project material toward the Sun, a behavior previously observed by astronomers in Hawaii, Utah, Italy, and Spain but rarely this cleanly.
The Thailand gradient filter removes any chance of misinterpretation: the anti-tail is not an illusion of camera angle. It is a physical jet firing into the solar vector. No natural mechanism explains why dust particles would willingly move into a headwind of photons traveling at light speed. Something is pushing them.
Our previous investigative lineage for USA Herald has built a consistent case: 3I/ATLAS is displaying behaviors characteristic of non-gravitational acceleration, pulsed activity, and structured mass ejection. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb’s most recent analysis noted that the object’s 16.16-hour pulsations cannot originate from rotation alone, because the nucleus is too small to produce brightness swings of tens of percent. That means the coma—not the nucleus—is brightening. And only one mechanism explains rhythmic brightening in the coma: pulsed jets.
This image supports that view. The jets do not appear chaotic. They appear periodic. Their symmetry is unnatural. And their angles resist solar influence. If the jets were merely natural vents, they would wobble, flicker, and distort with nucleus rotation. Yet here, even after a full rotational-gradient pass designed to reveal structural deception, the jets present as disciplined beams. That places us squarely in the territory Avi Loeb warned would be the dividing line: if the jet pulse direction remains stable rather than driven by the Sun, the mechanism is technological.
Given this, the most logical hypothesis—based solely on forensic evidence, prior imaging, brightness variability, and this rotational-gradient result—is that 3I/ATLAS is not behaving like a natural comet at all. Its activity patterns resemble controlled thrust, and its anti-tail suggests counter-solar propulsion. If the object is exerting force against solar radiation pressure, it may be adjusting trajectory, stabilizing orientation, or maintaining a deliberate path through the inner solar system. That leaves humanity confronting a question no one in government has yet dared articulate publicly: if this object is displaying intentionality, what is its purpose?
The most reasonable interpretation, based on observable behavior, is that 3I/ATLAS is performing transit rather than targeting. Its path is hyperbolic, which implies passage rather than approach. Its jets appear to regulate stability more than accelerate toward any body. The absence of trajectory deviation toward Earth reinforces that the object is not engaging in directed movement toward our planet. Instead, the controlled jets suggest station-keeping or orientation management, the same way spacecraft adjust posture as they rotate to protect instruments, solar arrays, or onboard sensors.
If the object is intelligent—or operating through an intelligent system—the question then becomes whether Earth should attempt communication. History, physics, and legal precedent all push us toward caution. If the object is merely observing, communicating prematurely could impose risk or unnecessary provocation.
However, if its jets correlate with periodic pulses of electromagnetic energy, such as the radio signals detected by MeerKAT earlier in October, then synchronization-based communication becomes the safest method. In the absence of shared language, mathematics is always the universal bridge. The Fibonacci sequence, prime numbers, or timed radio pulses could offer a non-threatening, non-intrusive invitation for acknowledgment.
But until we know more, the most responsible action is continued observation. No aircraft would be intercepted blindly. No spacecraft would be hailed without plan. And no interstellar object should be treated differently. The evidence suggests 3I/ATLAS is using jets to regulate movement rather than issue threat. It is behaving like a vessel in transit—not a weapon in approach.
The Thailand rotational-gradient capture now joins the growing constellation of images that undermine the “natural comet” narrative. It is too structured. Too linear. Too intentional. The most reasonable conclusion, grounded in months of forensic examination, is that 3I/ATLAS is an engineered visitor—or at minimum, contains engineered components—that is navigating our system with purpose. And for the first time, we may have a clear image of how it moves.
