3-KEY FINDINGS
- The Hubble Space Telescope has captured 3I ATLAS again, and the object is not behaving quietly as it departs the Sun’s neighborhood.
- New images from December reveal two narrow streams of material pushing out in different directions, a configuration that defies simple expectations.
- Astronomers are now working to explain whether this strange behavior fits within known comet physics or signals something more complex at work.
New December observations raise fresh questions about how the interstellar visitor is rotating and venting material as it exits our solar system.
[USA HERALD] – New images released from the Hubble Space Telescope show the interstellar object known as 3I/ATLAS emitting not one, but two distinct jets of material as it travels away from the Sun. The observations were made on December 12 and December 27, 2025, using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, which is designed to capture extremely faint and distant objects with high precision.
According to analysis published by Avi Loeb, these images reveal a surprisingly structured scene. One jet is strong and clearly visible, pointing roughly toward the Sun. The second jet is weaker and appears to originate from the opposite side of the object. Together, they create what astronomers describe as a “double-jet” configuration.
To understand why this matters, it helps to think of 3I/ATLAS as a spinning object in deep space, somewhat like a slowly rotating top. As it spins, sunlight heats its surface. In normal comets, this heat causes ice to turn into gas, which escapes through cracks or weak spots, producing jets. Typically, the strongest jet comes from the sunlit side, while the dark side remains mostly inactive.
What makes 3I/ATLAS unusual is that its main jet appears long, narrow, and remarkably stable. Earlier Hubble images from July 2025 already showed a sun-facing jet that was about ten times longer than it was wide. That jet did not stay perfectly fixed. Instead, it wobbled slightly—by about seven degrees—suggesting that the object is rotating and that the jet is anchored near one of its rotational poles.
As 3I/ATLAS passed its closest point to the Sun in late October 2025, gravity bent its trajectory by only a modest amount. If the object’s spin axis remained largely unchanged before and after that close approach, the area that once faced the Sun would now be turned away into darkness. In simple terms, the “front” of the object became the “back.”
That rotation leads directly to the puzzle now confronting astronomers. The weaker jet seen in December appears to line up with the same direction as the earlier sun-facing pole—except that this region should now be in shadow. At the same time, a stronger jet is seen emerging from the opposite side, which is now receiving more sunlight as the object heads outward.
One explanation is relatively conservative. In natural comets, heat absorbed during a close solar pass can slowly travel through the body, warming regions that are no longer directly lit by the Sun. This delayed heating can activate vents on the night side, producing a second, weaker jet while the main sunlit side continues to vent more strongly. Under this scenario, 3I/ATLAS would still be behaving like an unusual but natural comet.
Another possibility is that the activity pattern of 3I/ATLAS changed after perihelion, meaning the object began venting from different locations than it did before. That shift would suggest a more complex internal structure, with multiple active regions that respond differently as the object spins and cools.
What is not in dispute is the geometry. The two jets are narrow, well-defined, and persistent across multiple Hubble observations. They are not brief bursts or random plumes. Their stability implies an organized process tied to rotation, structure, and internal energy rather than chaotic surface cracking alone.
Data released by NASA show that these images were taken using 170-second exposures at visible wavelengths optimized for faint detail. The consistency between the December 12 and December 27 observations strengthens confidence that the double-jet pattern is real and not an imaging artifact.
From a broader perspective, 3I/ATLAS remains one of the rarest objects ever observed: an interstellar visitor passing through our solar system at high speed. Each new image adds to a growing dataset that scientists will study for years, refining models of how material formed around other stars behaves when exposed to our Sun.
At the same time, the object’s behavior highlights how limited even modern observations can be. Despite Hubble’s capabilities, much about 3I ATLAS remains unresolved, including its exact composition, internal structure, and long-term activity cycle.
The significance of these findings extends beyond curiosity. Understanding how interstellar objects respond to solar heating informs planetary science, comet physics, and models of material exchange between star systems. If objects like 3I/ATLAS can retain internal heat or activate multiple jets long after passing the Sun, it reshapes assumptions about their durability and evolution.
For now, 3I ATLAS continues its journey out of the solar system, leaving behind more questions than answers. The latest Hubble images do not prove anything extraordinary on their own, but they do confirm that this interstellar visitor is far from simple. As analysis continues, the object stands as a reminder that even familiar cosmic processes can behave in unfamiliar ways when they come from beyond our stellar neighborhood.
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