New Video Stills of 3I/ATLAS Show Persistent Fragment Cluster As Independent Telescopes Capture Same Event

The brightness behavior further complicates traditional explanations. At this heliocentric distance, icy fragments expelled from a cometary nucleus typically sublimate rapidly, fading or dispersing into dust under solar radiation pressure. In the December 23 frame, the surrounding objects retain coherent luminosity rather than dissolving into a plume. Their persistence suggests material properties that are either unusually dense, highly reflective, refractory, or otherwise resistant to thermal erosion. This observation aligns with the growing body of data indicating that 3I/ATLAS does not conform neatly to known comet taxonomies.

Equally notable is the geometry. The fragments are not distributed randomly, nor do they form the fan-shaped debris field expected from explosive fragmentation. Instead, they appear to share a common motion vector with the central mass, maintaining relative spacing consistent with co-moving bodies. Natural debris clouds tend to shear apart quickly under differential solar forces. The configuration seen here implies either a tightly bound fragment system or a collection of objects governed by shared dynamics not typically observed in volatile-driven breakups.