"Images taken in November and December show an "intriguing configuration" of three "evolving jets" that jut out of the object at regular angles from each other, as he explained in a recent blog post. The object's most prominent appendage by far is still an "anti-tail" that points directly at the Sun, which scientists suspect is the result of the Sun-facing side losing more of its surface mass as it's warmed up by the approach."
"Loeb argues that it's highly unlikely that the rotation axis of these three jets would be perfectly aligned with the direction of the Sun to allow 3I/ATLAS to form the massive anti-tail jet, which "requires stability over longer periods." Put differently, he wrote, how could it be that these three jets are perfectly rotating around a much larger anti-tail jet that acts "like the beam of a lighthouse?""
Hubble images from November and December show 3I/ATLAS with three evolving jets at regular angles and a dominant anti-tail pointing toward the Sun. The anti-tail likely results from greater mass loss on the Sun-facing side as the object warmed during close approach. The prevailing natural interpretation identifies 3I/ATLAS as a comet of water and carbon dioxide ice from another star system. The symmetric jets could come from major pockets of ice on a rotating nucleus, triggered by heat conduction through the nucleus. An alternative hypothesis suggests an artificial extraterrestrial remnant because of the jets' alignment and stability, but that hypothesis has been largely refuted by other scientists.
Read at Futurism
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