"The object, which is broadly believed to be a comet that came to us from outside the solar system, has already been observed changing shape. Its tail has grown longer, and its coma - a large atmosphere of gas and dust that surrounds its nucleus - has become more pronounced. Those are expected characteristics from a comet ripping by the Sun at ludicrous speeds, though numerous readings by sensitive space telescopes have also found it to have unusual properties."
"Data by the ATLAS telescope team, which first spotted the object and after which the space rock is named, suggests that the object's "anomalous evolution" is shifting from "scattering of sunlight by dust lifted from a reddened surface to the production of small, optically bright icy grains, which changed the opacity of the plume of materials shed off by 3I/ATLAS," per Loeb."
3I/ATLAS is believed to be an interstellar comet showing shape changes: an elongating tail and a more pronounced coma as it nears perihelion. Deep imaging taken during a total lunar eclipse in Namibia captured a transition of the coma's emitted light from red to green. Observers hypothesize rising production of cyanide and nickel as the object heats approaching the Sun. ATLAS telescope data indicate anomalous evolution from sunlight scattering by dust on a reddened surface to production of small, optically bright icy grains that altered the opacity of the material plume. Observations will be studied further.
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