"Dubbed 3I-ATLAS - "three" as in the third known interstellar object from outside of our solar system - the bizarre entity has had the astronomical community in a quiet fervor since it was first spotted in early July. The object is widely believed to be an interstellar comet, although a handful of experts, including Harvard's ever-controversial astronomy researcher Avi Loeb, have suggested that it might be a visitor from an alien civilization. Many of Loeb's peers have dismissed that possibility, but that hasn't quieted the firebrand researcher."
"Astronomers call this an "anti-tail," a phenomenon which has been observed in a number of other comets going back decades. Anti-tails have a simple explanation: as the object approaches the sun, our relative position makes the long trail of particulate appear to flip, when in reality it hasn't changed. Basically, we're getting a 3D optical illusion, exacerbated by the Sun's gravity and our relative position in space."
3I-ATLAS is an interstellar object observed in early July and widely considered to be an interstellar comet. The object is currently hidden behind the Sun and will remain unobservable from Earth for about a month. New images from the Nordic Optical Telescope show a debris tail that appears to reverse direction and face toward the Sun, an effect termed an "anti-tail." Astronomers attribute anti-tails to viewing geometry and Sun-influenced particle dynamics creating a three-dimensional optical illusion. Avi Loeb proposes an alternative interpretation that the anti-tail represents an alien spacecraft applying "braking thrust," a claim met with skepticism by many peers.
Read at Futurism
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