The Twelfth Anomaly of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Defies Scientific Explanation

The third interstellar object ever observed, Comet 3I/ATLAS, continues to present astronomers with a complex series of puzzles. Discovered on July 1, 2025, by the ATLAS observatory situated in Chile, this visitor from the deep reaches of space immediately exhibited unusual characteristics. Its clearly hyperbolic trajectory confirmed its extrasolar origin, while its estimated age, reaching a staggering 7.5 billion years, suggests it is a contemporary of the young universe itself. However, it is not its ancient roots that have caused the biggest stir, but rather its series of inexplicable behavioral oddities that challenge conventional cometary models.

The most recent and perhaps most compelling event was the recording of the twelfth anomaly, which peaked across November 8 and 9, 2025. During this period, astronomers documented highly focused jets of gas and dust extending for more than a million kilometers from the comet’s nucleus. What makes this phenomenon truly unique is that these jets maintained a perfectly rectilinear shape. This observation flies in the face of established physics, given the comet's measured rotation period of 16.16 hours around its axis. Natural rotation should have inevitably twisted the ejected material into a spiral pattern, yet this critical distortion did not occur.

“The preservation of the distinct form of these jets, which are traveling at speeds of approximately 400 meters per second, strongly suggests the presence of stabilizing mechanisms,” commented Harvard University astrophysicist Avi Loeb. He added that while this evidence does not conclusively prove, it certainly does not rule out, the possibility of a technological origin. Offering an alternative perspective, Russian astronomer Alexander Kiselev proposes that the phenomenon is linked to the complex structure of a gas and dust “anti-tail” directed toward the Sun—another one of 3I/ATLAS's many strange characteristics.

Earlier in its journey, on October 24, 2025, the MeerKAT radio telescope detected absorption lines of hydroxyl radicals, a classic signature of cometary activity. Nevertheless, subsequent observations rapidly revealed a comprehensive catalog of deviations. These included an anomalously high ratio of nickel to cyanide, an unusually low water content measured at only 4%, and unexplained non-gravitational acceleration. Despite these structural peculiarities, the object successfully navigated its perihelion passage on October 29, 2025, at a distance of 210 million km from the Sun, without disintegrating—a fate common for many icy nuclei.

Scientists are holding out hope that scheduled observations on December 19, 2025, utilizing the advanced capabilities of the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes, might finally illuminate the true nature of this singular object. For now, 3I/ATLAS continues its journey through the Solar System, having safely receded to 1.8 astronomical units from Earth, leaving behind an unprecedented scientific enigma that demands resolution from the world's astrophysical community.