A new report on the enigmatic interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS has revealed deeper insights into the object’s behavior, which include signs of non-gravitational motion during its recent closest approach to the Sun.
Presently, most astronomers maintain that the space object, discovered in July 2025, is a natural comet, based on a growing body of data that confirms this interpretation. The object is the third known interstellar visitor that has entered our planetary neighborhood from another star system.
3I/ATLAS is also helping confirm data that suggests such objects probably make appearances far more frequently in our Solar System than previously known. With its glowing gassy envelope—what astronomers call a coma—and other key traits that have manifested as the object has moved closer to the Sun, little doubt has been left about the interstellar visitor’s identity as a natural object.
However, there are still some experts who interpret its recent activity as being noteworthy indicators—if additional related phenomena were to be confirmed in future observations—which some might expect to associate with objects of technological origin. So what does the latest data reveal, and why does it still have some astronomers divided over whether 3I/ATLAS might show signs associated with intelligent life?
What the New Report Reveals
A recent report by researcher Davide Farnoccia with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory offers some of the latest data on the gravitational characteristics displayed by 3I/ATLAS during its journey through our Solar System.
Farnoccia specializes in the study of small objects and their orbits, which includes “nongravitational perturbations” some space objects display, as well as whether some near-Earth objects (NEOs) may pose an impact hazard to Earth.
According to Farnoccia’s report, 3I/ATLAS follows a hyperbolic orbit, displaying an eccentricity of e = 6.1373. This figure is important, as it significantly exceeds the accepted value of 1 that astronomers recognize as being required to escape the Sun’s gravity. This means that the object’s trajectory confirms that 3I/ATLAS is not gravitationally bound to our Solar System, confirming astronomers’ suspicions that once it completes its recent planetary drive-by visit, the object will continue back into interstellar space.
NASA diagram showing the trajectory of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS (Image Credit: NASA).
Perihelion Surprises
3I/ATLAS reached perihelion—its closest point to the Sun—on October 29, 2025, with the object reaching a point of 1.356 astronomical units (AU) from our nearest star. This placed the comet just beyond Earth’s orbit, displaying a steep retrograde inclination of around 175 degrees, which reveals an incoming path that is almost completely the opposite direction of planetary motion.
Farnoccia’s report confirms that the object also displayed something that many astronomers were eager to see if 3I/ATLAS would reveal as it approached perihelion: signs of measurable non-gravitational accelerations.
Unlike the odd, elongated shape of 1I/‘Oumuamua, the first confirmed interstellar object discovered in 2017, and its dusty successor 2I/Borisov, the confirmation that 3I/ATLAS displays measurable non-gravitational accelerations (technically speaking, Farnoccia’s report indicates these values to be A1 ~ 1.66×10⁻⁶ AU/day², A2 ~ 7.09×10⁻⁷ AU/day²) offers a good indication of cometary behavior driven by outgassing, making the interstellar visitor a valuable new sample of icy material from another star system.
However, not all scientists interpret the object’s non-gravitational accelerations as being further evidence of the object’s identity as an interstellar comet. Some have even suggested that such behavior around the time of perihelion could be a prime indicator of something more complex.
Watching for Signs of ET Signatures
Just before 3I/ATLAS reached perihelion, theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, in an appearance on NewsMax, said that if the object seemed to display an increase in energy as it neared the Sun, this could be interpreted as evidence that the object is something more than just a comet.
“If it picks up extra energy on its flyby, that would clinch it,” Kaku said. “That means there’s extraterrestrial intelligence involved.”
Kaku then offered a general explanation for what is known as the Oberth effect, a powered maneuver in which a spacecraft falls under the influence of an object’s gravity and then uses its source of propulsion to achieve further acceleration during its fall. The result is that the spacecraft achieves additional speed by using its passage within the gravitational well to gain kinetic energy, which is far more efficient than relying solely on its engines to provide thrust.
3I/ATLAS is a mystery interstellar object noted for its hyperbolic path toward the Sun and very high speed relative to the Solar System. In mere days, #3IATLAS promises to yield new information, and perhaps, new questions. I appeared on @NEWSMAX to discuss these developments. pic.twitter.com/LP7UQgTplA
— Dr. Michio Kaku (@michiokaku) October 26, 2025
“The Oberth effect says that if you were to whip around the Sun, you would pick up extra energy in the process,” Kaku explained. “So we’re gonna watch for it. The energy in must equal the energy out, according to the ordinary theory. But if that’s not true—if there’s more energy going out than in—it means that there’s an energy boost coming from whipping around the Sun, and that requires intelligence.”
So, do the non-gravitational accelerations 3I/ATLAS has now been confirmed to have displayed around the time of perihelion point to signs of technology, as Kaku and others had been waiting to see?
Evidence of Aliens, or Mass Loss Through Evaporation?
Since the object’s discovery this summer, Harvard theoretical physicist Avi Loeb has provided ongoing speculations, in nearly a dozen scientific papers and in updates on his Medium page, about the anomalies 3I/ATLAS displays. While Loeb and his colleagues have at times conceded that the object is indeed most likely an interstellar comet, his ongoing championing of other possibilities has also led to pushback from some of his colleagues in the astronomical community.
Regarding the recent activity 3I/ATLAS displayed as it approached perihelion, Loeb notes that if its current motion is driven by gas outflow, it should lose roughly half its mass in about six months, meaning around 10% of its mass would evaporate during its month-long swing near the Sun. Such rapid mass loss should produce a large, observable gas plume around the comet in late 2025.
Loeb also says that such massive evaporation, which should be evident in future observations of 3I/ATLAS once it emerges from behind the Sun, might also explain phenomena like its “rapid brightening,” as described in a recent paper by Qicheng Zhang of the Lowell Observatory and co-author Karl Battams of the US Naval Research Laboratory.
However, there is another interpretation of the non-gravitational movement that Loeb offers, which remains in keeping with his more exotic speculations from recent weeks.
“Alternatively, the non-gravitational acceleration might be the technological signature of an internal engine,” Loeb wrote in a recent post on his Medium page. Loeb also argues that 3I/ATLAS’s unexpectedly blue color, which it began to display at perihelion, is unusual for a natural comet, as most would expect them to appear redder due to dust scattering and its cold surface temperature.
Based on this, Loeb suggests the anomaly could potentially stem from the presence of a hot engine or some source of artificial illumination. However, the Harvard astrophysicist also concedes that this odd coloration may simply be due to ionized carbon monoxide, a natural cometary process. In short, while the latest data is intriguing and invites continued scrutiny, the evidence still favors a natural cometary origin.
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More Data on the Strangest Comet Ever Seen
New data continues to be collected about 3I/ATLAS, with the current number of observations detailed in Farnoccia’s report totaling 647 collected over a 167-day observation arc. This provides high confidence in the orbit determination of 3I/ATLAS, and ensures that the object poses no threat to Earth, with a minimum orbital intersection distance (MOID) of 0.363 AU.
With its confirmed interstellar origin and active cometary nature, it remains hard to argue against 3I/ATLAS’s identity as a natural space object, and one that offers a rare opportunity to study pristine foreign ices, dust, and organic compounds. Frustratingly, additional data that may have been obtained by NASA cameras like the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter remains inaccessible to the public as the recent U.S. government shutdown, already one of the longest in history, persists.
Fortunately, space agencies in several other nations, as well as the independent efforts of NASA researchers like Farnoccia, continue to collect new information on 3I/ATLAS that may potentially help to shed new light on the object and its unusual qualities, and more broadly, the chemical diversity of planetary systems beyond our own.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.
