Overview
- A November 9 stacked image by British astronomers Michael Buechner and Frank Niebling reveals multiple jets, including two sunward anti-tail jets roughly 0.95 million kilometers long and a longer jet about 2.85 million kilometers in the opposite direction.
- South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope detected OH absorption at 1665 and 1667 MHz on October 24, a signature consistent with cometary outgassing and supportive of a natural origin.
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory tracking indicates a small non‑gravitational acceleration affecting 3I/ATLAS’s path, which researchers attribute to outgassing as the object brightened around perihelion.
- NASA says the object poses no immediate threat, with closest approach expected on December 19 at roughly 269–270 million kilometers from Earth.
- Harvard’s Avi Loeb has proposed a very large mass, possible fragmentation, and even technological thrusters, but these claims remain unverified as agencies and observatories expand coordinated observation campaigns.