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Radio Search Finds No Signal From Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS as Hubble Images Twin Jets

A Green Bank scan set strict limits on possible transmissions, reinforcing evidence for a dust-rich, naturally outgassing comet.

Overview

  • Breakthrough Listen used the 100-meter Green Bank Telescope on December 18 to scan 1–12 GHz, detecting no technosignature and ruling out isotropic continuous-wave transmitters above 0.1 W at 3I/ATLAS.
  • The radio analysis reduced roughly 471,000 initial candidates to nine events, all identified as interference or off-target signals.
  • Hubble observations on December 12 and 27 revealed twin narrow jets with a slight wobble, pointing to organized outgassing and complex rotational behavior.
  • ESO’s Very Large Telescope spectroscopy, published December 10, shows a dust-dominated red coma with CN emission and unusually strong neutral nickel lines, consistent with a cometary source.
  • Europa Clipper and ESA’s JUICE recorded unique probe-vantage views near perihelion with results still to be published, as the third confirmed interstellar object travels back out of the inner solar system.