Overview

• TESS imagery from May and June revealed that 3I/ATLAS developed a coma and outgassing at roughly 6.4 AU, indicating sustained activity far from the sun
• Refined astrometry confirms the object’s hyperbolic trajectory at about 137,000 mph and NASA maintains it poses no threat to Earth
• Harvard’s Avi Loeb has published a preprint proposing that 3I/ATLAS could be an alien probe and suggesting a theoretical Juno spacecraft intercept in March 2026
• Researchers including Samantha Lawler and Darryl Seligman counter that 3I/ATLAS exhibits classical icy comet signatures and dismiss artificial‐craft interpretations
• Ongoing campaigns across ground and space telescopes continue to map the interloper’s composition, nucleus size and approach ahead of its late-October perihelion