- 9 months ago
A cosmic mystery is passing through our solar system! Join us as we explore the bizarre characteristics of this interstellar visitor from its glowing green coma to its mysterious propulsion and shape-shifting tail. Our countdown includes an object potentially older than our Sun, with a light signature that has Harvard scientists questioning its true nature!
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00:00At this point, 3-Eye Atlas was about 277 million miles from Earth.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 strange facts about 3-Eye Atlas.
00:12As only the third interstellar object ever discovered, this stranger from the stars has captured our collective interest,
00:19making us wonder if it truly is just a regular old comet from another world, or possibly something even more alien.
00:26We just need to keep our eyes on the board.
00:30Number 10. From a solar system far, far away.
00:34The interstellar comet, dubbed 3-Eye Atlas, was first reported on July 1, 2025,
00:39by the Asteroid Terrestrial Impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, a NASA-funded survey telescope in Chile.
00:47According to NASA, it is just the third known object to be discovered within our own solar system that originated from outside our solar system.
00:55It was discovered that pre-discovery observations extended back as far as June 14, 2025.
01:02During this discovery period, it was observed to not follow a closed orbital path around the sun, but a hyperbolic orbital path.
01:10Most comets, being bound by gravity, follow an elliptical path.
01:14Yet 3-Eye Atlas appeared to be passing through our neighborhood, rather than orbiting.
01:19And while this comet poses no current threat, Professor Lowe believes more data should be collected to uncover the nature of this object,
01:27and whether it has the potential to create risks in the future.
01:30Thus, it was named 3-Eye Atlas, the eye standing for interstellar object number 3 discovered by Atlas.
01:37This is now taking it to a different level.
01:41Number 9. A green glowing coma.
01:43As they get close to the sun, comets develop an atmosphere that surrounds them, called a coma.
01:49The solid part of the comet is called the nucleus, and the gaseous cloud around it is called the coma, Latin for hair.
01:55In fact, that's why we call them comets.
01:57It's a cloud of dust and gas, growing brighter and bigger as the sun heats up the materials on the comet, including ice.
02:05These become gases that can be observed by astronomers.
02:08As 3-Eye Atlas recently came around the other side of our sun, it was observed to be glowing green.
02:14But the problem with 3-Eye Atlas is that it keeps doing things that just don't make sense.
02:20This is due to diatomic carbon particles, which are excited by UV rays, like those from the sun.
02:26This is normal for comets, but since 3-Eye Atlas is making enough gas to be detected by researchers,
02:32and yet not enough for a usual tail, that's where it gets a bit strange.
02:37So, why is that happening?
02:40We don't know.
02:42Aliens?
02:42Yeah, maybe they just like green lights.
02:45Number 8.
02:46Older than the sun itself?
02:47The James Webb Telescope observed that 3-Eye Atlas' surface has been irradiated over billions of years.
02:54In fact, it may now be made up of more irradiated material than whatever it was formed with in its birthplace.
02:59When it was closest to the sun, we couldn't look at it because the Earth was on the opposite side.
03:04But in the coming weeks, leading to December 19th, that's when it will be closest to Earth.
03:10From these observations, added to some computer simulations,
03:13it was determined by researchers to have such extreme levels of carbon dioxide
03:18due to space radiation being absorbed over its lifetime, which is estimated at 7 billion years.
03:24And so, 3-Eye Atlas has been in interstellar space for a very long time.
03:28This would make it by far the oldest comet we've ever seen,
03:32and even 3 billion years older than our own 4.6 billion-year-old solar system,
03:38including our very own sun.
03:40It went behind the sun.
03:41Now it has reappeared.
03:43Number 7.
03:44A light signature like no other.
03:46The illumination from sunlight cannot explain what Harvard astrophysicist Dr. Avi Loeb is seeing from 3-Eye Atlas.
03:53Usually, cometary tails are made of dust and gas,
03:57and those particles are getting pushed away from the sun by the solar radiation, the solar wind.
04:02He's been meticulously following the comet along its journey,
04:06and has calculated the luminosity needed by the comet in order to be as bright as it has been observed.
04:12He realized the brightness profile around the object actually leads him to believe
04:17that 3-Eye Atlas' nucleus produces most of the light being observed.
04:21If the light that we observe from this object is reflection of sunlight,
04:26its size needs to be bigger than Manhattan Island.
04:30Of course, he is open to what this might mean,
04:32either a natural explanation,
04:34or even the possibility of a nuclear-powered alien technology coming to visit our neighborhood.
04:39At this point, it's only, quote,
04:41a blind date of interstellar proportions,
04:44which Professor Loeb believes we should keep researching to find the answers.
04:48My point is, even if it's a rock, we better get as much information as possible.
04:53Number 6.
04:54Mysterious Propulsions.
04:56The mystery continues to deepen,
04:58and Dr. Avi Loeb, professor of science
05:00and director of Harvard's Institute for Theory and Computation,
05:04believes there could be an alien explanation
05:06for 3-Eye Atlas' recently observed mysterious propulsion.
05:10When you have a visitor to your backyard,
05:13you better know its nature.
05:14He believes we should keep a close eye on it during December
05:17to see if it begins to show indications of a natural phenomenon
05:21rather than the alternative.
05:22Another thing is that it moves in the plane of the planets around the sun,
05:26which is very surprising,
05:27a chance of 1 in 500.
05:30He believes that, quote,
05:31if we do not observe a dense cloud of gas around it in December,
05:35then cometary evaporation is not the explanation
05:38for its non-gravitational acceleration.
05:41Instead, it might constitute a technological signature
05:44of a propulsion system.
05:46End quote.
05:47And moreover, it's moving in the opposite direction
05:49to the motion of the earth around the sun,
05:52and when it will come closest to the sun,
05:55the earth would be on the opposite side.
05:57Number 5.
05:58Strange Temperature Reactions.
06:003-Eye Atlas has also captured attention
06:02because it appears to be shedding water in a region far from the sun,
06:07which is odd for a comet.
06:08It has an unusual composition.
06:12Very little water.
06:134% by mass is seen in the plume of gas around it.
06:16This was even observed when the object was approximately
06:18three times the earth's distance from the sun away,
06:22during which time water was escaping
06:24at an astonishing rate of about 40 kilograms per second,
06:28roughly that of a high-powered fire hose.
06:30Researchers believe that this could be the result
06:32of sunlight warming tiny ice particles
06:35released from deep within the nucleus of the comet,
06:38vaporizing and feeding the surrounding cloud of gas.
06:41You now say this is not only an alien spaceship,
06:45but it's nuclear-powered?
06:47This unprecedented behavior may indicate layers of ice
06:51within the comet,
06:52possibly dating all the way back to the comet's origin.
06:54And now the latest data showing
06:56that the comet is erupting in ice volcanoes.
07:00Number 4. Cosmic chemical makeup.
07:03Researchers worked alongside the observations
07:05from the James Webb Telescope
07:07in an attempt to understand
07:08the unusual chemistry of 3-Eye Atlas.
07:11It has an unusual composition.
07:14The comet has been observed shedding nickel without much iron,
07:17which Dr. Avi Loeb describes as, quote,
07:20very surprising because the only place we find nickel without iron
07:24is in industrial production of nickel alloys, end quote.
07:27And the composition indicates perhaps some technological origin.
07:33The unusual chemical signature detected by researchers
07:36suggests that the nickel may be released through processes
07:39that actually work at much lower temperatures,
07:42instead of the usual way,
07:44transformation of solid to gas called sublimation,
07:47which generally requires much higher temperatures.
07:50So we're going from one phase of matter, a solid,
07:53to a liquid because we're giving it a lot of energy.
07:56It's happening really, really fast,
07:58and we're skipping that liquid altogether.
08:01Number 3. The Titan of Interstellar Travelers.
08:04Of all of the interstellar objects discovered thus far,
08:07our third, 3-Eye Atlas, takes the cosmic cake for size.
08:12According to Dr. Avi Loeb, quote,
08:14it's the size of a city, a million times more massive
08:17than the first interstellar object that we discovered eight years ago, end quote.
08:22Yeah, the reason was that the inferred size of the object was huge.
08:28The interstellar giant punches far above its class
08:31at an estimated 3.5 miles or 5.6 kilometers in diameter.
08:36So it's size, the fact that it's unusually large
08:39is what's making you doubt that it may,
08:42or at least be open to the possibility that it's not just a comet?
08:46That makes the third interstellar object much larger than its two predecessors.
08:51The first, one-eye Amuamua,
08:53was only estimated to be a few hundred meters across.
08:57And the second, two-eye Borisov,
08:59was estimated to be even smaller than typical solar system comets
09:03at roughly half a mile across.
09:05Number two, recent deviations.
09:08As 3-eye Atlas made its way around the sun,
09:11another peculiar observation was discovered by researchers.
09:14More importantly, the trajectory is very unusual.
09:18The interstellar object appeared to deviate
09:20from the path researchers were expecting it to travel
09:23if driven by gravity alone.
09:25This particular change in velocity
09:27is comparable to a jet
09:29expelling approximately 5 billion tons of material,
09:32which, according to Dr. Avi Loeb,
09:35would be required in order to produce an equivalent recoil effect.
09:38Once 3-eye Atlas rounded its path closest to the sun on October 29, 2025,
09:44researchers observed a set of more than seven jets around it,
09:48with some pointing towards and some pointing away from the sun.
09:51It's a spectacular view that we have right now after it passed closest to the sun.
09:56This leads us all to ask the question posed by Dr. Loeb.
10:00Is this technological in origin?
10:02Because it could be a black swan event
10:04in the sense that it would have immense consequences for our future.
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10:25Number 1. Shape-shifting tail.
10:28One of 3-eye Atlas' most striking anomalies is its tail,
10:32or lack thereof for the most part.
10:34What is going on?
10:37Yeah, that's very surprising.
10:38Harvard astrophysicist Dr. Avi Loeb
10:40has been studying the comet since its discovery
10:42and continues to discuss how strange the tail is
10:46in comparison with the tails of most comets.
10:48In one paper, he wrote that 3-eye Atlas
10:50showed an elongated coma similar to a cometary tail,
10:54but pointing in the direction of the sun,
10:56sometimes referred to as an anti-tail.
10:59We see other comets in the solar system
11:02that have a beautiful tail away from the sun behind them.
11:06breaking updates continue to be made.
11:09The most recent being that the object
11:11doesn't seem to have a tail at all
11:13now that it's being observed nearer to our sun and ourselves.
11:18Maybe among the rocks,
11:19we'll find a tennis ball thrown by a neighbor.
11:22That's my hope.
11:23As the updates continue to roll in
11:25about our interstellar visitor,
11:26please share anything we've missed along the way
11:29in the comments and let us know
11:30what you think is the strangest thing
11:32about the legendary 3-eye Atlas.
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