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Jaw-dropping new Hubble Telescope images reveal wobbling jets erupting from comet 3I/ATLAS ☄️✨. Based on observations from Dec. 12 and 27, 2025, scientists uncover fresh clues about the comet’s rotation and activity. See the images and discoveries 🌠🔭
New images of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, taken through 170 second exposures with the WFC3 UVIS (F350LP) camera of the Hubble Space Telescope at a central wavelength of 0.5851 micron on December 12 and 27, 2025, were released here. They reveal a double-jet structure. The more prominent jet is an anti-tail directed towards the Sun.
“Hubble images of comet 3I/ATLAS”
A sunward jet which is 10 times longer than it is wide was already captured in the Hubble image taken on July 21, 2025 (as reported here and analyzed here). Its 7-degree wobble around the rotation axis of 3I/ATLAS (as reported here) implied that it originated near the Sun-facing pole long before perihelion. The gravitational deflection of 3I/ATLAS by the Sun during perihelion on October 29, 2025, was only by 16 degrees, as I calculated here. If the rotation axis did not change orientation between July and December 2025, the original Sun-facing pole is now on the nightside of 3I/ATLAS — opposite to the direction of the Sun. It points in the same direction as the weaker jet in the new Hubble images from December 12 and 27, 2025, and is accompanied by a stronger sunward jet from the opposite side of 3I/ATLAS on its way out of the solar system.
Why are two jets displayed in the new images of 3I/ATLAS?
There are two possible interpretations:
1. One possibility is that the two jets are launched from opposite sides of the nucleus. This would make the post-perihelion activity of 3I/ATLAS different than it was before perihelion.
For a natural comet, heat conduction could transport the excess solar energy near perihelion from the dayside to the nightside and activate a weak jet on the nightside in addition to a stronger jet on the dayside.
For a technological object, the sunward jet might be utilized for protection against the solar wind, coronal mass ejections or sunlight — given that the anti-tail is marginally opaque (as discussed here). In addition, the secondary jet could mitigate risk from obstacles lying ahead along its path.
2. The second interpretation is that both jets originate from the Sun-facing side but they have a different composition.
As I described here, the anti-tail jet can extend out to several hundred million kilometers for dust particles with a radius of order 10-micron. However, the sunward outflow would extend only out to a few million kilometers in the sunward direction for sub-micron particles on which the solar radiative deceleration is 10–100 times stronger. A quick turnaround would also apply to gas particles which are swept away by the solar wind or to dust particles with a slow initial speed. All of these particles could therefore turn around quickly and constitute the second jet heading away from the Sun.
The true origin of the jets can be inferred from measurements of the velocity profile of the two jets, based on future spectroscopic data from large telescopes like the Keck Observatory in Hawaii or the Very Large Telescope in Chile. In the second interpretation, the weaker jet would also show a launch base on the sun-facing side of the nucleus and accelerate to an increasing recession speed with distance in the direction away from the Sun. In a technological context, both jets are expected to show a high-speed exceeding 1 kilometer per second at their launch points near the nucleus.
Why do the jets look so different on December 12 and 27, 2025?
Remarkably, the relative brightness and projected shape of the two jets changed significantly between December 12 and 27. This could be a signature of rotational wobble of the two jets, if they are misaligned with the rotation axis of 3I/ATLAS. But the difference could also indicate large variability of the jet sources. A simple way to identify the cause is to compare snapshots taken at different times over the 30-minute observing windows on both dates and identify systematic changes in them. The two Hubble images on December 12 and 27 favor the rotational wobble interpretation — as the anti-tail jet brightens when the opposite jet weakens, as expected from wobble of a double-jet structure around the rotation axis.
As I argued here, the wobble or variability of the jets may explain the “heartbeat” changes observed with a period of 16 hours in the brightness of 3I/ATLAS in July 2025. As a result of mass loss, the rotation period of 3I/ATLAS may have changed by now (as discussed here in the context of the first interstellar object, 1I/`Oumuamua). My team will attempt to measure this possible evolution as we analyze the latest Hubble data on 3I/ATLAS.
Science is exciting, as it offers us an opportunity to learn from new data. The only challenge is that we must stay humble in order to collect new data and learn something new, while self-declared experts provide us with old narratives based on past knowledge.
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