🚨 HARVARD’S AVI LOEB DROPS BOMBSHELL: 3I/ATLAS Images Reveal an Impossible 10-Gigawatt ‘Engine’ Glow! 🚨
Get ready to have your mind blown! Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was supposed to be just a cosmic snowball, but jaw-dropping new images show it’s anything but. Forget normal tails – this thing’s got a glowing cocoon facing the Sun, pumping out 10 gigawatts of power like a sci-fi reactor. Harvard’s Avi Loeb says it flat-out: this isn’t nature, it’s an engineered object carving a deliberate path through our solar system. Is this a cosmic tourist… or a probe with a mission? October’s Mars flyby could spill the truth – or spark panic. 😱🌌
Dive into the stunning pics and Loeb’s wild claims here:
The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, a celestial wanderer from beyond our solar system, has been rewriting the rules since its discovery in July 2025. But the latest high-resolution images, released in early September, have catapulted it from scientific curiosity to potential game-changer. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, no stranger to bold claims, is sounding the alarm: the object is emitting a 10-gigawatt energy signature, sporting a glowing cocoon that defies comet norms, and following a path too precise to be random. “This isn’t nature,” Loeb declared in a fiery September 20 interview. “We’re looking at something that appears to have an engine.”
The saga began on July 1, when the ATLAS telescope in Chile’s Río Hurtado valley spotted 3I/ATLAS streaking in at 58 kilometers per second. Its hyperbolic orbit, with an eccentricity exceeding 6, marked it as the third confirmed interstellar visitor, following ‘Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. Early Hubble images from July 21 showed a 5.6-kilometer nucleus wrapped in a teardrop-shaped dust coma, but August data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) revealed oddities: a carbon dioxide-heavy coma at an 8:1 ratio to water ice, laced with nickel-cobalt alloys and pulsing gas jets every 17 minutes. “It’s not your typical dirty snowball,” said Jacqueline McCleary of Northeastern University. “It’s like a relic from a star’s scrap heap, seven billion years old.”
The new images, captured September 14 by JWST, Keck Observatory, and the Very Large Telescope (VLT), flipped the script. Instead of a classic comet tail trailing away from the Sun, 3I/ATLAS sports a glowing, cocoon-like structure facing sunward – a feature astronomers call an “anti-tail” but with unprecedented coherence. “It’s not just dust scattering,” said Caltech’s Mike Brown, a small-bodies expert. “The light profile’s too steep, fading abruptly, like a focused emission.” Thermal scans clocked a 10-gigawatt energy output from the nucleus, dwarfing typical comet outgassing. Polarization maps from VLT’s FORS2 instrument show concentric rings in the coma, too orderly for random jets. “This screams structure,” Loeb told CNN, pointing to a September 19 preprint from his Galileo Project team.
Loeb’s claim is explosive: the cocoon and energy suggest an engineered object, possibly propelled by a propulsion system. Non-gravitational accelerations, flagged in JPL models, show a 0.01-degree trajectory tweak toward Mars’ orbit, detected September 15 after a flare. “The path’s too deliberate,” Loeb said. “It’s aligned with inner planets at a 0.2% random chance.” His team estimates the core, potentially 46 kilometers wide, could be a metallic relic – iron-nickel, irradiated for eons – powering the pulses. “If it’s a comet, it’s the most disciplined one in the galaxy,” he quipped.
NASA’s keeping a tight lid. “3I/ATLAS exhibits comet-like behavior – coma, tail, outgassing,” said Lindley Johnson, head of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office, in a September 20 NASA Science brief. “No evidence of artificial origins.” But the stakes are high. The comet’s October 3 Mars flyby, now projected at 29 million kilometers, carries a 7% collision risk per internal JPL sims. A hit would unleash millions of megatons, carving a 60-kilometer crater and threatening NASA’s rovers and ESA’s orbiters. Debris could reach Earth’s orbit in years, though risks stay low at 1.6 AU minimum distance.
The public’s hooked. X’s #3IATLASEngine hashtag exploded with 1.4 million posts by September 22, driven by Gerald Rhemann’s cocoon shots from Namibia, racking 600K likes. Conspiracy hubs like @UAPWatchers scream “alien mothership,” while @Kabamur_Taygeta spins “Pleiadian beacon,” earning 100K shares. Skeptics like @AstroSkeptic counter: “Cocoon? Just dense dust. Energy? CO2 jets.” Amateur Elena Vasquez, who caught the magnitude-12 glow in Arizona, posted: “Virgo, post-sunset – 8-inch scopes, now!” X feeds buzz with viewing tips: RA 13h 22m, Dec -10° 44’.
Science is in overdrive. SPHEREx’s September 17 infrared scans probe the core; Parker Solar Probe preps for post-perihelion flares. Keck’s September 20 images show a 3-arcsecond cocoon, hinting at ramping activity at 2 AU. “Outbursts are coming,” said ESA’s Colin Wilson. “Borisov split in 2020; ATLAS could fracture, dusting Mars.” The comet swarm adds heat: seven others crowd October, with C/2025 R2 (SWAN) skimming Earth at 0.26 AU on October 21 and C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) hitting magnitude 4 by November 8.
Skeptics push back. Michigan State’s Darryl Seligman told CBC: “10 gigawatts? Volatile CO2 under solar heat. Cocoon? Optical trick.” Northeastern’s McCleary agrees: “Rings? Magnetic dust alignment, not tech.” But the anomalies – clean spectra, rhythmic pulses, path tweaks – fuel debate. Michio Kaku’s September 21 Big Think video, viewed 2.3 million times, calls it “a cosmic puzzle.” @ShwaWX’s X thread maps viewing: “October 20-23, dark skies.” @wow36932525’s cocoon clip goes viral: “Engine or ice?”
As September 22 dawns, 3I/ATLAS shines at magnitude 12, 42 million miles out, its glowing cocoon pulsing. Mars looms October 3; perihelion hits October 29. Natural or engineered? Chaos or intent? Scopes from Keck to backyards stay locked. Loeb’s warning resonates: “This isn’t a comet – it’s a question.” November waits. Grab glass. The engine glows.
