Astrophysicist Avi Loeb has discovered a new anomaly near comet 3I/ATLAS

A new anomaly has been discovered in the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, associated with changes in the cloud of dust and gas around it. This was announced on January 16 by Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb on the Medium platform.

"It is noteworthy that there are no traces of microscopic dust particles that would enhance the blue color due to Rayleigh scattering. Moreover, these small particles would be subjected to strong pressure from solar radiation and would form a standard comet tail spreading from the Sun," he wrote.

He suggested that the anomaly may be due to the fact that there is a huge mass of dust around the comet with particles larger than those of ordinary comets, which is why it also does not have a typical tail.

In addition, there is a noticeable change in the glow of the areola surrounding 3I/ATLAS after passing perihelion. Now it emits diffused light with a bluish-blue tint, complementing "Газета.Ru ".

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On December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin jokingly called the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS a Russian secret weapon, while emphasizing that Russia opposes the deployment of weapons in space.

On December 27, the Laboratory of Solar Astronomy at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences reported that comet 3I/ATLAS is on its way to Jupiter and will fly at a minimum distance from the star Regulus.

As the Daily Star newspaper reported on December 5, the 3I/ATLAS object, which is often referred to as an "alien ship," allegedly provoked secret exercises around the world. So, accelerated exercises on interaction with asteroids began in Japan, and the US Space Forces conducted a rehearsal for tracking an object at high altitude.

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