In the vast, usually predictable ballet of the cosmos, the arrival of a single object has been enough to send shockwaves through the astronomical establishment. That object is 3I/ATLAS, only the third confirmed interstellar visitor to our solar system, and according to one of the field's most controversial figures, it is behaving in ways that suggest it is far from a standard comet.
Harvard astrophysicist Professor Avi Loeb has long argued that we should keep an open mind about these cosmic travellers. He initially gained notoriety for suggesting that the first interstellar object, 1I/'Oumuamua, could have been an extraterrestrial artefact. Now, he is turning the same piercing gaze on 3I/ATLAS, and his latest observations regarding its baffling 'anti-tail' are throwing down a gauntlet to conventional physics.
