Just when the world thought the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS could not get any stranger, it has performed a manoeuvre that has reignited the intense debate over its true nature. For months, the most baffling feature of this cosmic visitor was its bizarre 'anti-tail', a jet of material pointing directly towards the Sun, defying the known physics of comets.
Now, in a stunning and complete reversal, that anti-tail is gone. New images confirm the object has flipped its jet and is now producing a classic tail, streaming away from the Sun. This 'complete inversion' is either a new, unobserved cometary phenomenon, or, as some scientists are cautiously suggesting, it is the exact behaviour you would expect from an intelligently controlled alien probe braking and then accelerating as it rounds our star.
