3I/ATLAS Survives Solar Passage Intact as NASA Withholds Critical Images
- Cristina Gomez
- 11 minutes ago
- 3 min read
New 3I/ATLAS images taken on November 11th have confirmed that the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS survived its close encounter with the Sun as a single, intact body — a development that has raised significant questions among researchers. According to Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, who has been working directly with Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb on this investigation, intelligence agencies are blocking congressional access to classified footage related to unidentified aerial phenomena, could similar transparency issues surround 3I/ATLAS?
In a recent Newsmax interview, Luna revealed that members of the intelligence community and the Department of Defense have denied Congress access to classified materials, stating elected officials lack the proper need-to-know authorities. She emphasized this represents a bipartisan concern with support from both the House and Senate, yet information remains restricted even from those conducting oversight.
Regarding 3I/ATLAS specifically, Luna confirmed there are recognized anomalies with the object, including the unusual loss of its tail, which represents behavior rarely observed in comets. Despite these irregularities, NASA Administrator Sean Duffy maintains the official position that 3I/ATLAS is simply a comet. However, a critical data gap has emerged. According to Loeb, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured the sharpest images of 3I/ATLAS on October 3rd when it passed within 29 million kilometers of Mars, providing 30-kilometer resolution per pixel. The government shutdown started just two days before those images were taken, and NASA claims bureaucratic rules prevent them from releasing the data. Even after the shutdown ended, these images remain unreleased, frustrating researchers worldwide who need this information to design follow-up observations.
Per insights from Avi Loeb’s latest analysis published on Medium, the survival of 3I/ATLAS as a single body should not have happened under normal circumstances. When comets pass this close to the Sun, extreme heat and gravitational forces typically tear them apart into fragments. Images from the Nordic Optical Telescope, taken by astronomers David Jewitt and Jane Luu, show 3I/ATLAS remains in one piece with a prominent jet pointing directly toward the Sun. According to NASA’s official data, 3I/ATLAS passed closest to the Sun on October 29th at a distance of 1.36 astronomical units, placing it between Earth and Mars. In a Fox News interview, Loeb explained that images show more than seven jets extending millions of kilometers into space, with one possibility being that these jets are powered by sublimating ice pockets illuminated by sunlight. However, another possibility is that these are technological thrusters on a spacecraft, which can be distinguished by measuring jet velocities that far exceed what natural sublimation can produce.
Adding to the conversation, amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov — who discovered the second interstellar object in 2019 — identified another unusual object on November 2nd, officially designated C/2025 V1. If we only consider gravity and natural trajectories, these two objects are unrelated, as they never came closer than 100 million kilometers to each other and have nearly perpendicular orbits. However, Loeb points out that if either object has maneuvering capabilities, the situation changes entirely. The timing of two unusual objects appearing near the Sun within the same week represents an unlikely coincidence according to statistical models of interstellar visitor frequency.
The December 19th close approach to Earth will provide the optimal observation window, as ground-based telescopes along with the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes attempt detailed observations. Both the European Space Agency’s Hera mission and NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft passed through the ion tail of 3I/ATLAS between late October and early November, with Europa Clipper carrying plasma detectors and magnetometers that could potentially identify cometary ions or measure solar wind interactions with interstellar material.
While no results have been announced yet, mission teams continue analyzing data from this rare opportunity to sample material from beyond our solar system. As Loeb emphasized in his interview, even if we assign a low likelihood for 3I/ATLAS to be technological or a threat to humanity, we must take it seriously and collect as much data as possible to determine its true nature.
Sources
FOX 32 Chicago. (2025, November 12). Avi Loeb on 3I/ATLAS and C/2025 V1: Are they connected? | ChicagoLIVE [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tEqa2GP4Ao
Loeb, A. (2025). 3I/ATLAS is Still a Single Body with a Sunward Anti-Tail After Perihelion! In Medium. https://medium.com/@avi-loeb/3i-atlas-is-still-a-single-body-with-a-sunward-anti-tail-after-perihelion-667fe41c0071
Newsmax. (2025, November 13). Extraterrestrial lifeforms isn’t just some “crazy conspiracy theory”: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZaS1_pIcxo
