Cosmic Encounter: 3I/ATLAS Shows Unusual Outgassing as It Nears the Sun

On August twentieth, twenty-twenty-five, a structure of plasma larger than one hundred Earths ripped away from the sun’s eastern edge. But this was no random cosmic explosion. On the other side of that blast was 3I/ATLAS, a bizarre object not from our solar system. NASA’s quantum imaging systems, designed to see the impossible, captured the two interacting in a way that defies explanation. The blast wasn’t just a blast; it was a bridge of energy. Now, as 3I/ATLAS gets closer, scientists are racing to understand if it’s just a passive visitor, or if it’s actively influencing our star.


 Interestingly, NASA’s Swift Observatory, using ultraviolet imaging, detected OH emissions—an indicator of water—when the comet was around 3.5 astronomical units away. This placed its water production rate at approximately 40 kilograms per second, suggesting that over 20% of its surface was actively releasing water vapor—an unusually high activity for such a distance.

All this data helps paint a clearer picture of how 3I/ATLAS is interacting with the Sun—outgassing and forming a visible coma that satellites can capture with precision, hence resembling a "quantum-level" view of celestial behavior. Magnetizing scientists, these observations collectively deepen our understanding of an object that traveled billions of years and light-years through space before entering our solar system.

NASA’s “quantum satellite” doesn’t refer to a single flick of a switch or futuristic probe—but rather ties into sophisticated observatories using advanced technology that behave like "quantum-level" precision. These missions are capturing how 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar comet, heats up and evolves as it moves closer to the Sun.

In July 2025, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured detailed images showing a teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust vapor trailing from the comet’s icy nucleus. From these images, scientists estimate the nucleus may be as large as 3.5 miles—or as small as about 1,000 feet—wide.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) played a key role too. As the comet nears about 3.3 astronomical units from the Sun, JWST’s NIRSpec instrument revealed a coma rich in carbon dioxide (CO₂), with traces of water vapor, water ice, carbon monoxide (CO), and carbonyl sulfide (OCS). This high levels of CO₂ makes 3I/ATLAS unusually outgassing compared to typical comets.

NASA’s SPHEREx mission added even more detail, confirming the presence of bright CO₂ emission along with water ice.


NASA (Hubble observations): https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/as-nasa-missions-study-interstellar-comet-hubble-makes-size-estimate/

JWST observations: https://avi-loeb.medium.com/what-do-we-know-so-far-about-3i-atlas-1e862233836c (summary) & arXiv JWST coma study: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18209

SPHEREx findings: https://thedebrief.org/3i-atlas-comet-mystery-deepens-after-tantalizing-new-observations-by-nasas-spherex-mission/

Swift UV data: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.04675


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@1TheBrutalTruth1 Aug 2025 Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976: Allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research.

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