The interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is being pushed across the solar system by three persistent gas jets that act like natural thrusters.
April 24, 2026
Original Paper
Linking System of Jets to the Non-Gravitational Acceleration of 3I/ATLAS
arXiv · 2604.18773
The Takeaway
Gravity alone cannot explain why this visitor from another star system is moving so strangely. Three distinct jets of gas are shooting out of the object in specific directions, providing a constant non-gravitational push. These jets align perfectly with the object's motion, effectively steering it like a primitive spacecraft. Astronomers used to struggle to explain these deviations without resorting to exotic theories. This discovery confirms that natural outgassing can create a stable propulsion system for objects traveling between stars.
From the abstract
Building on the jet morphology and periodic wobble analysis of 3I/ATLAS in Scarmato & Loeb (2026), we link observed jet position angles (PAs) and the non-gravitational acceleration components (A1,A2,A3) in the 3D RTN (radial, transverse, normal) frame relative to the Sun. We: (i) compute RTN directions from heliocentric state vectors and project them on the sky at the measured astromet ric pointings; (ii) compare projected RTN PAs to three persistent jets (Jet1-Jet2-Jet3) and quantify angular of