In early July, astronomers spotted a mysterious object, later dubbed 3I/ATLAS after it was confirmed to be the third-ever interstellar visitor cruising through our solar system.

Last week, the object, which is now generally believed to be a comet, reached its closest point to the Sun, or its perihelion, brightening up at an unexpected rate and turning “distinctly bluer.”

And it may be getting a major boost that’s unaccounted for by the Sun’s gravitational pull as well. As NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory navigation engineer Davide Farnocchia detailed in a recently filed report, 3I/ATLAS is showing signs of “non-gravitational acceleration.”

While that may sound like an alien spacecraft is lighting up its afterburners, there’s a far more mundane and natural explanation.

As Harvard astron

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