Ever since 3I/ATLAS was first spotted in July, it’s been the space object everyone argues about. It’s only the third interstellar visitor ever found passing through our Solar System, and it has refused to sit neatly in the “just another comet” box. Its strange colour shifts, abrupt changes in speed, and the appearance of both a tail and an anti-tail have kept astronomers on alert for months. And, more recently, the comet has added yet another oddity to the list: a now-famous 16.16-hour “ heartbeat ,” a rhythmic brightening and dimming that scientists are still trying to explain. NASA ’s line has stayed consistent: 3I/ATLAS is a comet, it poses no threat to Earth, and it will stay far away. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, meanwhile, has spent months saying we shouldn’t rush to that

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