Телеграм канал «Futurism: Science & Technology News»

3I/ATLAS has dramatically intensified its mass loss after emerging from behind the Sun. New images show a huge anti-tail and a “smoking” trail stretching millions of miles. According to Avi Loeb, the comet’s jets likely lasted 1–3 months — and its mass shedding jumped from hundreds of pounds per second in August to around 4.4 million pounds per second near perihelion. #Space #Astronomy #3IATLAS

New images from the Nordic Optical Telescope show that the debris “tail” of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS has shifted to face the Sun — forming an “anti-tail,” a known optical illusion caused by our viewing angle and the Sun’s gravity. However, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, known for his theories on alien technology, suggests a different explanation. In his latest blog, he speculates the anti-tail might represent a spacecraft applying “braking thrust” to slow down near the Sun — an idea he credits to colleague Adam Hibberd of the Institute for Interstellar Studies.

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Some people are so shameless, you almost have to respect it. ⁠ ⁠ After getting caught using AI by leaving in hallucinated quotes and citations in his court filings, defense lawyer Michael Fourte then submitted a brief explaining his AI usage .... which was also written with a large language model.⁠ ⁠ As @404mediaco reports, the plaintiff’s legal team first caught the mistakes, which included inaccurate or completely made up citations and quotations, and filed a request to sanction Fourte. In his opposition to the sanctions motion, Fourte submitted a document that contained more than double the amount (!!) of made-up or erroneous citations.⁠ ⁠ After getting grilled on it, Fourte admitted he “did use AI.” He also, in practically the same breath, said he took “full responsibility” for the AI-generated nonsense — but also tried to pass off some of the blame on some additional staff he’d brought on the case. Classic.⁠ ⁠ Later, he said, “I never said I didn’t use AI. I said that I didn’t use unvetted AI.”⁠ ⁠

A Chinese rocket booster that was part of a Long March 2 launch tumbled back to Earth and exploded in a massive orange fireball as it impacted the ground. The fireball from the crash was visible from miles away, but authorities declared the launch a success, saying the test satellite comfortably reached low earth orbit. Read more about China’s space ambitions at the link in our bio. #Space #News

Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb remains skeptical about the true nature of 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object ever spotted passing through our solar system. While most astronomers consider it a typical comet made of ice and carbon dioxide, Loeb believes there’s still something unusual about it. In a recent blog Q&A, he estimated a 30–40% chance that 3I/ATLAS isn’t entirely natural — suggesting it *could* even be a technological artifact disguised as a comet, a kind of “Trojan Horse” from beyond our solar system. However, Loeb admits his views might change once new data arrives. The ESA’s Juice spacecraft and NASA’s Juno mission will both make close approaches to 3I/ATLAS soon, offering fresh observations as it nears the Sun — the phase when comets are most active and volatile. These insights could finally reveal whether 3I/ATLAS is just another comet… or something far stranger. #Interstellar #Space #Nasa