More comety goodness coming:
Astrophysics > Earth and Planetary Astrophysics arxiv.org/abs/2512.12819
[Submitted on 14 Dec 2025]
Serra-Ricart, M. Licandro, J. Alarcon, M. R. Pre-perihelion detection of a wobbling high-latitude jet in the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS
One feature of comets is jetting- emission in a (fairly) coherent direction, in a (fairly) coherent stream. 3I/ATLAS, like other comets, now shows this feature. It’s now in the inner Solar System, as opposed to near Jupiter or even in the Asteroid Belt. Since 3I has neared perihelion (closest distance to the Sun) and warmed, we are seeing strong emissions. The authors report their jetting detection- modulating, as expected, by the rotation of the nucleus. Imagine a lawn sprinkler.
Again, I caution that, in general, arXiv is less reputable as a paper publisher (poster?). Again, this is a direct observing report, I don’t see much that would be contentious here.