Avi Loeb questions NASA’s 3I/Atlas press conference as he says “obvious facts” may be hiding bigger truth

NASA hosted a press conference on November 19, 2025, to provide new information about the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas. This was their first big update following the government shutdown. 

The public was expecting some new revelations, but most of what NASA said in the conference repeated what it had said earlier. In the lead-up to the news conference, a reporter asked Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb to speculate what he believed NASA might have to say. He did not predict any bombshell-type news. 

He guessed that NASA would again say that 3I/Atlas is a regular comet and that the delay in data was because of the shutdown. After he had watched the event, he said he wasn't surprised at all.

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NASA shares new images, but Avi Loeb says they tell very little

NASA published a new picture of 3I/Atlas, taken by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The photo came out as a blurry, fuzzy dot of light. 

Loeb said this was because the comet is so very distant, and the spacecraft shook slightly when taking that picture. He said he would investigate the image further over the next few days. 

NASA also released images from other space missions, but many of those were even blurrier. There was also new ultraviolet data showing hydrogen, but Loeb says that does not change much from what scientists learned earlier this year using the Hubble, Webb, and SPHEREx telescopes. 

According to Loeb, NASA focused too much on calling the comet "normal." He believes they should have talked about what we still do not understand. NASA said 3I/Atlas is behaving like a regular comet — giving off gas and dust and moving as expected under gravity. But Loeb thinks this explanation may be too simple.

​Avi Loeb says obvious facts can still be misleading

Loeb warned against judging "a book by its cover." He referred to the story of the Trojan Horse, which outwardly didn't look dangerous but had a hidden function. On an object from another solar system, he said, scientists should keep an open mind instead of assuming everything is familiar.

He also quoted Sherlock Holmes: “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.” Loeb believes that NASA could be trying too hard to match 3I/Atlas against old ideas rather than considering new possibilities.

He pointed out that NASA did not mention the 12 peculiar puzzles connected to 3I/Atlas. The comet, for example, is much bigger than other interstellar objects we have previously seen. Its trajectory also aligns quite exceptionally well with the plane of the planets.

Loeb says these things are rare and worth talking about.

Amateur astronomers capture interesting jets

Recently, amateur astronomers took photos that show long, thin jets coming from the comet. Those jets stretch almost a million kilometers.

Loeb said these images are actually more exciting than the official NASA ones. These jets will soon be studied by bigger telescopes like Hubble and Webb. They will help the scientists find out if the jets come from melting ice or from something else.

Loeb thinks the next few weeks will yield clearer answers, especially when the comet passes closest to Earth in December 2025.