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Astronomers report comet 3I/ATLAS has flipped from a rare sunward anti‑tail to a classic tail pointing away from the Sun, as confirmed by Nordic Optical Telescope data. Scientists attribute the shift to changing drivers: CO2 jets far out pushing dust sunward, then water‑ice sublimation nearer the Sun; NASA instruments estimate about 330 pounds per second of mass loss, mostly carbon dioxide. Debate simmers after Harvard’s Avi Loeb floated an artificial‑origin idea, which most researchers reject. With the comet behind the Sun, space telescopes carry monitoring until its expected reappearance in early November.

Prepared by Olivia Bennett and reviewed by editorial team.