Tumbling Comet: How an Icy Visitor Spins After Its Solar Encounter
An icy chunk the size of a small town hurtles through space. As it approaches the Sun, the ice starts to vaporize, and jets of gas and dust burst from the comet. These jets act like tiny rocket engines: they push the comet and make it spin. That's exactly what astronomers observed with comet 3I/ATLAS after it rounded the Sun.