Is comment three eye Atlas slowing down

1. What the mainstream coverage actually says about 3I/ATLAS’s motion

News accounts and space-agency pages emphasize that 3I/ATLAS is an interstellar comet moving fast and that after perihelion on 29 October 2025 it is “speeding away from the centre of the Solar System” — a description used by the European Space Agency (ESA) and echoed by media reporting ^{[1] [2]}. Space.com and other outlets describe it brightening around perihelion and then escaping the Sun’s glare in mid‑ to late‑November, with observations resuming as it heads outward ^{[3] [4]}.

2. “Slowing down” needs context: orbital mechanics versus apparent motion

Comets always change speed along their orbits: they accelerate toward the Sun and decelerate after passing perihelion in accordance with gravity. Reporting says 3I/ATLAS “has been speeding away” post‑perihelion, implying outbound deceleration relative to its perihelion speed but continued outward motion ^{[1] [2]}. The sources do not present any claim that the comet’s actual trajectory or measured velocity is unexpectedly decreasing compared with predicted ephemerides; available sources do not mention anomalous slowing beyond normal orbital behavior.

3. Observations, brightness changes and why people might read “slowing” into the story

Several outlets note surprising brightening as 3I/ATLAS approached the Sun — “unexpected rapid brightening” that has scientists “baffled” — and this unusual activity, combined with gaps in ground observations while the comet was near the Sun, may fuel speculation that its motion or behavior is unusual ^[3]. But brightening and outgassing change the comet’s coma and visibility, not necessarily its bulk velocity; sources describing brightness increases do not claim a non‑gravitational braking effect that would constitute anomalous slowing ^{[3] [5]}.

4. Who is measuring the trajectory — and what they say

ESA reports that missions including Juice, Mars Express and ExoMars TGO, plus NASA assets, have been turned to observe 3I/ATLAS and that trajectory refinements came from those observations (for example ExoMars TGO helping refine the comet’s path around its Mars flyby on 3 October 2025) ^[1]. Media pieces likewise describe spacecraft and telescopes monitoring the comet, but none of the provided items present a claim that tracked velocities deviate from predictions in a way that would indicate unexpected slowing ^{[1] [2]}.

5. Alternative viewpoints and speculative claims in the public sphere

Commentators such as Avi Loeb and others have raised speculative possibilities about the object’s nature — arguing for close scrutiny and even probe concepts — and some public posts and social media have used alternate spellings (“3 Eye Atlas”) or conjectured exotic explanations; reporting notes these debates but mainstream agencies and scientists emphasize the comet interpretation and downplay extraterrestrial claims ^{[6] [2] [7]}. The sources include skeptical pushback: NASA officials and coverage assert 3I/ATLAS is a comet and have “shot down alien rumors” ^[2].

6. What the available sources don’t say (important limitations)

None of the supplied sources provide a direct statement that 3I/ATLAS is “slowing down” anomalously versus predicted orbital motion, nor any measurement data comparing observed velocities to model forecasts that would confirm such a claim — available sources do not mention a detected non‑gravitational deceleration beyond typical cometary effects ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Also absent are peer‑reviewed papers in the provided set quantifying any velocity residuals.

7. Bottom line for the reader

If by “slowing down” you mean the comet is moving outward more slowly than expected or being braked by an unknown force, the current reporting in these sources provides no evidence for that claim; instead, they describe a fast interstellar comet that brightened unexpectedly and then continued its outbound journey after perihelion, with spacecraft and telescopes refining its trajectory but not reporting anomalous slowing ^{[1] [3] [2]}. If you mean simply that the comet is decelerating as it leaves perihelion in the ordinary orbital sense, that is standard celestial mechanics and consistent with the phrase “speeding away from the centre of the Solar System” used in ESA and media accounts ^{[1] [2]}.

If you want, I can look specifically for published trajectory residuals or mission press releases that quantify the comet’s measured speed versus predictions — that would directly answer whether any unusual slowing was observed.