Common Sense with Paul Jacob

It’s been over a month since this site’s last update on the most fascinating astronomical event of the year, 3I/ATLAS. The general run of astronomers and astronomical organizations keep insisting on calling the cosmic interloper a “comet,” but it is so very different from all previous solar system comets that the term seems stretched. 

It’s odd how strict on nomenclature — developing and enforcing a discipline-wide definition — astronomers were when they demoted Pluto from “planet” to “dwarf planet,” in 2006, but now give so much latitude to “comet” when the current object displays so many anomalies.

How many anomalies?

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has documented up to 15 anomalies for the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS (also known as C/2024 S1), based on his recent writings and interviews where he compiles and expands on peculiarities in its composition, behavior, trajectory, and other traits that deviate from typical comets.

Some sources reference 14, but his most comprehensive recent list hits 15.

The most recent anomaly he highlighted is the alignment of 3I/ATLAS’s axis (center of rotation) with its persistent sunward direction. Comets tumble in a random, “bad-punt football” fashion; 3I/ATLAS entered our observational ambit headed for a flyby, but (we discovered later) with its rotational axis always pointing at the Sun — and then when nearest the Sun, it smoothly flipped, with the other pole also pointing within 8 degrees to the solar system’s gravitational center. 

And all the while there was an “anti-tail” pointing out of its solar-side pole, tightly focused like a urine stream, not a sneeze — comet tails point away from the Sun, and usually resemble sneezes!

This is all very odd. The anti-tail is nudging the trajectory outward from the Sun, bringing the object closer to Jupiter than initial calculations indicated. Why?

Well, if it is an artificial object, Loeb suggests a rationale: “If 3I/ATLAS is technological in origin, it might have fine-tuned its trajectory with the help of thrusters so as to arrive at Jupiter’s Hill radius. In that case, the multiple jets observed around 3I/ATLAS in its post-perihelion images . . . might have been used for the slight orbit correction needed to result in min{D}=H.”

There are a lot of ifs here, of course, and Loeb himself says the bets are still favoring “natural object.” But the object is so weird that we know little of its nature. We may understand more of the whats of the object, after several months of observations, but few of its whys. Calling it a comet seems less justified than demoting Pluto. And finding excuses not to investigate this fascinating traveler is, as Loeb argues, the exact wrong lesson to draw.

But if you are looking for an informed mainstream view, consult Vladimir Putin, who insists on calling 3I/ATLAS a comet: “Our scientists are aware of what is happening. Moreover, this is a comet from another star, so it behaves differently from comets of our galactic [sic] origin. It has a different shell and as it approaches closer to the Sun, slightly different processes occur on its surface, including in the field tail of this rocket. Things look different there, but it’s quite large. I think somewhere between 2 to 6 kilometers. Look, the moon is 400,000 kilometers away from us. And the object you are talking about is hundreds of millions of kilometers away. I don’t think it poses any threat to us. We’ll let it go to Jupiter. And at the beginning of next year, the comet will leave the solar system.”

On Thursday, a provocative post from X user @CremieuxRecueil included a graph showing U.S. federal workforce numbers declining from a peak of around 3.05 million in late 2024 to below 2.75 million by late 2025, with the drop accelerating after Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025.

Elon Musk replied to it on the 19th, with “The matrix was reprogrammed,” amplifying its reach.

Musk’s somewhat cryptic comment seems to attribute the decline to DOGE — the Department of Government Efficiency, an advisory body led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, which focused on reducing federal spending and bureaucracy through recommendations like hiring freezes, agency reorganizations, and mass layoffs.

Is there any truth to it? Did DOGE do something substantive? 

Based on official U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data and reporting from government oversight sources, yes. This precipitous downward slope on the graph represents the largest peacetime reduction in federal employment on record, totaling over 270,000 jobs cut since January 2025.

That is roughly a 9 percent drop from peak levels.

Still, critics note it hasn’t yet translated to significant budget savings.

DOGE’s role does receive credit in many accounts, as its recommendations influenced executive actions like Trump’s Day One hiring freeze (with exceptions for essential roles) and agency-specific layoffs. But remember, DOGE itself is an unofficial advisory panel without direct authority—its charter expires in mid-2026, and since Elon left, it has not been quite as active as at its peak.

Federal employment had grown from about 2.85 million in 2021 to over three million by 2024 under the Biden administration, driven by hiring in areas like healthcare, infrastructure, and regulatory enforcement. The reversal in 2025 aligns with Trump’s executive orders and DOGE proposals to eliminate redundancies and non-essential positions.

As of mid-2025, over 58,500 confirmed layoffs, 76,000 voluntary buyouts, and 149,000 planned reductions were tracked across 27 agencies, including significant cuts at the IRS, EPA, and Department of Education.

While not a formal department, DOGE’s public campaigns and embedded “team leads” in agencies have driven reorganizations, such as consolidating offices and purging unprotected roles.

Cato Institute hailed it as effective for workforce reduction, but outlets like The Washington Times pointed out that federal spending hasn’t decreased accordingly, calling the savings goal of $2 trillion “unmet.”

Why “unmet”? Well, factors like entitlement programs and debt servicing aren’t just going to go away of themselves, and DOGE limited itself to “waste-fraud-abuse” elements in the Social Security system.

References:

• BLS CES Highlights for November 2025 (PDF): Direct monthly data on government employment drops.
• Cato Institute Analysis (December 18, 2025): Details the 9% decline and historical context.
• Fortune (December 16, 2025): Covers the October/November drops tied to DOGE.
• New York Post Opinion (December 19, 2025): Discusses cumulative 270,000+ reduction.
• Reuters Exclusive (November 24, 2025): Explains hiring freeze and DOGE’s advisory role.
• “2025 Federal Mass Layoffs” (Wikipedia): Tracks confirmed and planned cuts.
• “How the DOGE Do,” Common Sense FYI (February 15, 2025): Covers the way of DOGE’s creation.
• “Elon’s Out,” Common Sense by Paul Jacob (May 30, 2025): The politics of DOGE’s transition to its latter days.