So, there’s this comet that just zoomed in from another solar system, and it has people buzzing with talk about alien spaceships.
Meet 3I/ATLAS—this comet turned heads this summer as it showed up from the void between stars. It’s only the third of its kind to cruise through, and this time, scientists are excited to track it closely and reveal its secrets.
However, some folks have taken it a step further. They argue that the comet might actually be an artificial creation—a spacecraft sent by some extraterrestrial life. Avi Loeb, a professor over at Harvard, dropped a bombshell suggesting that its flight path makes it look like it’s doing some sort of maneuvers as it navigates our solar neighborhood.
Loeb’s not a newbie to these kinds of claims. He previously suggested similar ideas about Oumuamua, the first-known interstellar comet back in 2017. Recently, he echoed some thoughts from a fellow scientist, hinting that changes in 3I/ATLAS might mean it’s trying to hit a sweet spot in orbit between Mars and Jupiter.
Much of the chatter circles around the comet’s strange phenomenon called the anti-tail. Instead of the tail trailing behind, this comet’s is odd because it points in the direction it’s flying. Although it’s uncommon, it’s not something that’s never been seen before. Scientists are eager to figure out what’s going on here and to learn more about similar comets.
Now, let’s be clear—Loeb didn’t state flat-out that 3I/ATLAS is an alien craft. He simply said it’s a chance. But as you can imagine, this has led to a bunch of sensational reports making wild claims than what was originally suggested, which is leaving many in the science community pretty annoyed.
Mark Norris, an astronomy senior lecturer at the University of Lancashire pointed out, Despite all the buzz about the idea that 3I/ATLAS is an alien probe, more and more observations show that it’s just a natural comet, not a probe darting in from the far stretches of the Milky Way. He went on to clarify that although Atlas does have some funky features, none of them indicate it’s anything but a natural occurrence.
He posted on X (you might know it as Twitter), Just to clear the air with all the noise online—Comet 3I/Atlas is a cosmic rock made of carbon dioxide, water ice, and a few other bits. It’s completely natural, its expected orbit is just fine, and soon it’ll swing around the sun and zoom back into the galaxy.
Norris wrapped it up with a thought about future encounters with other civilizations: If one day it runs into another inhabited solar system, let’s hope they appreciate it for what it is—a visitor from faraway, not a spaceship. Just a beautiful and ancient piece of rock and ice that came together around a distant star billions of years ago, floating along. Isn’t that cool enough?
