A Harvard researcher has spoken out about a strange detail NASA left out regarding a "potentially hostile alien threat".
NASA recently addressed concerns surrounding the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, clarifying that it poses no threat to Earth.
The comet, which entered our solar system earlier this year, has sparked much debate, especially after the James Webb Space Telescope confirmed it is seven billion years old and hails from another solar system.
NASA reassured the public by revealing that 3I/ATLAS is a comet and will not come closer than 170 million miles to Earth, although it did fly within 19 million miles of Mars in October.
The first image NASA captured of Comet 3I Atlas. Credit: ATLAS/University of Hawaii/NASA
Despite NASA’s reassurances, Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has raised new questions about the object.
Loeb has pointed out what he believes is a significant anomaly that NASA has overlooked, and questioned the mass of 3I/ATLAS, suggesting it could be far more massive than NASA claims.
The mystery of 3I/ATLAS’s size and composition
Loeb’s concerns about 3I/ATLAS revolve around its unexpected size. Based on the available data, he argues that the object is at least 5 kilometres in diameter, potentially making it 1,000 times more massive than the previous interstellar comet discovered in 2019.
He also notes that it could be a million times more massive than Oumuamua, the first interstellar object to be detected in 2017.
“When you see the third object being a thousand times more massive than the second and a million times more massive than the first, it should raise a big question. How is that possible?” he said in a recent interview with FOX 32 Chicago.
The astrophysicist questioned how visible 3I/ATLAS has been, noting that its alignment with the ecliptic plane of the planets, which allows it to be seen for several months, is very unusual.
He also pointed out that interstellar objects only have a one-in-500 chance of being aligned this way, making the comet’s long visibility even more strange.
A recent claim by renowned Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has raised eyebrows in the scientific community. Credit: Anadolu / Getty
Loeb’s alien theory: Could 3I/ATLAS be a spaceship?
Before NASA officially identified 3I/ATLAS as a comet, Loeb proposed a more radical theory: he suggested that the object could be an alien spacecraft.
This theory is based on the object’s extraordinary mass, as well as the jets coming from it, which Loeb suggests could be technological thrusters rather than typical cometary activity.
He also further explored the possibility that 3I/ATLAS could be powered by human-made technology, such as ion thrusters, which would reduce the mass loss normally associated with comets.
He explains: “Chemical rockets are propelled by an exhaust speed of 3–5 kilometres per second, which is ten times larger than the maximum ejection speed of volatiles sublimated by sunlight from cometary surfaces.”
Loeb also suggested that alien technology might even use thrusters with speeds exceeding those of ion thrusters, making the mass loss required for the object’s propulsion much smaller than previously thought.