A Harvard professor is raising alarms over the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS and warning that its upcoming close pass by Earth next month may not be as innocent as NASA suggests.
The mysterious object has been dubbed the “spaceship” by fascinated astronomers.
While government agencies insist the fast-moving object is just a comet barreling through the Solar System at 130,000 mph, Professor Avi Loeb continues to argue that it could be an engineered “mothership.”
In a new blog post, Loeb outlined what he describes as a dozen disturbing anomalies.
He argues that when explained as a narrative rather than a checklist, the case becomes even more unsettling.
The scientist notes that 3I/ATLAS is traveling on a retrograde trajectory aligned within just five degrees of the ecliptic plane.
According to Professor Loeb, this is an unusual precision for a natural comet.
Over the summer, the object emitted a sunward jet, again unlike known comets.
The object’s nucleus also appears to be roughly a million times larger than that of 1I/‘Oumuamua, the first observed interstellar visitor, while also moving significantly faster.
Loeb says even its timing looks suspicious, arriving in a way “fine-tuned” to bring it within tens of millions of kilometers of Mars, Venus, and Jupiter.
The composition is equally unusual.
According to Loeb, the plume surrounding 3I/ATLAS contains far more nickel than iron, reminiscent of industrial nickel alloys rather than natural comet chemistry.
Even stranger, only about four percent of the plume appears to consist of water, despite water being the primary ingredient of typical comets.
He also points to the object’s “extreme negative polarization,” a feature not seen in familiar comets, and its origin point lining up within nine degrees of the famous “Wow! Signal.”
The “Wow! Signal” is one of the most mysterious radio bursts ever recorded.
Loeb notes that 3I/ATLAS also brightened faster than any known comet and appeared bluer than the Sun, while simultaneously producing both sunward and anti-solar jets.
These jets would require an enormous surface area to absorb enough sunlight to sublimate ice at such a rate.
The object is also exhibiting non-gravitational acceleration, meaning it is being propelled by something other than gravity alone, and unlike ordinary comets, it is not breaking apart as it travels.
Even more striking, Loeb says the jets maintain their orientation across a million kilometers in multiple directions despite the object’s rotation, which is something extremely difficult to reconcile with natural comet physics.
After laying out these anomalies, Loeb ends by hinting at the possibility that something more advanced could be “behind the steering wheel” of 3I/ATLAS.
“The truth is that the mainstream of science is routinely wrong,” he argued.
He continued by adding that humanity should “hedge our bets and invest billions of dollars in the simultaneous search for both technological and primitive lifeforms.”
The “spaceship” will make its closest pass to Earth next month.
If Loeb’s warnings prove correct, the encounter may force a far more uncomfortable conversation about what, or who, is traveling through our Solar System.
READ MORE – Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Changes Color, Begins Accelerating
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