The interstellar object named 3I/ATLAS is continuing its journey through the Solar System. After making a pass by Mars, it zoomed by the Sun, and between November and January, many Earth- and space-based telescopes will be able to observe it. For months now, a prominent and controversial Harvard scientist, Avi Loeb, has fueled speculation that 3I/ATLAS could be an alien probe. That speculation has now reached something of a fever pitch, as 3I/ATLAS continues to exhibit strange behavior.
Loeb suggested in a recent paper that the acceleration, along with the object’s startlingly blue appearance, could be signs of an artificially constructed craft.
“Alternatively, the non-gravitational acceleration might be the technological signature of an internal engine,” he wrote in a Medium post Friday. “This might also explain the report on 3I/ATLAS getting ‘bluer than Sun.'”
“It could potentially be explained by a hot engine or source of artificial light,” he wrote, adding that it could also be a natural signature of a comet.
Meanwhile, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, acting NASA head Sean Duffy, and Joe Rogan have gotten in on the act. And on the internet, all manner of crazy posts are cropping up, complete with absurdly clickbait headlines, hysterical warnings, and cheesy renderings of 3I/ATLAS as some kind of ancient sci-fi spaceship.
The celebrity astrophysicist
While Loeb has been doing the hard science ever since 3I/ATLAS was spotted over the summer, he hasn’t backed away from his arguments that the massive visitor – the New York Post typically describes it as being as large as Manhattan – could, perhaps, maybe, just possibly be a probe or spacecraft of some kind. His point is that the very prospect of 3I/ATLAS originating from an intelligent alien civilization is reason enough to investigate it relentlessly, using all available human technology.
That’s fair enough, but sticking to his position has meant that Loeb has become popular and has been making the media rounds. He is the most famous astrophysicist on Earth at the moment, and while that doesn’t invalidate his legitimate scientific work, the risk is that the “3I/ATLAS alien probe” storyline will morph even further into online disinformation. The wacky takes currently dominate the headlines, and you have to dig a bit to find the counterarguments. Or spend some time engaging with the science, which is understandably challenging, as it’s PhD-grade stuff. My advice is to stick to Loeb’s Medium posts, as well as other obviously reputable sources, and tune out the less-serious noise, even if it’s pretty entertaining.
It’s a comet, just a comet
The Planetary Society offers a basic characterization of 3I/ATLAS and two of its predecessors, 2017’s Oumuamua and 2019’s 2I/Borisov, as comets, full stop. Unusual comets, but still – comets. Other scientists have suggested that 3I/ATLAS’s odd aspects can be explained by its age: billions and billions of years old, and altered over that immense timescale by cosmic rays.
Much of Loeb’s ongoing alien-probe argument relies on some notable improbabilities associated with 3I/ATLAS, chief among which is its intriguing and possibly intentional trajectory: close passes of Mars, Venus, and Jupiter, with a duck behind the Sun that has concealed it from observation on Earth. This is all worth considering, and in the end, Loeb has performed a great service by acting as a reasonable expert ringmaster at the center of a minor scientific circus, reminding everyone that while zany speculation is fun, you still have to show your work. He can even be forgiven for flirting with the likes of Luna and Rogan, both of whom know the value of a good conspiracy theory in an attention-driven mediascape. A lot more people are tuning in, and we may actually wind up getting better science from 3I/ATLAS’s visit and more resources to study the next interstellar comet-maybe-alien-probe that passes through.
