An expert has warned that a mystery ‘alien spaceship’ could change course for Earth today (29 October).
Comet 3I/ATLAS was first identified by NASA’s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) at the beginning of July as an interstellar object. And it doesn’t seem to be clear just where it actually came from, as one bloke from Harvard University has been ramping up conspiracy theorists.
The comet has been showing some rather unusual behaviour, and the scientist reckons there is a 30 to 40 percent chance that it is not a ‘naturally formed’ object.
While Avi Loeb has been warning of 3I/ATLAS for a fair bit of time now, he isn’t exactly saying we’re about to be invaded by aliens, just that it can’t be totally ruled out.
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The scientist’s warning about 3I/ATLAS
Loeb has said that he reckons the object could be a ‘potentially hostile’ alien craft that’s been deliberately speeding towards our planet.
Speaking to NewsNation, he called on world leaders during the summer to take UFOs more seriously and shared a warning that we need more things in place for if us humans do encounter aliens from space.
“I believe that we need an international organisation that will make policy decisions about such an object,” he said.
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“We are worried about existential threats from artificial intelligence, from global climate change, from an asteroid impact, but we never discuss alien technology.”
He has claimed that the object doesn’t have the usual characteristics that would be associated with a comet, not only being bigger than normal but having had a light source ahead of it rather than that classic glowing tail behind.
Contact with Earth
Sticking to the potential it could be an extraterrestrial mothership, Loeb previously told science communicator and The Big Bang Theory actor Mayim Bialik that he believes today could be significant.
"If you want to take a vacation, take it before [October 29], because who knows what will happen?" he told her in a video interview.
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But again LADs, he’s not telling us that we should all be sh**ting ourselves that aliens are taking over, it’s just a theory that today may mark a point in the object making contact.
He used the Oberth effect as his reasoning – the hypothesis that a spacecraft burns fuel more efficiently at higher speeds, as a form of energy conservation.
"As a result of this so-called Oberth effect, it is most energy-efficient for a spacecraft engine to burn its fuel when its orbital velocity is greatest," he explained.
"If 3I/ATLAS is a massive mothership, it will likely continue along its original gravitational path and ultimately exit the Solar System. In that case, the Oberth manoeuvre might apply to the mini-probes it releases at perihelion towards Solar system planets."
However, NASA say it will ‘remain far away’ from Earth.
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Findings on the object
3I/ATLAS is the third-ever interstellar object to make its way through our solar system in recorded history.
And the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and NIRSpec found that carbon dioxide, water, water ice and carbonyl sulphide were being emitted, with the object outgassing as it reaches the sun.
It’s reported that the comet gave off the highest ratio of carbon dioxide to water ever observed too, which could mean that its core is rich in the former. This would mean its ices were exposed to higher levels of radiation than objects in our solar system are, as experts come up with suggestions for why the comet may have a high CO2 content.
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And with low levels of water, it may suggest that 31/ATLAS may inhibit heat.
It’s thought it may be around three billion years older than our solar system, and it’s been suggested it comes from the Milky Way's 'thick disk' of stars.
One of the most baffling things does seem to be that it appears to have this 'anti-tail' of jet particles, which point to the sun instead of away from it like you'd typically expect from a comet. Although it seems to have been reported as having switched.
"We cannot infer the true nature of 3I/ATLAS from the skin layer it has shed so far," Loeb said. "If the object were an alien spacecraft slowing down, and the anti-tail represented braking thrust, this shift from anti-tail to tail would be entirely expected."
Declaration of 3I/ATLAS as a ‘threat’
There’s no denying at this point that the object (deemed to be a comet by scientists) has sparked debate among the community due to its unusual behaviour.
And the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) added it to its list of threats.
This marks the first time the UN-back group has added an interstellar object to its list and it described it as causing ‘unique challenges,' when it came to predicting its path.
What has NASA said?
The agency says astronomers have categorised 31/ATLAS as interstellar because of the hyperbolic shape of its orbital path as it doesn’t follow a closed orbital path about the sun.
“Comet 3I/ATLAS poses no threat to Earth and will remain far away. The closest it will approach our planet is about 1.8 astronomical units (about 170 million miles, or 270 million kilometres),” NASA says.
“3I/ATLAS will reach its closest point to the Sun around Oct. 30, 2025, at a distance of about 1.4 au (130 million miles, or 210 million kilometres) — just inside the orbit of Mars.”
Topics: Space, Aliens, NASA, Conspiracy Theory
Jess Battison