A scientist who says the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS has the potential to be an alien threat has hit out at NASA by saying they are 'pretending to be the adults in the room'.
Earlier this year, we detected only the third interstellar object recorded in our solar system and its course was taking it on a veritable tour of our bit of the galaxy.
At present, it has just passed the closest point it'll get to the sun, being around 130 million miles away from the star at the heart of our system, and on 19 December, it'll reach the closest point to Earth at a distance of around 170 million miles.
Since 3I/ATLAS was spotted, Professor Avi Loeb of Harvard University has been suggesting that this interstellar object could have an unnatural origin and possibly even be some kind of alien 'mothership'.
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Speaking with LADbible, Professor Loeb told us 'I usually do not regret what I say' and laid out some of the reasons why this interstellar object might not be natural.
One group which has been rather clear about the interstellar object is NASA, which earlier this year said it was a comet.
Tom Statler, NASA's lead scientist for solar system small bodies, said: "It looks like a comet. It does comet things. It very, very strongly resembles, in just about every way, the comets that we know.
"It has some interesting properties that are a little bit different from our solar system comets, but it behaves like a comet. And so the evidence is overwhelmingly pointing to this object being a natural body. It’s a comet."
While Loeb has not claimed certainty that the interstellar object is something else, and its position on his scale indicates that on the balance of probability he expects it to be a natural object, the Harvard scientist said they were 'pretending to be the adults in the room' rather than studying all the possibilities.
He told LADbible: "The statement from NASA, or anyone else that conclusively says something and wants other opinions not to be heard, is really counterproductive, because the public senses that and the public funds science.
“If I'm able to attract young kids to science this way, you know, I challenge NASA, I challenge any other public outreach organisation to do the same, but they fail to do that because they are pretending to be the adults in the room who know the answer always in advance.”
The Harvard scientist has also called out NASA for not releasing the highest resolution image of 3I/ATLAS available despite him asking for it.
Loeb says this image was taken on 2 October while it was about 30 million miles away from Mars and called it 'completely inappropriate' for the picture not to have been released.
He said: "The truth is not decided by authority. NASA has no authority over nature to tell us what nature is. I mean, it's decided by data.
“There are many anomalies of this object, so you can't say conclusively that it's one thing or another. What we should be is curious, you know, wonder about what it is, and just collect more data.
"I find it really peculiar for NASA, it's sort of the signature of a bureaucratic body where hierarchy decides what is being done, and somehow, someone in the leadership decided to make a very bold and strong statement without attending to the data."
Loeb said that observations of 3I/ATLAS showed 'qualities that we've never seen for comets', with that being the main assumption as to what the interstellar object is.
One of those qualities about the interstellar object is it appearing to turn blue as it passed by the sun, which Loeb said was 'surprising' as comets typically shed dust 'which makes them red'.
The professor said: "So the question is, why is it so blue? Why is it bluer than the sun?
"There is a possible explanation based on a natural cause, which is carbon monoxide that is ionized when it's losing one electrons, that molecule of carbon monoxide can give the appearance of a blue colour because it has some transitions that correspond to these wavelengths of light.
"But it could also mean that there is some kind of a hot spot on 3I/ATLAS which gives it the blue colour, or there is some artificial light produced by it. So that could be related to a power supply that is not natural, that is technological in origin, some kind of an engine."
He also said there had been 'the first evidence for non-gravitational acceleration', which he described as 'very significant' since the reason behind this change in speed ought to shed further light on the object's nature in the next couple of months.
Loeb calculated that the object needed to 'lose about a tenth of its mass to get this boost in velocity' and if that happens we will be able to see a 'massive cloud of evaporated volatiles around it' in November.
“Now the alternative is that the non gravitational acceleration is just due to propulsion that it has, and in that case, it would become very intriguing if we don't see that cloud," he added.
Ranking 3I/ATLAS on 'the Loeb scale' where zero meant there was nothing out of the ordinary and 10 was the object being of 'confirmed extra-terrestrial artificial origin', he told LADbible he put this interstellar object at a four.
"So that means it's most likely natural, but nevertheless it's a very high probability for it being something else, and that's why we should continue to consider it seriously," he said of why he has continued to suggest 3I/ATLAS is worthy of further study.
When contacted for comment by LADbible, NASA directed us to their social media response to Kim Kardashian asking 'what's the tea on 3I/ATLAS?'.
NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy invited Kardashian to the Kennedy Space Center for the Artemis mission to the moon and said: "NASA’s observations show that this is the third interstellar comet to pass through our solar system. No aliens. No threat to life here on Earth."
Joe Harker