A scientist has warned of a potential 'black swan event' which may be taking place sooner than we'd hope - but what exactly is it?
An interstellar object travelling towards Earth called 3I/ATLAS has had space buffs up in arms, mainly due to the conspiracy theories around its origins and whether it could harbour alien life.
3I/ATLAS is a comet which was detected by the boffins over at NASA on 1 July, with researchers at the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) identifying the mysterious terrestrial rock.
The comet - which is roughly the size of New York - will become the third interstellar space object to enter our solar system in recorded history.
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The oddity of it all is that nobody knows where the comet originated from, with experts like Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb suggesting that there is a 30 to 40 percent chance the comet isn't a 'naturally formed' object.
Loeb even claimed that the latest images could show that it's deployed ‘braking thrust’ to intentionally slow down as it approaches our area of the Milky Way.
The scientist claimed in a paper alongside Harvard researchers Adam Hibberd and Adam Crowl: "The hypothesis in question is that [3I/ATLAS] is a technological artefact, and furthermore has active intelligence. If this is the case, then two possibilities follow.
"First, that its intentions are entirely benign and second, they are malign."
While this may not mean that we're being attacked by an advanced alien lifeform, the expert is effectively saying we can't rule out the possibility of it, with the comet even growing a tail and anti-tail as it continues hurtling towards us.
It's not worth panicking over, really, though Loeb claimed people should 'take a vacation' before 29 October, when the comet will be closest to the Sun.
'Black swan event' explained
Loeb suggested that this could be a 'black swan event', which is when something space-related that's highly unlikely with a massive impact takes place, going against all odds and past observations to make an impact.
The science expert previously hinted at the comet doing something unexpected around this time, while it is hidden behind the Sun and out of our observation.
There have been three comets that have come in from outside the solar system, with the first one, 'Oumuamu', even showing signs of being a 'thin craft pushed by the reflection of sunlight' back in 2017, though other experts went on to dispute this and claim there is also no proof that 3l/ATLAS is displaying abnormal behaviour either.
Where is 3I/ATLAS now?
At the moment, the comet is behind the Sun and too bright for telescopes to pick up, with the next glimpse expected on 2 November when the European Space Agency’s JUICE spacecraft trains its instruments on it, as it heads to study Jupiter.
The comet is expected to reach its closest point to the Sun (perihelion) around 30 October, when it will be inside the orbit of Mars, and is expected to pop up on the other side of the Sun by early December.
Loeb said that 3I/ATLAS's perihelion could be a potential date for making contact with Earth due to the Oberth effect, which is a hypothesis stating that a spacecraft burns fuel more efficiently at higher speeds, as a form of energy conservation.
He claimed that if it is a 'massive mothership', it will continue to exit the Solar System - this isn't a sign to clean toilet paper off the shelves, but it's worth keeping tabs on it all.
Joshua Nair