A Harvard scientist has issued a concerning warning over a mystery interstellar object.
Currently zooming through it, NASA previously confirmed the 3I/ATLAS was not from our solar system.
First discovered by the space agency’s funded telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, on 1 July, astronomers have categorised the object as interstellar because of the ‘hyperbolic shape of its orbital path’.
Nasa says the comet poses ‘no threat to Earth and will remain far away’ with the closest it getting to our planet being about 1.8 astronomical units (around 170 million miles).
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Astronomers around the world are investigating the interstellar object’s size and physical properties but one scientist seems to think it could be an alien probe.
The theoretical physicist at Harvard University, Avi Loeb, believes it might be a 'potentially hostile' alien craft deliberating speeding towards us.
Speaking to NewNation, he is calling on world leaders 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.
“We are worried about existential threats from artificial intelligence, from global climate change, from an asteroid impact, but we never discuss alien technology.”
Loeb claims the object doesn’t have the usual characteristics that would be associated with a comet. And he’s said that not only is it bigger than normal but has a light source ahead of it rather than that classic glowing tail behind.
If it does end up being an extra-terrestrial object after all, the scientist says we need to be considering what the intentions for it are.
“The response has to depend on its properties and its intent — what is it doing as it comes closer to us?” he said in the recent interview.
“And it’s just like having a visitor in your backyard. You can’t decide on the policy for all visitors. It really depends on the intent of the visitor, and it’s just next door.”
Nasa says the 3I/ATLAS should remain visible to ground-based telescopes through September before it passes too closely to the Sun for it to be observed. It should then reappear on the other side of the Sun by early December which will allow for renewed observations.
The agency also explained how it was determined that the object didn’t originate in our solar system: “Observations of the comet’s trajectory show that it is moving too fast to be bound by the Sun’s gravity and that it's on what is known as a hyperbolic trajectory. In other words, it does not follow a closed orbital path around the Sun. It is simply passing through our solar system and will continue its journey into interstellar space, never to be seen again.”
Jess Battison