What NASA has said about 'hostile alien threat' that scientist says could attack Earth in coming months
Out there in the depths of space, or at least the depths of our own solar system, is an object hurtling in our general direction at a speed of around 36 miles per second.
This thing is really, really fast and while it's headed our way current projections say it won't be anywhere near close enough to strike us.
That's reassuring, particularly since new observations of this interstellar object suggest it's around seven miles wide, meaning that this thing would be of comparable size to the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.
All in all, it's a good thing that this object that's come into our solar system is on course to miss us by a wide margin, though there are some who've suggested all is not as it seems.
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Those minded to believe in aliens have suggested that the object known as 3I/ATLAS might be a trick sprung on us by aliens to get close and then attack us when we least suspect it.
Scientists claim 'potentially hostile' aliens could attack Earth
A group of scientists have suggested that an object moving through our solar system is 'potentially hostile' meaning it could attack us within the next few months.
That's all we need, an alien invasion bearing down on us while we're busy trying to sort out the travails of normal life.
Researchers Avi Loeb, Adam Hibberd and Adam Crowl have suggested that the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS has the potential to be carrying extra-terrestrial intelligence.
They suggested that 3I/ATLAS' path through our solar system could be 'intentional to avoid detailed observations from Earth-based telescopes', which would meant that any kind of decision making process on board would know we were living here and had the means to spot them if they weren't careful.
The researchers said that in the event of an attack it'd 'require defensive measures to be undertaken'.
It's the size of 3I/ATLAS which has them thinking it might house alien life, though the scientists did say that the most likely outcome was that it was a comet as it appeared to be.
When was 3I/ATLAS discovered?
NASA confirmed the existence of this interstellar object, meaning it came from outside our solar system, earlier this month.
It was detected on 1 July when it was about 420 million miles from Earth and projected to come a lot closer, and it was named for the thing that first spotted it.
The name '3I' comes from it being the third interstellar object to be detected in our solar system, while the 'ATLAS' part comes from the asteroid impact early warning system that discovered the presumed comet.
NASA's verdict on the object
Paul Chodas, NASA's director of their Center for Near Earth Object Studies, has said it was likely that this thing 'travelling through space for hundreds of millions of year'.
Speaking to AP, he said we didn't know which part of our galaxy this object had originated from but that it had been on a particularly lengthy journey to reach our solar system.
However, NASA has been clear to stress that 3I/ATLAS poses no threat to planet Earth as the closest it will come to us is about 170 million miles.
"We’ve been expecting to see interstellar objects for decades, frankly, and finally we’re seeing them," Chodas said, as the NASA official also stressed that this object was 'not artificial' and made it clear this was not an alien spacecraft.
"A visitor from another solar system, even though it’s natural - it’s not artificial, don’t get excited because some people do."
Joe Harker