Comet 3I/ATLAS Reaches Perihelion Today – “Alien Spaceship” Hypothesis To Be Tested Once And For All

You might have been familiar with the baseless claims that comet 3I/ATLAS is, in reality, an alien spacecraft masquerading as a comet. The claim comes from astronomer Avi Loeb, who has previously claimed that the first interstellar object 1I/’Oumuamua was an alien spacecraft, as well as that we have recovered fragments of an interstellar alien tech meteor, which turned out to be common Earth-based pollution and the vibration from a local truck.  

Since the discovery of 3I/ATLAS, Loeb has claimed to be conducting a “pedagogical exercise” by treating the comet as an alien vessel, writing many blogs, and conducting many interviews, making unsubstantiated claims about the possibility that the object is not natural. Recently, he said: “If you want to take a vacation, take it before [October 29], because who knows what will happen?”

There is categorically zero evidence that the object is anything other than a comet. It has some peculiarities, such as its anti-tail, which is rare but not unprecedented. It moves faster, has a larger eccentricity, and is more active than both 1I/’Oumuamua and 2I/Comet Borisov, but none of these suggest that it is somehow artificial. Scientists, including SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) and NASA, have consistently rejected the hypothesis because there is literally no evidence suggesting that it is not a comet.

But let’s take the exercise as seriously as it has been spread across the media. Today is the day to test it. Loeb claims that the comet might reveal its artificial nature by performing an Oberth maneuver. This maneuver can be used by spacecraft to further accelerate or change direction by carefully using the engine while falling in a gravitational well.

The comet is going to be 203 million kilometers (126 million miles) from the Sun today. That is about 36 percent further than the average Earth-Sun distance. It’s not getting any closer, so today will be the moment of maximum kinetic energy. If it needs to unnaturally change direction, it had better do it now.

The comet is on the other side of the Sun from Earth, but it will become visible again before dawn in the coming days. The European Space Agency’s JUICE mission will observe it from deep space on Sunday. If, suddenly, it is not where it should be, we will know, and it should be the very last word on this object being an alien spacecraft.

As we have said, scientists estimate that there are 10,000 interstellar objects every day within the orbit of Neptune. We found three because they were bright. If an advanced alien civilization wanted to spy on us, approach us, or even attack us, it could do so with incredible stealth. What is the rationale of building something that looks like a comet, acts like a comet, only to do a costume change to reveal itself to be aliens, while spacecrafts and telescopes across the Solar System are looking at it, and it is hundreds of millions of kilometers from Earth? Are these aliens super-advanced or idiots?

Ultimately, we can take a leaf from British writer Douglas Adams: “Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?” This comet is extraordinary in itself; it is older than the Solar System, with new research suggesting it might be twice as old.

“I think that what it actually is is probably more interesting than what we can imagine it to be because it’s like a time capsule from a different era,” Colin Wilson, European Space Agency Project Scientist for ExoMars and Mars Express, told IFLScience. “That is super interesting, and I would love for us to be able to visit it, land on it, and take a sample and bring it back.”

Extraordinary claims can be dismantled by simple experiments, which is a crucial feature of science. If the comet continues in its cometary path, as it is expected to, the alien hypothesis should be put to rest for good.