A Strange Object Has Entered Our Solar System—and One Scientist Says It May Be an Alien Craft

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

• Object 3I/ATLAS is now too far from Earth to aim a telescope at, but prior observations showed some unusual behavior.

• The anomalous nature of the object led astrophysicist Avi Loeb to apply a thought experiment to it, highlighting everything about it that might align with a hypothetical alien spacecraft.

• Even if this supposed space rock is not powered by aliens (as is the dominant opinion of the field), Loeb’s methodology could be applied to analyze other interstellar objects in the future.

Every time an interstellar object comes whizzing into our Solar System, it brings with it a certain intrigue. Where is it from? How did it form? Why was it gravitationally kicked out of its own star system? Could it be an alien spacecraft?

Something like Oumuamua, 21/Borisov and now 3I/ATLAS (the latest space rock to go viral) doesn’t exactly appear like the starships of science fiction. But, to be fair, we Earthlings really have no idea what spacecraft from other intelligent civilizations (if they do exist) would actually look like. Controversial astrophysicist Avi Loeb from Harvard University—founding director of the Black Hole Initiative and increasingly known for frequently crying “alien”—continues to be curious about what is really out there. Maybe aliens are eluding us by launching probes or ships that only appear to be chunks of rocky debris.

Along with colleagues Adam Hibberd and Adam Crowl (both from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies in London), Loeb came up with a thought experiment that tested the idea of 3I/ATLAS being a piece of extraterrestrial technology. He was inspired by the “dark forest hypothesis,” which suggests that aliens are trying to hide from each other because space is crawling with hostile civilizations. While Loeb stresses that this thinking is only hypothetical, there are some especially strange aspects of 3I/ATLAS and its journey that—while they most likely don’t mean the object itself is flown by aliens—could give away an actual starship if intelligent beings ever do decide to visit.

Even though Loeb is aware that the debate about this possibility is “mired in bitter controversy,” as he said in a study recently submitted to Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society, the “hypothesis is an interesting exercise in its own right, and is fun to pursue, irrespective of its likely validity.”

Whether or not 3I/ATLAS really is powered by aliens, Loeb thinks there is a reason applying his hypothesis to the object is worthwhile. Alien intentions could be completely benign or could mean doom for humanity. It could be that there are beings out there who are just trekking from star to star, possibly seeking out a new home or just enjoying the scenery, without intending to deploy any, say, missiles that could vaporize an entire planet. But others could mean us harm. Whether or not our defensive capabilities are enough to take on a hostile civilization is unknown, because we are unaware of what kind of technology they might threaten us with.

3I/ATLAS has also shown some anomalies. Its orbit is retrograde (meaning it travels in the opposite direction that objects in our Solar System orbit the Sun), but its orbital plane (the imaginary flat plane its orbit creates) is within only five degrees off of Earth’s. That is an extraordinarily unlikely coincidence which, as Loeb estimates, has only a 2% chance of occurring. Its closest flyby of the Sun is at the opposite end of where Earth reaches perihelion, and it ventures remarkably close to Venus, Mars, and Jupiter—all of which are also against the odds.

There is also the issue of what 3I/ATLAS actually is. The object is thought to be an asteroid or comet, but it is oddly bright for an asteroid of its size (20 km, or about 12.4 miles, wide). If an asteroid is ruled out, then it might be a comet, but Loeb points out that observations from the MUSE spectroscopic instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope showed no spectral signs of the gas usually resealed by comets. It is incredibly dusty, however, which very well could have obscured some of its features. Sunlight reflected off the surface of the object also turns red.making it appear redder than most comets flying around the Solar System, but closer to the color of some Trans-Neptunian Objects and Centaurs.

If a starship were to follow 3I/ATLAS’s trajectory and behavior, Loeb estimates that it wouldn’t need much effort from (hypothetical) velocity thrusts to launch missiles or some other kind of alien ammunition at Venus, Mars, or Jupiter. Earth might not even be a stretch. At least we haven’t seen anything peculiar raining from the sky yet, except a few meteorite fragments.

“By far, the most likely outcome will be that 3I/ATLAS is a completely natural interstellar object, probably a comet, and we await the astronomical data to support this likely origin,” said Loeb. “Nevertheless, when viewed from an open-minded and unprejudiced perspective, our paper includes many compelling insights that could be applied to tens of interstellar objects that are expected to be detected over the next decade.”

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