Mystery Object from Deep Space Sparks Debate Over Alien Tech

An object from beyond our solar system, named 3I/ATLAS, is racing toward the sun at over 130,000 miles per hour, capturing the attention of astronomers worldwide.

First spotted in July by NASA’s ATLAS telescope in Chile, the object’s unusual path through our solar system has sparked speculation among scientists.

Harvard physicist Avi Loeb suggests its trajectory is too precise to be a natural coincidence, proposing it could be a probe sent by an advanced civilization. He points out its alignment with planetary orbits and its close flybys of planets like Venus and Jupiter as statistically improbable.

While Loeb stops short of declaring it alien, he calls for more research and even proposes a “Richter-like” scale to classify space objects by risk and origin. However, other astronomers, including Karen Meech of the University of Hawaii, insist it’s just an ordinary comet showing typical signs of ice evaporation.

The object poses no threat to Earth and will pass no closer than 150 million miles away. As it nears the sun in late October, astronomers hope new data will confirm its true identity, natural or not.