A comet from another solar system has given rise to reports that it is in fact an alien spaceship.
The comet – named 3I/ATLAS – was discovered this summer and led to excitement because it appears to be an interstellar comet, which has made its way to us from another solar system. It is only the third visitor of its kind, and this time scientists have been able to track its journey and study its characteristics in particular detail.
But some have suggested that tracking indicates that the comet is in fact artificial in origin, a spacecraft from alien life in another solar system. Avi Loeb, a professor at Harvard University, has claimed that the comet is moving in ways that suggest it could be performing manoeuvres as it flies around the solar system.
Professor Loeb has made similar claims about other objects in the past, including ʻOumuamua, the first interstellar comet that was found in 2017. This time around, he repeated suggestions from a colleague that changes in the object could be because it is a spacecraft slowing down, with the intention of finding an orbit between Mars and Jupiter.
Much of the speculation focuses on the comet’s “anti-tail”, which as the name suggests is a tail that points in the direction the comet is travelling rather than behind it. That is unusual but not unheard of, and scientists hope that studying the phenomenon could allow us to better understand comets of this kind.
Professor Loeb did not make the claim about alien spacecraft outright, suggesting only that it was possible, and he has given no further evidence to support them. Nonetheless, a number of reports have reported on and exaggerated his claims to suggest that the Atlas comet could really be a spaceship sent from another world, prompting frustration among other scientists.
“Despite claims that 3I/ATLAS may be an alien spaceship, a growing body of observations reveals that it is a natural comet, not a probe from a distant corner of the Milky Way,” said Mark Norris, senior lecturer in astronomy at the University of Lancashire. He noted that there are some strange characteristics of Atlas but they did not prove it is artificial.
“Just to be clear - given recent drivel on line - Comet 3I/Atlas is a comet, made of carbon dioxide and water ices and bits of other stuff,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “It is entirely natural in origin, its orbit is as expected and it will whizz around the sun and then disappear off into the galaxy again.
“If it ever encounters another inhabited solar system in the far future I hope the living things there are more sensible than us and enjoy it for what it is - a visitor from elsewhere in the galaxy - a pristine lump of rock and ices which formed around a distant, maybe long-dead star billions of years ago and many light years away, just passing through. Isn’t that wonderful enough?”
