In early July, a group of scientists from Oxford University discovered a mysterious interstellar object, which they suggested could be the oldest comet we’ve seen.
But while astronomers were speculating about its origin, the American newspaper The New York Post published an article a few days ago about a possible alien invasion of Earth.
Citing the musings of Harvard astrophysicist Avi Leb, the publication suggested that the space object, dubbed ATLAS, “could be an intelligently guided alien craft observing Earth, possibly with hostile intentions.”
Some also joked that the unusual space object was actually Ukrainians returning from earning money. Others urged not to worry because Trump with a lijen in London published an article titled “Is 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology?”
Moreover, as the study’s author himself explains in a column for Medium, the alien assumption is not a scientific hypothesis, but rather a “pedagogical exercise” to explain a complex astrophysical theory.
Loeb and his colleagues point to some “anomalous characteristics” of the comet, an unusual trajectory and higher speed, and propose alternative theories to explain them. It’s a sort of putative experiment, but it doesn’t speak to clear evidence of alien involvement.
In other words, the sensationalised headline in the press is an extremely simplistic interpretation of the position of the authors of the study.
At the same time, other researchers have called the alien hypothesis “nonsense” and insist that all 3I/ATLAS was detected on 1 July at the Atlas telescope in Chile. At the time, it was about 570 million kilometres away from the Sun and moving towards it at a speed of more than 210,000 km/h.
Less than 24 hours later, scientists confirmed that it was an interstellar object.
Initial observations strongly suggest that it is a large comet surrounded by a cloud of ice, gas and dust that extends 24 kilometres.
Based on the speed of the comet, researchers from Oxford University have suggested that it could be more than 7 billion years old.
That is, this space object could be three billion years older than our solar system.
This is only the third time we’ve discovered an object that originates from outside our solar system.
Author of the photo, MATTHEW HOPKINS.
Oxford scientists believe this comet is likely to have formed near an old star will approach the Sun, our star’s energy will start to heat the comet’s surface, leading to visible vapour and dust. As a result, the comet may have a glowing tail.
Later this year, Comet 3I/Atlas will be visible from Earth using amateur telescopes.
Before scientists discovered this comet, they were only able to find two other interstellar objects. One was called 1I/’Oumuamua (discovered in 2017) and the other was called 2I/Borisov (discovered in 2019).
Astronomers around the world are now preparing to launch a new, extremely powerful telescope named after Vera Rubin in Chile. Scientists hope that when it starts operating at full power, they will be able to find between five and 50 new interstellar objects.