Nasa has dismissed a Harvard astronomer's hypothesis that a rare interstellar object hurtling through the solar system could be an alien-made relic. The space agency stated categorically that the object, Comet 3I/Atlas, poses no threat to Earth and behaves like a natural comet.
Avi Loeb, head of Harvard's Galileo Project, suggested in a July paper that the comet, set for a close pass with Mars next month, could be a technological artifact. He noted its lack of a cometary tail and unorthodox trajectory, raising the possibility of 'active intelligence' and even 'malign intent' towards Earth.
However, Nasa's lead scientist for solar system small bodies, Tom Statler, said: 'It looks like a comet. It does comet things. It very, very strongly resembles, in just about every way, the comets that we know.' Imagery from the Hubble space telescope suggests the object is up to 3.5 miles wide and traveling at 130,000mph.
Statler added that all comets exhibit some anomalies, and the object will not come closer than about 170 million miles to Earth. It will make close passes with Mars, Jupiter and Venus. Loeb acknowledged that the simplest hypothesis is that it is a comet, but defended his alternative possibilities as an exercise in challenging preconceived ideas.
