{"id":297545,"date":"2025-11-21T13:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T13:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/297545\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T13:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T13:19:11","slug":"what-to-know-about-3i-atlas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/297545\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know about 3I\/ATLAS"},"content":{"rendered":"

A flying piece of cosmic rock or an alien threat? Comet 3I\/ATLAS is hurtling through our solar system and captivating scientists and internet users alike, even prompting Kim Kardashian to ask NASA for answers.<\/p>\n

Great question!@NASA<\/a>\u2019s observations show that this is the third interstellar comet to pass through our solar system. No aliens. No threat to life here on Earth.<\/p>\n

3 = the third
I = interstellar, meaning from beyond our solar system
ATLAS = discovered by our Asteroid\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/StDNRqvRCJ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy (@SecDuffyNASA) October 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Questions on whether the comet could actually be an alien spacecraft are coming from sources as varied as the reality TV star, a member of US Congress and a Harvard researcher, as well as from prominent conspiracy theorists.<\/p>\n

But that theory has been shot down by NASA, which released new images of the comet on Wednesday after the speculation gained traction online.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to see how people are really engaged in the discussion,\u201d said Thomas Puzia, an astrophysicist who led the team at the Chilean observatory that made the discovery.<\/p>\n

But, \u201cit\u2019s very dangerous and to a certain degree misleading to put speculations ahead of scientific process,\u201d he told AFP in a thinly veiled criticism of another researcher who has been insisting for weeks that the extraterrestrial spacecraft hypothesis cannot be ruled out.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe facts, all of them without exception, point to a normal object that is coming from the interstellar space to us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added the comet was \u201cvery exceptional in its nature, but it\u2019s nothing that we cannot explain with physics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"NASA: New comet images This image, captured by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, observed the comet on Oct. 2.
\n(NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/University of Arizona) Seeking signs of life<\/p>\n

Since its detection in July, the comet has generated intense speculation — unsurprisingly so, given it is only the third interstellar object foreign to our solar system ever discovered to be passing through.<\/p>\n

The first was the Oumuamua comet, which sparked similar ripples of excitement and debate in 2017.<\/p>\n

Even then, Harvard Professor Avi Loeb supported the theory that Oumuamua could be a spacecraft, a controversial position he later defended in a book.<\/p>\n

He has now accused his scientific peers of lacking open-mindedness when it comes to Comet 3I\/ATLAS.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it could be natural,\u201d he told AFP. \u201cBut I said: we have to consider the possibility that it\u2019s technological because if it is then the implications for humanity will be huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA, however, did not agree.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want very much to find signs of life in the universe… but 3I\/ATLAS is a comet,\u201d said Amit Kshatriya, a senior NASA official, at a press conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The debate risked overshadowing the very real wonder that 3I\/ATLAS represents, according to Puzia who said it offered \u201can unprecedented insight into an extrasolar system, potentially billions of years older than our own solar system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"NASA: New comet images released Comet 3I\/ATLAS as seen from NASA\u2019s Lucy spacecraft on Sept 16. (NASA\/Goddard\/SwRI\/JHU-APL) \u2018Goosebumps\u2019<\/p>\n

If there is one thing everyone agrees on, it is that 3I\/ATLAS is anything but ordinary.<\/p>\n

The comet holds many mysteries, particularly regarding its origin and exact composition, which scientists hope to unravel through close observation in the coming weeks as it gets closer to Earth.<\/p>\n

This small, solid body composed of rock and ice from the far reaches of space could help us better understand how \u201cplanets might form\u201d or even \u201chow life might form around other stars in the Milky Way Galaxy in different times of the evolutionary history of the galaxy,\u201d according to Puzia.<\/p>\n

NASA scientist Tom Statler described having \u201cgoosebumps\u201d when thinking about the comet\u2019s origins.<\/p>\n

\"\"NASA comet: New pictures released Taken from NASA’s telescope in Chile, this was the among first images to show comet 3I\/ATLAS when it was discovered on July 1, 2025. (ATLAS\/University of Hawaii\/NASA) <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t say this for sure, but the likelihood is it came from a solar system older than our own solar system itself,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a window into the deep past, and so deep in the past that it predates even the formation of our Earth and our Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike the two interstellar objects detected previously and only briefly studied, astronomers have had months to observe 3I\/ATLAS.<\/p>\n

And they hope this is just the beginning, thanks to improving technology for observation and detection.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should be finding many, many more of them every year,\u201d Darryl Seligman of Michigan State University told AFP.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Causit<\/p>\n