Stargazers on social media shared color-enhanced images of the object, dubbed 3I\/ATLAS, which showed the interstellar visitor having a green glow as it passed Mars<\/a>\u00a0and heads closer to the sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, who has been convinced that the object could be an alien craft or probe<\/a>, analyzed the Perseverance rover’s photos by calculating its distance, speed, and camera settings.<\/p>\n According to his initial study, Loeb was not convinced 3I\/ATLAS is actually a\u00a0massive cylindrical object, noting that the strange shape might have been a trick of the rover’s camera stretching out its shape.<\/p>\n He explained that the apparent cylinder from the rover’s ‘Navcam’ was likely caused by the camera stacking hundreds of images of 3I\/ATLAS over a period of about 10 minutes, making it look more like a log than a ball.<\/p>\n The professor added that\u00a03I\/ATLAS is likely smaller and rounder, but still massive, with a potential diameter of more than 28 miles across.<\/p>\n Dr Horace Drew, a retired senior researcher at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), noted that the mysterious green glow seen in some images could be a result of the object being an interstellar spacecraft coated in nickel.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Perseverance rover on Mars captured new images of the interstellar object 3I\/ATLAS as it passed by the planet this weekend<\/p>\n Color-enhanced images shared by multiple social media users revealed a strange green glow around\u00a03I\/ATLAS<\/p>\n Drew explained that humans use the same practice on Earth-made space technology on a much smaller scale.<\/p>\n ‘It is not a ‘comet,”\u00a0 Drew declared on a post on X Monday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n Drew disagreed with Loeb’s conclusion that the cylindrical shape was a result of the Mars rover sending back a stretched image over several minutes, claiming that an amateur\u00a0astronomer on Earth captured a similar shape with their telescope.<\/p>\n ‘We can see an extended white shape, with a green coma outside. Not a small white ball,’ Drew explained in a post about the astronomer’s photograph<\/a>.<\/p>\n Drew, who earned his\u00a0PhD in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology, added that previous images of the interstellar object were allegedly from a ‘head-on view’ and didn’t capture its shape from the side, like the new photos from Mars.\u00a0<\/p>\n Loeb said he’s excited about another image taken<\/a> by a different Mars camera, called HiRISE, which has better resolution and could show 3I\/ATLAS more clearly.<\/p>\n That image is being sent back to Earth by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and has yet to be released by NASA.<\/p>\n Loeb has previously theorized that\u00a03I\/ATLAS could be a second craft sent by an extraterrestrial intelligence, following the strange cylindrical object known as\u00a0Oumuamua<\/a>, which passed Earth in 2017.<\/p>\n 3I\/ATLAS came within 18 million miles of Mars on October 3. Two space probes from Earth have been observing it for a week<\/p>\n Dr Horace Drew said an amateur astronomer’s photo of the\u00a03I\/ATLAS (bottom 3 images) prove the object has a cylindrical shape and is not a comet<\/p>\n Loeb told the Daily Mail on Thursday that clear images and a scan of the supposed comet’s\u00a0composition were the key findings that could definitively tell scientists what\u00a03I\/ATLAS is.<\/p>\n Despite images emerging from NASA, space agencies around the world have still not commented by their initial findings from the Mars flyby.<\/p>\n Daily Mail reached out to NASA for comment and received a message noting that the space agency ‘is currently closed due to a lapse in government funding.’<\/p>\n The\u00a0European Space Agency (ESA) used the\u00a0Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter to successfully observe 3I\/ATLAS, but it’s expected to take days or even weeks to process all the data.<\/p>\n![\"The\u00a0Perseverance](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/102742125-15166477-image-a-13_1759756017132.jpg\")
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<\/p>\n![\"3I\/ATLAS](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/102656401-15166477-3I_ATLAS_will_come_within_18_million_miles_of_Mars_on_Friday_and-a-14_17597579053.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Dr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/102742631-15166477-image-a-15_1759757910515.jpg\")
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