{"id":349222,"date":"2026-06-06T07:06:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T07:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/349222\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T07:06:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T07:06:21","slug":"scientists-probe-comet-3i-atlas-find-no-signs-of-alien-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/349222\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists probe Comet 3I\/ATLAS, find no signs of alien life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Last summer, a NASA-funded asteroid impact warning system detected a mysterious object speeding through the solar system.<\/p>\n<p>Scientists determined the object had entered the solar system from deep space, making it the third known object to have come from another star system.<\/p>\n<p>NASA called it <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/solar-system\/comets\/3i-atlas\/3i-atlas-facts-and-faqs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Comet 3I\/ATLAS<\/a> and said it didn\u2019t pose a threat. But its discovery in July led to wild speculation that the object was a piece of extraterrestrial technology \u2014 maybe even an alien spacecraft.<\/p>\n<p>The SETI Institute, a nonprofit that explores the origins of life and searches for extraterrestrial intelligence, said this week that a team of scientists had used a radio telescope to try to detect signals that could indicate extraterrestrial life on the comet. <\/p>\n<p>But they found none.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile observations strongly indicate that 3I\/ATLAS is a natural object, interstellar visitors are also compelling technosignature targets because an artificial object \u2014 however unlikely \u2014 could represent detectable extraterrestrial technology and potentially provide the first evidence of life beyond Earth,\u201d the institute said in a <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.seti.org\/news\/seti-institute-looks-for-signs-of-technology-in-interstellar-visitor-3iatlas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>SETI scientists said they used the <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.seti.org\/projects\/ata\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Allen Telescope Array<\/a> at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in Northern California to scan the object for seven hours, covering a spectrum of 1 to 9 gigahertz.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis broad range allows scientists to search for narrowband radio signals, which are not produced in nature and would be evidence of technology,\u201d the news release said.<\/p>\n<p>The institute said the team identified nearly 74 million narrowband signals, but ultimately traced them back to technology on the Earth\u2019s surface or orbiting satellites.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe results from 3I\/ATLAS show how realistic it is to detect a signal with the technology we have today,\u201d said Valeria Garcia Lopez, one of scientists on the SETI team. \u201cThat is why it is important to keep searching for technosignatures, even from objects we might not expect to have signals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The institute said the researchers also can learn more about the natural properties of interstellar objects as they travel through our solar system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs more interstellar objects are discovered, each offers a new opportunity to probe the cosmos for technosignatures, advancing our understanding of both natural and possible technological phenomena beyond our Solar System,\u201d the SETI statement said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last summer, a NASA-funded asteroid impact warning system detected a mysterious object speeding through the solar system. Scientists&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[142896,142898,142897,6235,142900,142899,48,52,51,47,50,49,1511,21791,6230,1089,141785,58318,69862,427,1970],"class_list":["post-349222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-alien-life","tag-atlas","tag-comet-3i","tag-earth","tag-extraterrestrial-technology","tag-first-evidence","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-news-release","tag-object","tag-scientist","tag-search","tag-seti-institute","tag-signal","tag-solar-system","tag-team","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}