Could mysterious 3I/ATLAS comet be a ‘black swan event?’

Is it an interstellar wolf in sheep’s clothing?

Earlier this week, the NASA-backed International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) launched an emergency defense probe after 3I/ATLAS exhibited unusual behavior. Now, Harvard scientist Avi Loeb warns that the Manhattan-sized interstellar object zipping through our solar system could be an extraterrestrial “Trojan horse” whose presence has major implications for “humanity.”

Loeb — who maintains that the object could be of alien origin ever since its July discovery — told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” that he was concerned with the size of 31/ATLAS, which he inferred could weigh 33 billion tons based on Webb Telescope data.

“It’s at least a thousand times more massive than the previous interstellar objects we’ve seen,” the astrophysicist declared. “And the question is, why is such a giant object delivered to our inner solar system, when we saw only small ones before?”

Harvard scientist Avi Loeb warns that the Manhattan-sized interstellar object, 31/ATLAS, could be an extraterrestrial “Trojan horse” whose presence has major implications for “humanity.” Thomas – stock.adobe.com

Loeb analogized the presence of the comet (seen in a Hubble Telescope image) to a “blind date,” explaining, “you often assume that the dating partner would be very friendly, but you have to worry about serial killers, as well.” NASA

Loeb speculated that the international community should remain vigilant and formulate a defense plan in the event that 31/ATLAS is a ” black swan event,” defined as a high-impact event that is difficult to forecast under normal circumstances but appears to be inevitable in hindsight.

In the case of 31ATLAS, the scientist claimed that it could appear “natural at first” but end up “being like a Trojan Horse.”

Loeb analogized the comet’s presence to a “blind date,” explaining, “You often assume that the dating partner would be very friendly, but you have to worry about serial killers, as well.”

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on Aug. 6, with its Near-Infrared Spectrograph instrument. NASA/James Webb Space Telescope

While NASA’s official position is that 31/ATLAS does not pose any threat, the IAWN has already begun efforts to monitor the interstellar entity to assess whether this is indeed the case.

From November 27, 2025, through January 27, 2026, IAWN will be conducting a “comet campaign to refine methods for pinpointing ATLAS’ exact location.

These efforts were launched after the object showcased a host of unusual behaviors that seemed to defy typical comet behavior and possibly pointed to its extraterrestrial origin, per Loeb.

One of the disconcerting attributes included an anti-tail — a jet of particles that points toward the sun instead of away from it as is standard. ATLAS was also observed spouting a plume of four grams of nickel per second with no evidence of iron, a phenomenon unheard of in comets.

The alloy, nickel tetracarbonyl, has only been previously witnessed in human manufacturing, Harvard astrophysicist Dr. Avi Loeb told The Post.

Loeb also expressed concern over ATLAS’s non-gravitational acceleration and anomalous trajectory that will bring it suspiciously close to Jupiter, Venus and Mars. He pointed out — in a somewhat far-fetched paper published in July — that these factors could suggest that it was an alien probe that was sent to conduct reconnaissance on Earth, possibly with hostile intentions.

“The hypothesis in question is that [31/ATLAS] is a technological artifact, and furthermore has active intelligence,” the paper read. “If this is the case, then two possibilities follow. First, that its intentions are entirely benign and second, they are malign.”

Currently, 3I/ATLAS is just days away from making its closest approach to the Sun and slipping out of view, which could prove that the object is a spacecraft that’s using the gravity of the solar star to change speed and trajectory, per Loeb.

“If 3I/ATLAS is a massive mothership, it will likely continue along its original gravitational path and ultimately exit the Solar system,” Loeb shared in a Sunday blog post.