{"id":280463,"date":"2025-11-09T02:34:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T02:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/280463\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T02:34:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T02:34:13","slug":"astronomer-avi-loeb-warns-world-not-to-ignore-new-comets-potential-alien-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/280463\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronomer Avi Loeb warns world not to ignore new comet’s potential alien threat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israeli-born Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, no stranger to controversy<\/a>, is once again drawing attention \u2014 and taking flak \u2014 for positing that an interstellar object might be a piece of extraterrestrial technology. This time, it\u2019s an object called 3I\/ATLAS, the third known interstellar visitor to our solar system, predicted to pass roughly 167 million miles from Earth in December.<\/p>\n

Loeb has theorized that the comet, which is estimated to be one or two city blocks in width, could pose a threat to humanity. NASA has dismissed his claims out of hand.<\/p>\n

Loeb looks to recent history to explain why academia shouldn\u2019t be so skeptical.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn October 7, [2023], there was evidence from data collected by Israeli intelligence agencies of what Hamas was about to do,\u201d Loeb told The Times of Israel in a phone interview. \u201cThey dismissed it. They had a theory that it was very unlikely Hamas would do something like that. They ignored anomalies in the data.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, Loeb has been pointing out what he says are multiple anomalies related to 3I\/ATLAS. He\u2019s been in this place before: Eight years ago, in 2017, he also publicized anomalies pertaining to the first-ever interstellar object known to humanity, \u2018Oumuamua (Hawaiian for \u201cscout\u201d).<\/p>\n

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\u201cWith 3I\/ATLAS, the anomalies are quite different\u201d from \u2018Oumuamua,\u201d Loeb said.<\/p>\n

He had been puzzled by the shape of \u2018Oumuamua, which he described as like a pancake, not a comet. When it comes to 3I\/ATLAS, multiple factors mystify him.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tThis image provided by NASA\/European Space Agency shows an image captured by Hubble of the interstellar comet 3I\/ATLAS on July 21, 2025, when the comet was 277 million miles from Earth. (NASA\/European Space Agency via AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cIts path in the plane, the ecliptic plane of the planets around the sun, is [aligned by] five degrees,\u201d Loeb said. \u201cThe chance of [this happening] at random is one in 500. Its size is very anomalous \u2026 1 million times more massive than \u2018Oumuamua.\u201d Its composition contains \u201cnickel and very little iron, the way we find in industry rich alloys with aerospace application.\u201d And, he said, its jet path was \u201cnot away from the Sun like comets \u2026 In July and August, the glow extended from the object towards the Sun, not away.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week, Loeb invited Kim Kardashian to join his research team<\/a> after the reality star tweeted asking for the \u201ctea\u201d on 3I\/ATLAS \u2014 and received a response from NASA acting administrator Sean Duffy, to the chagrin of Loeb and other critics who slammed Duffy for responding to Kardashian while ignoring an official inquiry from Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna.<\/p>\n

On October 28, Loeb appeared on Joe Rogan\u2019s podcast<\/a> and raised eyebrows when he compared 3I\/ATLAS to, potentially, a tennis ball that a neighbor tossed into our backyard.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The purpose of this analogy was a gentle critique of what he called a top priority of science: searching for chemical signs of life \u2014 oxygen, water, methane, carbon dioxide \u2014 in the atmosphere of exoplanets that are a similar distance from a star as the Earth is from the Sun. He likened such exoplanets to houses on a street, and asked why go further down the street to explore other houses without examining mysterious objects in one\u2019s own backyard.<\/p>\n

\u201cA resident of the street,\u201d Loeb said, \u201cmay throw a tennis ball we might find in our backyard, or send a package to our mailbox, or visit our front door.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSuppose this is a visit from alien technology to the solar system,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s something we should all know about. It would change everything\u2026 Even if the probability is small, we must consider such scenarios as 3I\/ATLAS being a threat, something like a Trojan horse [that looks] completely innocent from the outside, something that will change history forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tProf. Avi Loeb at the Harvard College Observatory, March 1, 2022. (Courtesy of Leslie Kean)<\/p>\n

Loeb takes pride in the fact that his articles and media appearances have had an outsized impression on young people, if not always having the impact he\u2019d like on his peers. He marshaled some qualitative evidence: A NASCAR driver featured Loeb\u2019s image and 3I\/ATLAS on his race car. A US Air Force pilot\u2019s daughter now wants to be a scientist after hearing about Loeb. It got her a mention on Rogan\u2019s podcast and kudos from her school principal. Similarly, a Times of London reporter who interviewed Loeb for an article told his children about it, and now they, too, want to go into science.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an appeal,\u201d Loeb said, about the \u201cfundamental questions that will affect our future, which we can address with scientific curiosity. It appeals to kids and the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that his own career in physics has spanned 50 years, which he pointed out is half of the lifespan of modern physics. He mused over this fact while attending a conference at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tProf. Avi Loeb, center, smiles as he and fellow scientists work off the coast of Papua New Guinea in June 2023 to identify parts of a possible interstellar meteor that crashed in 2014. (Courtesy of Loeb)<\/p>\n

In that very auditorium, scientific minds such as Wolfgang Pauli had founded quantum mechanics. Loeb sat on a wooden bench once occupied by Pauli, and while it was physically uncomfortable, it was mentally stimulating. He said he yearned to be there 95 years ago in a time he described as more receptive to out-of-the-box thinking than now.<\/p>\n

He told The Times of Israel that when he submitted an academic paper about 3I\/ATLAS, he wrote in the last sentence that the object might be targeting our solar system. An editor accepted the paper, but on the condition that Loeb remove the final sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an example from the modern world of what the Vatican did at the time of Galileo,\u201d Loeb said. \u201cPeople have their own prejudices. I don\u2019t have any problem with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole idea of doing science is to maintain an agnostic point of view, be curious, wonder over the possibilities,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s what makes science exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n


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