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Ahead of 3I/ATLAS’s perihelion on October 29, Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb speculated that the day would be a ‘black swan event’ for earthlings and that money as we know it wouldn’t matter at all. While he didn’t seem thoroughly serious about it, he did raise concerns as to what if the bizarre comet is an alien probe and a malevolent one? Are we prepared? He has asked this relentlessly on his several blogs that carry his studies on the exocomet, which is the third-ever interstellar interloper to bump into our solar system’s front porch.
Image: HiRISE/NASA
Even as stargazers are all glued to the sky tracking the anomalous comet, NASA disappointed the majority with a fuzzy image of 3I/ATLAS, which technically is not the agency’s fault. But people love a spicy conspiracy to escape the mundane and monotone of existential dread.
Luckily for those who need some excitement, the interstellar interloper is going to cruise past the Earth at its closest at 1.8 AU (still pretty far to do any actual damage to either the planet or its only natural moon); nonetheless, if it really does have an ETI origin, will it be the apocalypse?
During his recent Q&A with a media house, Prof. Loeb answered a question about 3I/ATLAS’s proximity to Earth ahead of Xmas 2025 during the solstice, on December 19. Does it have any connection? He remarked,
It doesn’t look like 3I/ATLAS is maneuvering towards any particular planet, and mainly gravity shapes its trajectory, and that’s understandable. Even if it’s a spacecraft, it’s a very massive object. It would make more sense for it to release mini-probes that would go towards the planets, and the fundamental question is, are there objects leaving this big object? Are there smaller objects coming out of it?
He continues
There were some hints of jets pointing in different directions. Some are perpendicular to the object-Sun axis, and so if we find smaller objects coming off it, either right now or in future months, if we find new objects near the Earth or near Mars, that would be exciting.
Loeb further added,
I actually asked NASA to look at their data from rovers and orbiters around Mars, to see if there are any new objects or any new satellites appearing. That would obviously be a technological signature because a natural iceberg would only break into fragments of ice, and they will not arrive close to Earth or Mars.
So, let’s continue to monitor the sky around Earth, around Mars, maybe Jupiter, and then if there is something, that would be definitely intriguing.
There is Nothing More Deceptive than an Obvious Fact: NASA’s Press Conference on 3I/ATLAShttps://t.co/nL3aix45CX
— Galileo Project (@GalileoProject1) November 20, 2025
Is it a comet or an alien spacecraft?
Avi Loeb, Harvard science professor and director of Harvard’s Institute for Theory & Computation, says the 3I/ATLAS interstellar comet that’s passing through our solar system is “most likely” a natural comet, but there are some anomalies… pic.twitter.com/4er8WFX6sL
— Sunday Briefing (@SundayBriefFNC) November 16, 2025
