The third interstellar object ever spotted by humanity, now hurtling behind our sun, has led some astronomers to speculate that we may be observing an alien probe.
The body in question is known as 3/I Atlas, and what’s worrying many is the distinctly odd and unique properties it’s displaying for a comet.
The biggest proponent of the theory is Avi Loeb of the Galileo Project at Harvard University, who has long advanced the case that scientists need more funding to monitor space-borne risks. As Loeb recently told Joe Rogan: “Usually, scientific matters have very little impact on humanity (…) but here, if we ever encounter alien technology, everything will change.”
Online, Loeb has attracted strong criticism about his theory, especially from the astronomical community.
Yet, despite warranted skepticism, Loeb’s alarmism isn’t necessarily illogical: it is true that we allocate insufficient funds — and open-mindedness — to researching outer space. And it is also true that we stand to suffer outsized negative consequences should we remain ignorant of these dangers.
As Loeb himself told Rogan, “intelligence agencies know very well that (even) events with small probability have to be considered seriously because of their major implications.”
So, who to believe?
Those pondering the question are in luck because The Blind Spot recently had the opportunity to rub shoulders with the “respectable and serious end” of the UFO community when we attended the SOL Foundation’s annual get-together, at Lake Maggiore, Italy.
For those not into the weeds of ufology, SOL is a non-profit think tank that was founded in 2023 by sociocultural anthropologist Peter Skafish and microbiologist Garry Nolan, both of Stanford University, and AI entrepreneur Jonathan Berte, aiming to lead rigorous, interdisciplinary research into Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) and their broad cosmological and political implications.
Gathered at SOL’s lakeside retreat this October were all the biggest stars in the industry: Jacques Vallee, Garry Nolan, Beatriz Villaroel, the SkyWatcher team, Nick Cook, etc. And yes, we were among them all!
[Izzy would like me to point out she was simultaneously around the corner in Lake Lugano for stablecoin Tether’s annual bash and that she desperately wanted to call our collective dispatch the “Lago-a-Lago” series, but stopped herself at the last minute.]
Naturally, interest in 3/I Atlas was off the charts at the gathering. As was talk about Loeb’s prognosis.
But here’s the surprising thing. As a whole, the UFO community wasn’t buying Loeb’s claims. Quite the opposite.
“I don’t trust a word out of Loeb’s mouth”, a bearded German psychologist was overheard saying between drags of his Marlboro Reds. “The guy is a natural-born salesman”, dismissed an elderly psychic with a hand wave; “Loeb is overblowing this.”
This begs the question: If you can’t convince attendees at a three-day event dedicated to funding opportunities for extraterrestrial and non-human-intelligence related research of your alien spaceship theory, who can you convince?
The caveat here is that the UAP community is arguably more tuned into the reality that when security and threat-control narratives interconnect with funding shortages, net risk isn’t always mitigated.
It’s worth remembering that the last time scientific research had a love-in with military preparedness, we got gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Lab.
Could this be headed in the same direction?
A Unique Comet
“Imagine noticing a new animal in your backyard with a tail coming out of its forehead instead of its rear end. After looking at its image, experts argue that it must be a cat because cats have a tail. You point out that cats do not have an anti-tail but the experts dismiss the anomaly and keep telling reporters that any street animal with a tail must be a cat.”
The above is how Avi Loeb defended his hypothetical case that 3/I Atlas may be an interstellar object of intelligent design in a Medium article last month.
Loeb himself states that he doesn’t believe the object is an extraterrestrial probe. Rather, he argues that the strange characteristics of this interstellar object mean it’s the perfect chance to begin considering an obvious, if hypothetical and improbable-sounding, possibility that some day we may face a genuine extraterrestrial probe.
If nothing else, because if the object is not an extraterrestrial probe, the unique properties of 3/I Atlas should remind us how little we understand about interstellar objects in general.
Despite the wave of criticism he’s attracted, Loeb certainly has a point.
For one, 3/I Atlas is weird.
Comets tend to have a ‘tail’ that is blown back against the sun’s direction by a phenomenon called ‘solar winds’. 3/I Atlas, despite having recently developed a normal tail, for the longest time had a rare ‘anti-tail’ that faced the sun.
Astronomers have also concluded the object has high nickel content, which happens to be the same material that we humans use to design rocket engines. It’s also the fastest-moving object we’ve ever detected in our solar system, with an unusually consistent speed.
Stranger still, the object exhibits an extremely low variance in its elliptical orbit around our solar system — a mere 3 degrees. This differs sharply from the high-angle trajectories of the previous two interstellar objects, Borisov and Oumuamua.
From what we understand, the vastness of space means such a low angle of difference is certainly weird.
But that’s not the strangest thing about Atlas.
Because Atlas emerged from the constellation of Sagittarius, which holds a special place among astronomers for being where the WOW! signal originated from.
Heard on August 15, 1977, this unusually powerful radio signal was detected at Ohio State University’s radio telescope. More grounded astronomers claimed the explanation may be completely natural — a sudden brightening of an interstellar cloud that emitted a strong narrowband radio signal, for example.
But the strength and uniqueness of the signal has baffled astronomers since. Almost half a century later, we haven’t heard of another one like it.
In other words, WOW! is the closest thing to tentative evidence that we may have been contacted by an extraterrestrial civilization.
So it’s hard to overstate the coincidence, considering the enormity of space, that the 3/I Atlas originated from Sagittarius. Together with the other relative oddities mentioned above, it quickly becomes apparent that Dr. Loeb is not going crazy.
And that’s without going into the number of misinformation-smelling stories on the subject, from viral stories misinterpreting an asteroid-watching campaign by the International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN) as the activation of NASA’s ‘planetary defense mechanism’, to supposedly leaked posts from an ESA technician that claims official space agencies know that 3/I Atlas is extraterrestrial.
Don’t fall for the propaganda. There’s a lot out there.
But let’s take a step back.
Remember: Avi Loeb does not believe the object is likely an extraterrestrial probe. If anything, the coincidences above speak as much to our ignorance of interstellar objects and comets as they do about 3/I Atlas’ particularities.
Rather, Loeb is stating that we cannot dismiss the possibility that 3/I Atlas, or some interstellar object in the future, may be an alien spaceship. In many ways, it’s a much wiser position than IAWN’s, which definitively states on its page for 3/I Atlas that “it poses no threat.”
And here is where this gets deadly serious — and problematic.
Security-oriented science
Bear with us as we venture outside our comfort zone and into the fascinating world of space-aimed weaponry.
The logical conclusion to Loeb’s hypothesis is that planet Earth will have to address the threat by constructing and funding a modern space-based early-warning and reconnaissance system, which Loeb and his Galileo Project at Harvard University will also greatly benefit from.
After all, if we logically assume the incoming extraterrestrials may be more foe than friend, what’s the point of a detection system without a parallel destruction or deflection program?
This idea isn’t new. MIT’s Project Icarus in 1967, first envisioned using a multi-stage modified Saturn V rocket to deliver a 100-megaton nuclear payload to encroaching asteroids. Over time, however, these ideas have become more nuanced. The double asteroid redirection test of 2022 successfully deflected an asteroid by pelting it with decommissioned satellites.
Today, the most logical weapon system to face off against asteroids/alien probes is likely a gigantic space-borne or space-aimed Directed Energy Weapon (DEW) system — aka a giant laser like Israel’s Magen Or.
Even so, it pays to be cautious. The last five years have demonstrated that bad things can happen when underfunded scientists suddenly become useful to security services or their work takes on dual-use potential.
In the case of coronavirus gain-of-function research, the scientific community justified research on the basis that research into pathogens and pre-emptive vaccines must be funded for security reasons.
And yet, the very same research may have amplified, if not triggered, those risks.
Similar risks are likely to arise with space-aimed DEW, ostensibly to face off against asteroid/alien threats. Once the technology arrives, it has the potential to be hijacked for nefarious military reasons, like frying rival satellites in orbit or damaging Moon or Mars-bound traffic.
The outcome could be a new weapons race for space dominance.
Thus, the dual-use nature of space-borne or aimed weapons systems means Loeb’s prophesying makes sense.
Not because an alien probe will arrive anytime soon.
But because the pretension that comets bear multi-varied risks justifies the allocation of significant resources to fearsome space-dominating weapons systems.
Cui bono from alien talk?
In theory, the dangers of an interstellar adversary or a zooming comet should certainly outweigh the risks of engaging in a counter-asteroid defense mechanism.
The assertion is so logical, in fact, that the question arises: how come we haven’t got space-borne lasers already?
But ask some individuals, and they’ll say we’ve had them for a long time.
The picture above is from a weather satellite orbiting above the Earth during the infamous California wildfires of 2020. Its contents, showing what appears to be a space-borne laser that aggravates an ongoing wildfire, were highly contested at the time. But only 10 days later, then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper confirmed that China and Russia both possessed and were using DEWs in space.
With that in mind, Loeb’s warnings may have been co-opted and amplified by algorithmic warfare to test civilian openness to funding projects of this kind. If we’re right, political will to kickstart a space-based early warning defense system may soon be observable.
Considering how far the Overton window has stretched since 2015, none of this would be far-fetched.
Even if 3/I Atlas proves only to be a “close one”, the growing awareness that the planet is more vulnerable to external threats of this type may create the political will to work collectively — friend and foe — on collective planetary defenses.
From an economic standpoint, it might even help to deflect from tariff wars, by redirecting superfluous Chinese spare capacity towards a mega project that’s beneficial to “all mankind”.
As Reagan said, “How quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat”.
