Space & Astronomy

NASA plays down the idea that interstellar visitor was made by aliens

By T.K. Randall
September 13, 2025

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb raised eyebrows recently when he suggested that the object, which has been traveling at high speed through our solar system, might be an artificially constructed probe sent by an extraterrestrial civilization to explore our region of space.

Arguments in favor of this conclusion include the probe's suspiciously direct trajectory through the inner solar system, its curious composition and the fact that it seems to be producing its own light.

"[If] future data will indicate the absence of a cometary tail, we will be faced with the tantalizing possibility that it did not inherit a random velocity in interstellar space but instead was sent towards the inner solar system by design," Loeb wrote.

"The consequences, should the hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity, and would possibly require defensive measures to be undertaken, though these might prove futile"

Now, though, NASA has moved to play down suggestions that 3I/Atlas was built by aliens.Following extensive study and observation of the object, scientists believe that it poses no threat to the Earth and there is no reason to believe that it was artificially constructed.

"It looks like a comet. It does comet things. It very, very strongly resembles, in just about every way, the comets that we know," said NASA scientist Tom Statler.

"It has some interesting properties that are a little bit different from our solar system comets, but it behaves like a comet. And so the evidence is overwhelmingly pointing to this object being a natural body. It's a comet."

Believed to be up to 3.5 miles wide, the object is traveling at 130,000mph.

"Comets are mixtures of dust and ice, they're being heated by the sun, that heating is changing, and exactly how they respond to that is something that's a bit unpredictable," said Statler.

"So even in our solar system, comets can have a history of suddenly brightening if there's, say, a particular pocket of ice that sublimates quickly and drives off a large amount of dust."

Source: The Guardian

Tags: Interstellar, Avi Loeb