Larger Telescope Needed for Interstellar Object Study

It turns out we need a bigger telescope.

Recent findings have revealed that 3i/Atlas—interstellar objects roughly the size of Manhattan that may harbor alien technology—are substantially larger than scientists initially believed. A new report sheds some light on this.

The anomaly was first identified by NASA on July 1 and is now under close observation by Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb and his team. They are tracking what appears to be a comet with interstellar origins, making 3i/Atlas the third object of this kind ever spotted, following Oumuamua in 2017 and 2i/Borisov in 2019.

The team has gathered what they’re referring to as “slightly” new insights about these interstellar visitors. They estimate that 3i/Atlas must have a mass exceeding 33 billion tons, based on calculations. It’s interesting to note that this figure is derived from the object’s trajectory and the observed “gravity acceleration” in Atlas, which is reportedly under 49 feet per day squared.

This assessment was also informed by the interactions the object has had with gas and dust in its path.

Additionally, Loeb and colleagues concluded the diameter of its dense core must be more than 3.1 miles, which is a limit based on Hubble Space Telescope observations. This size is certainly “3-5 digits” larger than that of Oumuamua and 2i/Borisov.

They reached these conclusions through careful calculations of the object’s trajectory, revealing intriguing details about its scale.

Loeb is particularly captivated by the rarity of Atlas, likening it to finding a needle in a haystack given the immense number of interstellar objects out there. He expressed, almost admiringly, that seeing two objects of this kind on a scale of 100,000 is exceptionally rare before 3i/Atlas made its appearance.

Fortunately, although it’s moving closer toward our home base, Atlas doesn’t pose any danger to Earth. Its peculiar orbits do take it suspiciously close to Jupiter, Venus, and Mars, passing within 1.67 million miles of Mars this upcoming weekend.

More controversially, Loeb and his team speculate that this celestial traveler, primarily composed of carbon dioxide, might be an alien probe sent to survey Earth.

“That’s the hypothesis,” Dr. Roeb, along with his colleagues, stated in a paper released on July 17. They mentioned that this could represent a technical artifact or even something more intelligent. Two scenarios emerge from this: it might be a spacecraft, considering evidence of its non-gravitational acceleration and unusual trajectory.

Its “low retrograde tilt,” which means it rotates in a direction opposite to other celestial bodies, seems to enable it to approach planets with relative safety.

Loeb added that this tilting and its path may allow the object to gather astronomical measurements, evaluate the orbit and mass of solar system planets, and devise an optimal strategy for further exploration.