At first, the object appeared unremarkable—an icy body on a hyperbolic trajectory. As images accumulated and details about its brightness, tail behavior, and unusual path emerged, a different narrative began spreading online.
That narrative received a major boost when Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb publicly speculated that 3I/ATLAS could be something more than a comet. In interviews and blog posts. He suggested it “could be” an alien craft or even a mothership—language that resonated deeply with UFO/UAP communities.
31/ATLAS & Aliens: New Research Deepens Mystery Around Interstellar Visitor
What Does “Alien of the Gaps” Mean?
The Alien of the Gaps framework describes a familiar human impulse: when scientific explanations feel incomplete, people insert intelligence or agency as an explanation.
“In other words,” Bayar explains, “where natural explanations feel incomplete, we substitute a different higher agency—not Zeus this time, but extraterrestrials.”
As only the third confirmed interstellar visitor ever observed, 31/ATLAS naturally came with uncertainty. That uncertainty created fertile ground for speculation, especially in an online ecosystem already primed by congressional UAP hearings, leaked videos, and popular podcasts discussing aliens.
