Humanity urged to ‘intercept’ 3I/ATLAS ‘spaceship’ before it’s gone forever
“We have never witnessed such a long, tightly collimated anti-tail,” Loeb said. “To fully understand the nature of 3I/ATLAS, we must explain this anomaly as well as the others.” His comments have fueled headlines and debate, including coverage by Sky News, which asked whether the object could be a rare comet or something far more exotic.
31/Atlas: Not About Earth—and Never Was
Loeb’s broader argument is philosophical as much as scientific. He contends that even if 31/ATLAS were artificial, it was never intended to target Earth. “Not only are we not at the center of the Universe, we are also not at the center of attention for interstellar visitors,” he wrote.
With an estimated interstellar speed of 60 kilometers per second, Loeb notes that the journey of 31/ATLAS through the Milky Way would have taken billions of years. “When 3I/ATLAS started its journey, there were no humans on Earth,” he added, pointing out that Jupiter—not Earth—is the dominant gravitational focus in our solar system.
What Comes Next for the Interstellar Anomaly
While the interstellar anomaly showed no unusual maneuvers during its Earth flyby, scientists are far from done studying it. Loeb hopes future imaging and spectroscopic data will shed more light on 31/ATLAS as it approaches Jupiter on March 16, 2026. Until then, the object remains a Rorschach test for modern astronomy—either an oddly behaving comet or a reminder that the universe still holds profound surprises.
