Shortly after its discovery, Loeb rated 3I/ATLAS a four, though he has since declined to revise that estimate pending additional data. “New data from the period bracketing its closest approach to Earth” must first be released and analyzed, he said.
Loeb continues to document what he describes as “anomalies,” including the object’s suspected size and its finely tuned trajectory past Mars, Venus, and Jupiter. His ongoing analysis is detailed in a Medium essay, Updating the Loeb Classification Scale of 3I/ATLAS.
31/ATLAS Natural, but Still Intriguing
Despite these speculations, the consensus within the astronomical community remains clear. The Breakthrough Listen team concluded that “3I/ATLAS exhibits mostly typical cometary characteristics,” and that “there is currently no evidence to suggest that interstellar objects are anything other than natural astrophysical objects.”
As ScienceAlert noted in its coverage, the silence from 3I/ATLAS may be the most telling signal of all. If an extraterrestrial probe were passing so close to Earth, wouldn’t it attempt contact—especially given how loudly our planet broadcasts radio signals into space?
