The signal was produced by hydroxyl radicals (OH molecules), formed when ultraviolet sunlight breaks apart water molecules in the comet’s coma—the gas and dust cloud surrounding its icy core. This discovery, reported by Science News and WIRED, confirms the object’s cometary nature and settles one of astronomy’s most viral debates.
Joe Rogan’s Skepticism and the Alien Debate
Interest in 31/ATLAS exploded online after being featured on Joe Rogan’s podcast, where Rogan and Elon Musk discussed the object’s strange behavior and the public’s fascination with alien theories.
Rogan expressed skepticism about claims that the comet could be an alien probe, saying that irregularities in its motion likely had natural explanations, not extraterrestrial ones.
His caution stood in contrast to Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, who has suggested that both ʻOumuamua and 31/ATLAS might be examples of alien technology. However, the new radio data, as noted by Loeb himself, “strongly supports a cometary origin.”
NASA and ATLAS: How the Discovery Unfolded
NASA first announced 3I/ATLAS on July 2, 2025, identifying it as only the third interstellar object ever observed, following 1I/ʻOumuamua (2017) and 2I/Borisov (2019).
