The agency’s unprecedented live event Wednesday may settle one of the most contentious scientific debates in modern astrophysics.
The images NASA releases on November 19 will either vindicate a controversial Harvard astrophysicist or prove that even brilliant minds can see patterns where none exist. Wednesday’s event has become more than a press briefing—it’s transformed into an institutional referendum on extraordinary claims. If 3I/ATLAS behaves exactly as natural physics predicts, one of astronomy’s most prominent voices may have staked his reputation on phantom anomalies.
By Samuel A. Lopez
USA Herald
NASA doesn’t typically roll out its Associate Administrator, its Science Mission Directorate leadership, and multiple division heads for routine comet observations. The agency doesn’t request press presence and prime-time streaming across NASA+, YouTube, and Amazon Prime for objects that follow predictable trajectories.
When Goddard Space Flight Center opens its doors Wednesday at 3 p.m. EST and four senior officials take questions live about 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object ever detected entering our solar system, the unspoken message is clear: what they’re about to show us matters.
