3I/ATLAS i kontroverza oko porekla
Otkrivanje interstelarnog objekta 3I/ATLAS pokrenulo je raspravu da li je 3I/ATLAS komet ili vanzemaljski artefakt. Avi Loeb, poznati astronom, ističe mogućnost da 3I/ATLAS nije prirodni komet, već tehnološki objekat.
Većina istraživača smatra da je 3I/ATLAS komet, jer mu se rep produžava dok se približava Suncu i oslobađa prašinu i gas. Ipak, Loeb poziva na dodatna posmatranja i traži da se aparati kao što su Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter i Juno usmjere kako bi pratili prolaz 3I/ATLAS-a pri najbližem prilazu Suncu.
"If we are visited by a technological object like 3I/ATLAS — it could either visit us or release some mini-probes that arrive to Earth and appear as [unidentified aerial phenomena],"
Loeb napominje i druga zapažanja: procijenjena veličina od čak 28.5 miles čini 3I/ATLAS velikim odmakom od ranijih interstelarnih objekata, a putanja kojom prolazi blizu orbita Marsa, Venere i Jupitera izgleda neočekivano fino podešena.
"And we just need to keep our eyes on the ball,"
On priznaje i prirodnu alternativu: "But it may well be just a rock which has some ice on the surface that evaporates, in which case we will say it’s natural,"
Loeb apeluje na naučnu radoznalost i oprez: "Whereas the dogmatist will shove anomalous data under the carpet of traditional thinking, an open-minded scientist will be thrilled to learn something new with an underlying sense of humility." "Not only is nature more imaginative than we are, but it also does not care whether we figure it out." "The insistence that everything in the sky is either icy rocks or human-made technologies will not rid us of cosmic neighbors, if they exist out there,"
