A Harvard scientist has issued a warning for an object heading towards Earth and insisted that the planet needs to be prepared for some weird eventualities.
Harvard physicist Avi Loeb has admitted to having concerns about the recently discovered space object 3I/ATLAS.
He has released his own paper on the matter and has concluded that the object is ‘not natural’, arguing that the world can’t just wait to understand more about it.
On the contrary, he has insisted the world needs to take a few steps to decide on how we would deal with the object if the worse should happen...
What has NASA said about 3I/ATLAS?
3I/ATLAS was detected on July 1 at the NASA-funded ATLAS survey telescope at Río Hurtado, Chile and immediately scientists began investigating what they were actually looking at.
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Amazingly, it’s only the third known object to originate from interstellar space - meaning it came from beyond our own Solar System.
Scientists came to this conclusion ultimately because the object was traveling too fast to be bound by the Sun's gravity, at more than 41 miles per second.
While it becomes easier to understand what the object is when it comes closer to us, NASA and other scientists have concluded that it is likely an interstellar comet.
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Ultimately, NASA doesn’t appear to be that worried about the object and has said 3I/ATLAS will be closest to Earth between late October and December.
The space agency has said it will then pass through the solar system and will eventually continue its journey into interstellar space, never to be seen again.
Why does Avi Loeb think 3I/ATLAS is ‘not natural’?
While the idea of an alien spacecraft sounds like something straight out of a sci-film, Loeb argues it is certainly a possibility.
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He has also disputed the reasoning of some scientists who suggest it is a naturally occurring space object.
Writing on a Medium post, he wrote: “There were claims of a tail.
“But since 3I/ATLAS is accelerating and its current size is not much larger than the angular resolution of Earth-based telescopes, it is not easy to avoid fictitious elongation of the image as a result of the object's motion.”
He also questioned the apparent lack of gas emissions coming from the object and argued its trajectory aligns too well within the solar system.
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Using his own 'Loeb Scale' to evaluate whether something is natural or artificial, he ended up giving 3I/ATLAS a six out of ten.
This score means that it’s more likely to have been engineered, instead of being a naturally occurring force.
What has Avi Loeb said about preparing for 3I/ATLAS?
Speaking in a recent Newsnation interview, Loeb discussed his desire to see a global community come together to make decisions on the threats of the interstellar.
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He said: “I believe that we need an international organization that will make policy decisions about such an object.
“We are worried about existential threats from artificial intelligence, from global climate change, from an asteroid impact, but we never discuss alien technology.”
He also reiterated his belief that the object appears to be ‘alien’ in nature rather than naturally occurring in space.
As well as this, he argued the importance of there being a policy regarding coming into contact with something that is alien.
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He added: “The response has to depend on its properties and its intent — what is it doing as it comes closer to us?
“And it’s just like having a visitor in your backyard. You can’t decide on the policy for all visitors. It really depends on the intent of the visitor, and it’s just next door.”
Gerrard Kaonga