Harvard scientist issues scathing response as NASA shares disappointing new 3I/ATLAS images from space
Harvard scientist Avi Loeb has slammed NASA after it released long-awaited new photos of 3I/ATLAS.
There was plenty of hype around their release, which was delayed due to the 43-day government shutdown.
The US space agency hosted a press conference on Wednesday (November 19) as they shared a handful of photos captured by its spacecraft and telescopes.
It began with NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya reiterating that the unusual space object is, in fact, a comet.
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Loeb, meanwhile, has long entertained the idea that 3I/ATLAS is 'not natural' and could be a 'Trojan horse' alien probe heading for Earth.
The object makes it closest approach to our planet on December 19. At 170 million miles away - almost twice the distance between the Earth and the Sun - NASA says it poses no threat to our planet.
"I'd like to address the rumors at the beginning," Kshatriya said on Wednesday. "I think important that we talk about them. This object is a comet."
He added that 'all evidence points' to it being a comet, but 'this one came from outside the solar system, which makes it fascinating, exciting, and scientifically very important'.
Three of NASA's Mars spacecraft grabbed fresh shots of the mammoth space object as it whizzed within 19 million miles of the Red Planet back in October.
But Loeb was left rather underwhelmed by the snaps.
A photo from the HiRise camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, 3I/ATLAS appears as a fuzzy, white ball, for example.
As ever, Loeb took to Medium to share his thoughts on the 'boring' developments, issuing a pretty scathing response.
Writing that he was hoping to be 'surprised' by NASA's update, he declared that he was not, adding: "There was no big news. NASA repeated the official mantra that 3I/ATLAS is a natural comet and that they were unable to process the data until this week because of the government shutdown. Both are boring messages."
He added that the light from 3I/ATLAS was 'smeared by several pixels' in one photo, and later on signposted space enthusiasts to a collection of amateur astronomer photographers he deemed far more interesting and important.
"These images show tightly collimated jets pointing towards and away from the Sun and reaching distances of order a million kilometers," Loeb explained.
"In retrospect, these amateur astronomer images are far more exciting than the HiRISE image shared by NASA’s officials."
Loeb also pointed out that NASA failed to address any of the numerous anomalies making 3I/ATLAS all the more mysterious.
"Imaginative scientists master the humility to learn something new from anomalies rather than display the arrogance of expertise," he added.
He maintained that the new data from NASA could paint an even more fascinating picture, however.
Loeb asked NASA to check if there was any evidence of new objects 3I/ATLAS left behind as it traveled between Earth and Mars.
"Related data from Mars rovers or orbiters... could reveal fragments from an iceberg that broke up or mini-probes released by a technological mothership," he explained.
He concluded his post with another dig at NASA, writing: "Bureaucrats or unimaginative scientists want us to believe in the expected.
"But the rest of us know that the best is yet to come."
I suppose if we're invaded by aliens this Christmas, then we can't say Loeb didn't try and warn us...
Ellie Kemp