NASA on Wednesday released fresh images of the interstellar object called 3I/ATLAS that astronomers have determined is a comet probably older than our solar system, as US space agency officials dismissed speculation that it is actually an alien spacecraft.
3I/ATLAS was first spotted in July by an Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, and has been tracked by astronomers since then. Its unusual trajectory indicated that it was passing through the solar system from parts unknown.
“It’s natural to wonder what it is. We love that the world wondered along with us,” Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, told a news briefing in Greenbelt, Maryland, referring to the comet as “our friendly solar system visitor.”
Photo: Gianluca Masi via AP
“We were quick to be able to say: ‘Yup, it definitely behaves like a comet.’ We certainly haven’t seen any technosignatures or anything from it that would lead us to believe it was anything other than a comet,” Fox said.
3I/ATLAS is only the third interstellar object ever observed by astronomers traveling through the solar system. The others were 1I/’Oumuamua, detected in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019.
Comets are small solid celestial bodies that are a combination of rocky and icy material that evaporates as they warm when getting close to a star like our sun.
3I/ATLAS has attracted particular attention because of one scientist’s suggestion that it is not a comet, but rather alien technology due to its trajectory, composition and other factors.
At the outset of Wednesday’s briefing, NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said: “To start with, I’d like to address the rumors” about the nature of 3I/ATLAS.
“I think it’s important that we talk about that. This object is a comet,” Kshatriya said. “It looks and behaves like a comet, and all evidence points to it being a comet.”
Kshatriya said that NASA missions are searching for signs of possible life beyond Earth, pointing to research published in September showing that a sample obtained by NASA’s Perseverance rover of rock formed billions of years ago from sediment on the bottom of a lake contains potential signs of ancient microbial life on Mars.
“We want very much to find signs of life in the universe,” he said.
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
South Korea would soon no longer be one of the few countries where Google Maps does not work properly, after its security-conscious government reversed a two-decade stance to approve the export of high-precision map data to overseas servers. The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met,” the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. Those conditions include blurring military and other sensitive security-related facilities, as well as restricting longitude and latitude coordinates for South Korean territory on products such as Google Maps and Google Earth, it said. The decision is expected to hurt Naver and Kakao
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday said he did not take his security for granted, after he was evacuated from his residence for several hours following a bomb threat sent to a Chinese dance group. Albanese was evacuated from his Canberra residence late on Tuesday following the threat, and returned a few hours later after nothing suspicious was found. The bomb scare was among several e-mails threatening Albanese sent to a representative of Shen Yun, a classical Chinese dance troupe banned in China that is due to perform in Australia this month, a spokesperson for the group said in a statement. The e-mail
RSS