The debate about 3I/ATLAS, a mysterious interstellar object that is currently passing through the Solar System, boils down to “Is it a comet?” versus “Is it maybe just possibly an alien spaceship or probe?” 3I/ATLAS’s behavior has been weird, and it just got weirder. Scientists are now debating whether it exploded when it made its closest pass of the Sun, a point astronomers know as “perihelion.”
Avi Loeb, the astrophysicist who has become something of a celebrity during the 3I/ATLAS saga, recently discussed the rather extreme loss of mass that the object apparently experienced:
This would mean that 3I/ATLAS exploded at perihelion and we are witnessing the resulting fireworks. In other words, the latest image implies that 3I/ATLAS was decimated by heating from the Sun if it is a natural comet.
Loeb’s reasoning gets a little complicated. The mass loss, if verified, could mean that 3I/ATLAS shattered into 16 pieces. However, if future observations made as the object emerges from being blocked by the Sun show an intact object, that hasn’t shed immense mass, the scientist speculates that something else could be going on. Like, for instance, an alien spacecraft engine.
Read more: Ford Once Made A Mile-Long Factory To Build Bombers Faster Than Anyone Thought Possible
Alien thrust
The Lowell Observatory in Arizona, shown at night under a star-filled sky – Nicholas Klein/Getty Images
For this latest theory, Loeb suggests that “[t]echnological thrusters require a much smaller mass loss in order to produce the observed jets around 3I/ATLAS…. Alien-tech thrusters might [reduce] the required mass loss by several orders of magnitude and [make] the required fuel a small fraction of the spacecraft mass.”
Loeb has been working on this angle for months now (and has been speculating about alien probes since 2017, when 1I/ʻOumuamua, an earlier interstellar object, was discovered). His core argument relies on some calculations about how improbable numerous aspects of 3I/ATLAS are. This has both kept 3I/ATLAS constantly in the news and also kept Loeb on TV news shows and various podcasts, including Joe Rogan’s.
However, other scientists have pushed back. A researcher at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona told LiveScience that 3I/ATLAS is a “fairly ordinary/healthy-looking comet” and that there is “no sign at all that the nucleus broke apart.”
Awkward science
Scientist Avi Loeb, seen at a conference – Jemal Countess/Getty Images
Loeb is obviously a qualified scientist and he has been copiously showing his work, as well as publishing non-peer-reviewed papers with colleagues about 3I/ATLAS. At the same time, he has been walking a tightrope between the cranks and the curious. In his most recent Medium post, he lashed out at other experts, accusing them of arrogance and trying to protect their intellectual turf. He has also forged something of an alliance with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in order to pressure NASA to release some images that have been delayed by the government shutdown. The congresswoman has said some pretty strange things about aliens and UFOs, but Loeb calls her “brilliant.”
Other scientists aren’t saying the same about Loeb. Penn State astronomer Jason Wright was unsparing, writing that “zero planetary scientists give Avi’s claims any credence,” and it’s not because they are hostile to Loeb’s ideas but because he is “demonstrably wrong.” Wright goes on to accuse Loeb, whom he has worked with, of not knowing very much about comets and not consulting with comet experts if it doesn’t suit his hypotheses.
“So the question isn’t whether 3I/ATLAS is anomalous: it’s from another Solar System, so of course it’s anomalous!” Wright concludes. “It’s whether it’s so anomalous that there’s any reason to think it’s anything other than a comet.”
Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox, and add us as a preferred search source on Google.
Read the original article on Jalopnik.