Alien or Ordinary?

An Ancient Object Enters Our Solar System

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

On July 1, 2025, scientists at NASA spotted a foreign object entering the solar system. Astronomers soon named the object 3I/ATLAS. This is the third interstellar object which NASA has identified, but its properties separate it from the others. It is the fastest object that has entered the solar system, moving at 245,000 kilometers per hour at the sun. 

When astronomers first become aware of an object in the solar system, the default assumption was that it's either ice or rock. There have been suggestions that it is alien, mainly by astrophysicist Avi Loe. However, he has made this claim about previous interstellar objects and been incorrect. The steps in trying to validate this theory take time. 

NASA has sent out a total of four probes, both in the 1970s. The first step in this process is detection, and from there scientists determine if the object is an organic or technological body. So far, NASA does not have any confirmation that 3I/ATLAS is alien, and, like most interstellar objects, they may never know.