September 23, 2025 • 12 mins
What if the strangest object ever seen in our solar system is more than just a comet? In this episode of The Deepdive, we explore the bizarre mysteries of 3I/ATLAS—the newest interstellar visitor baffling scientists worldwide.
From unexplained color shifts and a “green glow” science can’t account for, to a flight path so precise some think it’s hiding from us, 3I/ATLAS challenges everything we thought we knew about cosmic visitors. Is this an alien probe sent to investigate Earth, or could it be a “planet seed” that sparks the birth of new worlds?
Join us as we break down the 5 weirdest facts about this cosmic enigma, featuring hot debates between mainstream astronomers and those open to extraterrestrial technology. With exclusive insights, visuals, and mind-bending hypotheses, this episode will leave you questioning what’s really out there.
Leave your thoughts in the comments and subscribe for more tech updates and reviews.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ida (00:00):
Welcome to the Deep Dive.
So our solar system has a newguest, a really high-speed one,
and this one it's makingastronomers kind of scratch
their heads.
Allen (00:10):
Yeah, maybe reach for their tinfoil hats too.
Just a little bit.
Ida (00:12):
Huh, maybe we're talking about 3-itis-less.
It showed up.
Well, we detected it back inJuly 2025.
Allen (00:19):
Right, it's the third visitor we know for sure came
from outside our solar systemand it is moving incredibly fast
.
Ida (00:26):
Like how fast are we talking?
Allen (00:27):
At its peak it's clocked at something like 152,000 miles
per hour, Just tearing throughspace.
Ida (00:33):
Wow, okay, so it's definitely not from around here.
That hyperbolic trajectoryconfirms it right.
Allen (00:38):
Absolutely.
It's the ultimate cosmictourist you know, kicked out of
some other star system ages ago.
But here's the core of thisdeep dive, the real tension.
Unlike the first two we foundUmoa and Borisov this one
Three-Eyed Atlas is stirring upway more controversy.
It's spilling out beyond justacademic papers.
Ida (00:56):
Yeah, I've seen the headlines.
So our mission today isbasically to figure out why.
Why are most scientists sayinglook, it's just a weird comet?
Allen (01:03):
Right A natural but very unusual comet.
Ida (01:06):
Yeah, While you've got this other pretty loud voice
suggesting hold on, maybe, maybeit's not natural at all.
Allen (01:11):
Exactly that we need to seriously consider if we're
looking at well alien technology.
Ida (01:16):
Okay, let's dig into that.
What's the behavior that makesthe simple comet explanation
feel shaky?
Allen (01:23):
Well, first off, just the scale and speed are impressive.
Yeah, the nucleus, the solidbit could be anywhere from like
1400 feet across to maybe threeand a half miles.
That's pretty big it is andit's blisteringly fast.
But the first really bafflingthing was its brightness.
Ida (01:40):
Ah yes, the brightness enigma, Because comets usually
get brighter smoothly right asthey warm up near the sun.
Allen (01:45):
Typically yeah, A nice predictable curve.
Ida (01:47):
Yeah.
Allen (01:48):
But the three-eye toe, nope, it just jumped.
Jumped.
How much it went from beingincredibly faint like 18th
magnitude you can do serioustelescopes for that Right To a
much brighter 12th magnitude.
Now magnitude is logarithmic,so that's six magnitude leap.
It means the object got roughly250 times brighter.
Ida (02:06):
Whoa overnight.
Allen (02:07):
Practically overnight.
Yeah, it wasn't gradual, it waslike a sudden flare-up and
outburst.
It just didn't fit the standardmodels for how comets heat up.
Ida (02:15):
Okay, weird brightness Check, but then it also changed
color.
Allen (02:19):
It did.
It went from looking sort ofreddish, which is common for
distant objects, to this reallydistinct, bright green glow as
it got closer.
Ida (02:29):
Green usually means decarbon, right C2.
That's the stand-alone cometthing.
Allen (02:33):
That's the textbook answer.
Yeah, C2 molecules get hit bysunlight.
They fluoresce green.
So everyone pointed the JamesWebb Space Telescope at it,
expecting to see loads of C2.
And it did, Ironically no,almost none and do Ironically no
, Almost none.
And that's where it gets reallyweird.
Ida (02:47):
So wait, it's glowing green , but the chemical that's
supposed to make comets greenisn't there.
Allen (02:52):
Pretty much absent.
Instead, the JWST found unusualamounts of other stuff Carbon
dioxide okay, maybe expected inhigh amounts for an interstellar
object.
Ida (03:01):
Yeah, but also nickel and cyanogen and those don't glow
green like.
Allen (03:06):
Not in a way that explains this bright green
fluorescence.
No, Mm-mm.
So we're looking at someunknown chemical process or
maybe materials we just haven'tseen behave this way before,
something totally new frominterstellar space.
Ida (03:20):
Huh, Okay, Chemical mystery .
What else Well adding to that?
Allen (03:25):
some early observations suggested the light wasn't just
coming from the fuzzy cloudaround it, the coma.
It seemed like a light might becoming directly from the
surface itself, which is odd fora comet where the glow is
usually the gas cloud.
And then there was this strangeanti-tail effect.
The coma seemed to be expandingtowards the sun.
That's just backwards comparedto what we usually see.
Ida (03:46):
So a whole list of things that make you go, hmm, even
before we get to the path it'staking.
Allen (03:52):
Exactly, it's a lot of anomalies packed into one object
.
Ida (03:55):
All right, let's shift gears.
If we look past the chemistry,the physics, let's talk about
its path, the geometry.
That's where the alien techargument really picks up steam,
isn't it?
Allen (04:05):
It really does, and this is where Harvard astronomer Avi
Loeb comes in again.
He made similar claims aboutUmuwu, I remember.
Ida (04:11):
I do, Very controversial then too.
What's his argument this timefor 3I, Alice being potentially
a piece of tech like aspacecraft or even a mothership?
Allen (04:21):
It boils down to the trajectory specifics.
First, the alignment Its orbitis almost perfectly flat, almost
exactly parallel to the planeof our solar system, the
ecliptic.
Ida (04:30):
The ecliptic.
That's like the main highwayall the planets travel on, more
or less.
Allen (04:33):
Precisely so.
Loeb asks why would a randomrock flung out of another star
system completely by chance justhappen to arrive perfectly
aligned with our planetaryhighway, he argues.
The precision is just too muchof a coincidence, it feels
deliberate.
Ida (04:49):
OK, that is interesting.
What else about the path?
Allen (04:51):
The destinations.
Look where it's going.
It's making a close pass byMars, like really soon, October
3rd.
Ida (04:56):
Mars flyby.
Allen (04:57):
Okay, and then later it swings by Venus and next year
Jupiter.
The implication, or suspicion,is that these aren't random near
misses.
If it were technology.
Ida (05:06):
It could be dropping off probes, little observation
gadgets, near interestingplanets.
Allen (05:10):
That's the speculation.
Yeah, using the flybys asopportunities, but the absolute
kicker, the part that reallyfuels the fire, is what happens
when it gets closest to the sun.
Ida (05:20):
Perihelion right, Late October.
Allen (05:22):
Yep Around October 21st, it does something called the
superior conjunction.
From our viewpoint here onEarth, it positions itself
exactly behind the sun.
Ida (05:31):
Huh, Hiding behind the sun?
I mean, couldn't that just beorbital mechanics?
The natural path it takes?
Allen (05:37):
It could be, but Loeb and others interpret it differently
.
They see it as potentially adeliberate move.
Ida (05:43):
Deliberate how.
Allen (05:44):
Using the sun's immense glare as a shield, a perfect way
to hide from Earth's telescopes, while you maybe refuel using
solar energy or make maneuvers.
Ida (05:54):
Or release those probes you mentioned.
Allen (05:56):
Exactly Use the sun as cover for activities you don't
want observed.
It's a compelling, ifspeculative, idea.
Ida (06:02):
And just to add another layer.
Wasn't there something aboutwhere it came from?
Allen (06:06):
Oh, yeah, Just to fan the flames.
It's approaching us from thegeneral direction of the
Sagittarius constellation.
Ida (06:11):
Sagittarius, why does that ring a bell?
Allen (06:13):
That's the same patch of sky where the famous WOW signal
came from back in the 70s, thatreally powerful, unexplained
radio signal.
Ida (06:22):
Wow, okay, that definitely adds some dramatic flair,
doesn't it?
Connecting those dots.
Allen (06:28):
It certainly does.
And Loeb even wrote a paper,sort of a thought experiment, a
pedagogical exercise, he calledit, where he explored the dark
forest hypothesis, the idea thatadvanced civilizations might
hide because space is dangerous.
You don't know who's out there.
Ida (06:43):
OK, that's a sci fi staple, but he took it further.
Allen (06:46):
He actually suggested that if this thing were
confirmed as technology, wemight need to consider well
defensive measures.
Ida (06:52):
Whoa hold on Defensive measures.
That's a massive leap fromweird comet to potential threat.
Allen (06:58):
It's a sensational jump, absolutely, but his framing is
more like a challenge.
Don't just dismiss theweirdness.
Keep an open mind, be curiousand actively look for the
evidence that rules out theextraordinary explanation before
you settle on the ordinary one.
Ida (07:11):
Right, which brings us back to the mainstream view.
Most scientists, nasa, they'resticking with comet right,
despite all these anomalies.
Allen (07:19):
Overwhelmingly yes.
The official NASA stance isbasically it looks like a comet,
it acts like a comet.
Mostly they see the alien techclaims as well nonsense on
stilts, as one scientist put it,insulting even to the hard work
being done.
Ida (07:35):
Okay.
So how do they explain thestuff that doesn't look like a
normal comet, that suddenbrightening, for instance the
250 times jump?
Allen (07:42):
Their explanation hinges on it being an interstellar
comet, Because it's likely beendrifting in deep space for maybe
billions of years.
It probably holds on to waymore volatile stuff, easily
evaporated materials.
Ida (07:56):
Like that carbon dioxide.
The JWST saw.
Allen (07:58):
Exactly Way more CO2 ice than our homegrown continents
might have.
So as it gets close to the sunand heats up fast, that CO2
turns to gas explosivelyoutgassing.
Ida (08:07):
And that causes the flare up.
Allen (08:09):
It puts huge stress on the comet's structure, leading
to these violent outbursts,maybe even causing chunks to
break off fragmentation.
We saw something similar,though not identical, with Comet
Shoemaker-Levy 9 before it hitJupiter.
Ida (08:20):
OK, so the idea is it's not alien engines it before it hit
Jupiter?
Okay, so the idea is it's notalien engines, it's just
supercharged outgassing fromancient volatile ices.
Allen (08:29):
That's the leading natural explanation for the
brightness and maybe even someof the weird glow aspects.
Our models for interstellarcomets are just, you know,
incomplete because we've seen sofew.
Ida (08:37):
And we've sort of been here before, haven't we With
Oumuamua.
That one was weird tooCigar-shaped, sped up
unexpectedly.
Allen (08:45):
That's the crucial precedent.
Yeah, Oumuamua also had alienprobe theories swirling around
it.
Because of thatnon-gravitational acceleration
it sped up like it had an engine.
Ida (08:53):
But that got explained naturally too eventually.
Allen (08:56):
The consensus landed on outgassing, but of stuff like
pure hydrogen gas which would beinvisible.
No visible coma, but enoughthrust to change its speed.
The lesson learned was objectsfrom other star systems are
different, they're made ofdifferent stuff, they behave
differently.
Expect the unexpected.
Ida (09:13):
So unusual composition leads to unusual behavior.
That looks artificial but isn't.
Allen (09:18):
That's the argument.
Ida (09:19):
Okay, beyond just weird comet, is there any other
natural theory floating around?
I thought I saw something aboutplanet seeds.
Allen (09:26):
Ah yeah, that's a fascinating alternative natural
idea.
Instead of just being debris,maybe objects like 3I Atlas are
actually constructive.
Ida (09:34):
Constructive.
How?
Allen (09:36):
Like planet-forming seeds , these fragments planetesimals
ejected from other systems mighttravel to a new star system and
actually help planets formthere faster.
Ida (09:46):
How would that work?
Allen (09:47):
They bring in heavy elements material from their
home system.
They could act as nucleationsites, like little gravitational
anchors, helping dust and gasclump together more easily,
especially around biggerhigh-mass stars.
It flips the script.
They're not just junk.
They could be vital parts ofthe galactic planet-building
process.
Ida (10:04):
Ancient world builders.
That's a cool concept.
Whether it's that or aspaceship or just a weird comet,
time is running out to look atit right.
Allen (10:11):
Definitely that superior conjunction.
When it ducks behind the sunfrom our view, that's around
October 21st the window for goodEarth-based observation is
closing really fast.
Ida (10:22):
So these next few weeks are critical and that Mars flyby is
key.
Allen (10:26):
Absolutely October 3rd.
That's probably our bestclose-up chance.
Ida (10:29):
What are we using to look at them?
Allen (10:31):
NASA and ESA are throwing quite a bit at it.
The main one is the MarsReconnaissance Orbiter MRO.
It has the high-rise camera.
Ida (10:38):
High-resolution stuff.
Allen (10:39):
But high-res.
For Mars orbit From thedistance to ATLAs.
The resolution will be limited,maybe 30 kilometers per pixel,
something like that.
Ida (10:46):
Okay, so not enough to see like windows or anything.
Allen (10:49):
Uh-huh.
No, definitely not, but it'sstill valuable.
It might help figure out if thelight is really coming from the
object itself or if it's alljust reflected sunlight.
That's a key question.
Ida (10:58):
Any other eyes on it?
Allen (10:59):
Yeah, nasa's Psyche mission, which is heading to an
asteroid, and ESA's JUICE probeheading to Jupiter.
They're also being positionedto try and get observations
later in 2025, as their pathsallow.
Everyone wants a piece of thispuzzle.
Ida (11:14):
Okay, so let's recap.
We've got visitor number threefrom interstellar space.
It's ridiculously fast, glowinggreen for reasons we don't
fully understand, brighteningunpredictably and taking this
path that seems wellsuspiciously convenient for
hiding.
Allen (11:30):
That sums up the weirdness pretty well.
The natural comet idea is stillthe frontrunner, the scientific
consensus, but you just can'tignore that long list of
anomalies.
It forces astronomers to keepthat, you know, childhood
curiosity alive.
Ida (11:44):
You can't just shrug and say rock when the rock is doing
acrobatics.
Allen (11:48):
Exactly, you have to actively look for the proof,
especially before it vanishesbehind the sun and then
eventually leaves our systemaltogether.
The race is definitely on.
Ida (11:57):
And thinking about that planet seed idea again.
If this object really isancient, if it's been traveling
interstellar space for, say, abillion years like a cosmic
tumbleweed, Collecting dust andmaybe more across the galaxy.
Yeah, what kind of unexpectedstuff could it be carrying?
Could there be materials, oreven like biological relics,
frozen inside from way out nearthe edge of the galaxy?
Allen (12:20):
That touches on the old pants Burmese idea, doesn't it,
that life itself could be seededacross the galaxy by objects
like this?
Ida (12:26):
So maybe 3 IT-less isn't just a weird comet or a
potential alien probe, maybeit's delivering a history lesson
, or even the building blocks ofsomething new right into our
backyard.
Now that is something to thinkabout.
Welcome to the Deep Dive.
So our solar system has a newguest, a really high-speed one,
and this one it's makingastronomers kind of scratch
their heads.
Allen (00:10):
Yeah, maybe reach for their tinfoil hats too.
Just a little bit.
Ida (00:12):
Huh, maybe we're talking about 3-itis-less.
It showed up.
Well, we detected it back inJuly 2025.
Allen (00:19):
Right, it's the third visitor we know for sure came
from outside our solar systemand it is moving incredibly fast
.
Ida (00:26):
Like how fast are we talking?
Allen (00:27):
At its peak it's clocked at something like 152,000 miles
per hour, Just tearing throughspace.
Ida (00:33):
Wow, okay, so it's definitely not from around here.
That hyperbolic trajectoryconfirms it right.
Allen (00:38):
Absolutely.
It's the ultimate cosmictourist you know, kicked out of
some other star system ages ago.
But here's the core of thisdeep dive, the real tension.
Unlike the first two we foundUmoa and Borisov this one
Three-Eyed Atlas is stirring upway more controversy.
It's spilling out beyond justacademic papers.
Ida (00:56):
Yeah, I've seen the headlines.
So our mission today isbasically to figure out why.
Why are most scientists sayinglook, it's just a weird comet?
Allen (01:03):
Right A natural but very unusual comet.
Ida (01:06):
Yeah, While you've got this other pretty loud voice
suggesting hold on, maybe, maybeit's not natural at all.
Allen (01:11):
Exactly that we need to seriously consider if we're
looking at well alien technology.
Ida (01:16):
Okay, let's dig into that.
What's the behavior that makesthe simple comet explanation
feel shaky?
Allen (01:23):
Well, first off, just the scale and speed are impressive.
Yeah, the nucleus, the solidbit could be anywhere from like
1400 feet across to maybe threeand a half miles.
That's pretty big it is andit's blisteringly fast.
But the first really bafflingthing was its brightness.
Ida (01:40):
Ah yes, the brightness enigma, Because comets usually
get brighter smoothly right asthey warm up near the sun.
Allen (01:45):
Typically yeah, A nice predictable curve.
Ida (01:47):
Yeah.
Allen (01:48):
But the three-eye toe, nope, it just jumped.
Jumped.
How much it went from beingincredibly faint like 18th
magnitude you can do serioustelescopes for that Right To a
much brighter 12th magnitude.
Now magnitude is logarithmic,so that's six magnitude leap.
It means the object got roughly250 times brighter.
Ida (02:06):
Whoa overnight.
Allen (02:07):
Practically overnight.
Yeah, it wasn't gradual, it waslike a sudden flare-up and
outburst.
It just didn't fit the standardmodels for how comets heat up.
Ida (02:15):
Okay, weird brightness Check, but then it also changed
color.
Allen (02:19):
It did.
It went from looking sort ofreddish, which is common for
distant objects, to this reallydistinct, bright green glow as
it got closer.
Ida (02:29):
Green usually means decarbon, right C2.
That's the stand-alone cometthing.
Allen (02:33):
That's the textbook answer.
Yeah, C2 molecules get hit bysunlight.
They fluoresce green.
So everyone pointed the JamesWebb Space Telescope at it,
expecting to see loads of C2.
And it did, Ironically no,almost none and do Ironically no
, Almost none.
And that's where it gets reallyweird.
Ida (02:47):
So wait, it's glowing green , but the chemical that's
supposed to make comets greenisn't there.
Allen (02:52):
Pretty much absent.
Instead, the JWST found unusualamounts of other stuff Carbon
dioxide okay, maybe expected inhigh amounts for an interstellar
object.
Ida (03:01):
Yeah, but also nickel and cyanogen and those don't glow
green like.
Allen (03:06):
Not in a way that explains this bright green
fluorescence.
No, Mm-mm.
So we're looking at someunknown chemical process or
maybe materials we just haven'tseen behave this way before,
something totally new frominterstellar space.
Ida (03:20):
Huh, Okay, Chemical mystery .
What else Well adding to that?
Allen (03:25):
some early observations suggested the light wasn't just
coming from the fuzzy cloudaround it, the coma.
It seemed like a light might becoming directly from the
surface itself, which is odd fora comet where the glow is
usually the gas cloud.
And then there was this strangeanti-tail effect.
The coma seemed to be expandingtowards the sun.
That's just backwards comparedto what we usually see.
Ida (03:46):
So a whole list of things that make you go, hmm, even
before we get to the path it'staking.
Allen (03:52):
Exactly, it's a lot of anomalies packed into one object
.
Ida (03:55):
All right, let's shift gears.
If we look past the chemistry,the physics, let's talk about
its path, the geometry.
That's where the alien techargument really picks up steam,
isn't it?
Allen (04:05):
It really does, and this is where Harvard astronomer Avi
Loeb comes in again.
He made similar claims aboutUmuwu, I remember.
Ida (04:11):
I do, Very controversial then too.
What's his argument this timefor 3I, Alice being potentially
a piece of tech like aspacecraft or even a mothership?
Allen (04:21):
It boils down to the trajectory specifics.
First, the alignment Its orbitis almost perfectly flat, almost
exactly parallel to the planeof our solar system, the
ecliptic.
Ida (04:30):
The ecliptic.
That's like the main highwayall the planets travel on, more
or less.
Allen (04:33):
Precisely so.
Loeb asks why would a randomrock flung out of another star
system completely by chance justhappen to arrive perfectly
aligned with our planetaryhighway, he argues.
The precision is just too muchof a coincidence, it feels
deliberate.
Ida (04:49):
OK, that is interesting.
What else about the path?
Allen (04:51):
The destinations.
Look where it's going.
It's making a close pass byMars, like really soon, October
3rd.
Ida (04:56):
Mars flyby.
Allen (04:57):
Okay, and then later it swings by Venus and next year
Jupiter.
The implication, or suspicion,is that these aren't random near
misses.
If it were technology.
Ida (05:06):
It could be dropping off probes, little observation
gadgets, near interestingplanets.
Allen (05:10):
That's the speculation.
Yeah, using the flybys asopportunities, but the absolute
kicker, the part that reallyfuels the fire, is what happens
when it gets closest to the sun.
Ida (05:20):
Perihelion right, Late October.
Allen (05:22):
Yep Around October 21st, it does something called the
superior conjunction.
From our viewpoint here onEarth, it positions itself
exactly behind the sun.
Ida (05:31):
Huh, Hiding behind the sun?
I mean, couldn't that just beorbital mechanics?
The natural path it takes?
Allen (05:37):
It could be, but Loeb and others interpret it differently
.
They see it as potentially adeliberate move.
Ida (05:43):
Deliberate how.
Allen (05:44):
Using the sun's immense glare as a shield, a perfect way
to hide from Earth's telescopes, while you maybe refuel using
solar energy or make maneuvers.
Ida (05:54):
Or release those probes you mentioned.
Allen (05:56):
Exactly Use the sun as cover for activities you don't
want observed.
It's a compelling, ifspeculative, idea.
Ida (06:02):
And just to add another layer.
Wasn't there something aboutwhere it came from?
Allen (06:06):
Oh, yeah, Just to fan the flames.
It's approaching us from thegeneral direction of the
Sagittarius constellation.
Ida (06:11):
Sagittarius, why does that ring a bell?
Allen (06:13):
That's the same patch of sky where the famous WOW signal
came from back in the 70s, thatreally powerful, unexplained
radio signal.
Ida (06:22):
Wow, okay, that definitely adds some dramatic flair,
doesn't it?
Connecting those dots.
Allen (06:28):
It certainly does.
And Loeb even wrote a paper,sort of a thought experiment, a
pedagogical exercise, he calledit, where he explored the dark
forest hypothesis, the idea thatadvanced civilizations might
hide because space is dangerous.
You don't know who's out there.
Ida (06:43):
OK, that's a sci fi staple, but he took it further.
Allen (06:46):
He actually suggested that if this thing were
confirmed as technology, wemight need to consider well
defensive measures.
Ida (06:52):
Whoa hold on Defensive measures.
That's a massive leap fromweird comet to potential threat.
Allen (06:58):
It's a sensational jump, absolutely, but his framing is
more like a challenge.
Don't just dismiss theweirdness.
Keep an open mind, be curiousand actively look for the
evidence that rules out theextraordinary explanation before
you settle on the ordinary one.
Ida (07:11):
Right, which brings us back to the mainstream view.
Most scientists, nasa, they'resticking with comet right,
despite all these anomalies.
Allen (07:19):
Overwhelmingly yes.
The official NASA stance isbasically it looks like a comet,
it acts like a comet.
Mostly they see the alien techclaims as well nonsense on
stilts, as one scientist put it,insulting even to the hard work
being done.
Ida (07:35):
Okay.
So how do they explain thestuff that doesn't look like a
normal comet, that suddenbrightening, for instance the
250 times jump?
Allen (07:42):
Their explanation hinges on it being an interstellar
comet, Because it's likely beendrifting in deep space for maybe
billions of years.
It probably holds on to waymore volatile stuff, easily
evaporated materials.
Ida (07:56):
Like that carbon dioxide.
The JWST saw.
Allen (07:58):
Exactly Way more CO2 ice than our homegrown continents
might have.
So as it gets close to the sunand heats up fast, that CO2
turns to gas explosivelyoutgassing.
Ida (08:07):
And that causes the flare up.
Allen (08:09):
It puts huge stress on the comet's structure, leading
to these violent outbursts,maybe even causing chunks to
break off fragmentation.
We saw something similar,though not identical, with Comet
Shoemaker-Levy 9 before it hitJupiter.
Ida (08:20):
OK, so the idea is it's not alien engines it before it hit
Jupiter?
Okay, so the idea is it's notalien engines, it's just
supercharged outgassing fromancient volatile ices.
Allen (08:29):
That's the leading natural explanation for the
brightness and maybe even someof the weird glow aspects.
Our models for interstellarcomets are just, you know,
incomplete because we've seen sofew.
Ida (08:37):
And we've sort of been here before, haven't we With
Oumuamua.
That one was weird tooCigar-shaped, sped up
unexpectedly.
Allen (08:45):
That's the crucial precedent.
Yeah, Oumuamua also had alienprobe theories swirling around
it.
Because of thatnon-gravitational acceleration
it sped up like it had an engine.
Ida (08:53):
But that got explained naturally too eventually.
Allen (08:56):
The consensus landed on outgassing, but of stuff like
pure hydrogen gas which would beinvisible.
No visible coma, but enoughthrust to change its speed.
The lesson learned was objectsfrom other star systems are
different, they're made ofdifferent stuff, they behave
differently.
Expect the unexpected.
Ida (09:13):
So unusual composition leads to unusual behavior.
That looks artificial but isn't.
Allen (09:18):
That's the argument.
Ida (09:19):
Okay, beyond just weird comet, is there any other
natural theory floating around?
I thought I saw something aboutplanet seeds.
Allen (09:26):
Ah yeah, that's a fascinating alternative natural
idea.
Instead of just being debris,maybe objects like 3I Atlas are
actually constructive.
Ida (09:34):
Constructive.
How?
Allen (09:36):
Like planet-forming seeds , these fragments planetesimals
ejected from other systems mighttravel to a new star system and
actually help planets formthere faster.
Ida (09:46):
How would that work?
Allen (09:47):
They bring in heavy elements material from their
home system.
They could act as nucleationsites, like little gravitational
anchors, helping dust and gasclump together more easily,
especially around biggerhigh-mass stars.
It flips the script.
They're not just junk.
They could be vital parts ofthe galactic planet-building
process.
Ida (10:04):
Ancient world builders.
That's a cool concept.
Whether it's that or aspaceship or just a weird comet,
time is running out to look atit right.
Allen (10:11):
Definitely that superior conjunction.
When it ducks behind the sunfrom our view, that's around
October 21st the window for goodEarth-based observation is
closing really fast.
Ida (10:22):
So these next few weeks are critical and that Mars flyby is
key.
Allen (10:26):
Absolutely October 3rd.
That's probably our bestclose-up chance.
Ida (10:29):
What are we using to look at them?
Allen (10:31):
NASA and ESA are throwing quite a bit at it.
The main one is the MarsReconnaissance Orbiter MRO.
It has the high-rise camera.
Ida (10:38):
High-resolution stuff.
Allen (10:39):
But high-res.
For Mars orbit From thedistance to ATLAs.
The resolution will be limited,maybe 30 kilometers per pixel,
something like that.
Ida (10:46):
Okay, so not enough to see like windows or anything.
Allen (10:49):
Uh-huh.
No, definitely not, but it'sstill valuable.
It might help figure out if thelight is really coming from the
object itself or if it's alljust reflected sunlight.
That's a key question.
Ida (10:58):
Any other eyes on it?
Allen (10:59):
Yeah, nasa's Psyche mission, which is heading to an
asteroid, and ESA's JUICE probeheading to Jupiter.
They're also being positionedto try and get observations
later in 2025, as their pathsallow.
Everyone wants a piece of thispuzzle.
Ida (11:14):
Okay, so let's recap.
We've got visitor number threefrom interstellar space.
It's ridiculously fast, glowinggreen for reasons we don't
fully understand, brighteningunpredictably and taking this
path that seems wellsuspiciously convenient for
hiding.
Allen (11:30):
That sums up the weirdness pretty well.
The natural comet idea is stillthe frontrunner, the scientific
consensus, but you just can'tignore that long list of
anomalies.
It forces astronomers to keepthat, you know, childhood
curiosity alive.
Ida (11:44):
You can't just shrug and say rock when the rock is doing
acrobatics.
Allen (11:48):
Exactly, you have to actively look for the proof,
especially before it vanishesbehind the sun and then
eventually leaves our systemaltogether.
The race is definitely on.
Ida (11:57):
And thinking about that planet seed idea again.
If this object really isancient, if it's been traveling
interstellar space for, say, abillion years like a cosmic
tumbleweed, Collecting dust andmaybe more across the galaxy.
Yeah, what kind of unexpectedstuff could it be carrying?
Could there be materials, oreven like biological relics,
frozen inside from way out nearthe edge of the galaxy?
Allen (12:20):
That touches on the old pants Burmese idea, doesn't it,
that life itself could be seededacross the galaxy by objects
like this?
Ida (12:26):
So maybe 3 IT-less isn't just a weird comet or a
potential alien probe, maybeit's delivering a history lesson
, or even the building blocks ofsomething new right into our
backyard.
Now that is something to thinkabout.
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