Edited By Anamica Singh
WION
Story highlights
The world needs to be prepared for an alien attack on Earth in case interstellar object 3I/ATLAS turns out to be an alien mothership, Harvard scientist Avi Loeb says. He wants world leaders to come up with a plan to deal with the potential threat.
Harvard scientist Avi Loeb, who thinks that the interstellar object racing towards the inner solar system could be an alien spaceship, has called on world leaders to come up with an action plan that could be implemented if the object threatens Earth. Astronomers across the world were intrigued by 3I/ATLAS, which is only the third interstellar object to enter our solar system. It was detected on July 1 at the NASA-funded ATLAS survey telescope at Río Hurtado, Chile. Since then, it has been the only thing scientists have been talking about. They zoomed in on the object to learn more about it, and most of them are in consensus that it is a comet. But not Loeb. He has identified certain characteristics of the object which he believes are proof that it is not a natural object. Loeb says that it is an “alien mothership” that could be coming to attack Earth. Despite others panning his theory, Loeb is moving ahead with his belief, publishing a paper about it. Now he has called on global leaders to come together and make a plan in the face of an eventuality that is disastrous for our planet.
Why do humans never talk about alien attack, asks Loeb
Talking to Newsnation in an interview, Loeb said it is important that a body is set up that could make decisions in case the interstellar object attacks Earth. He said, “I believe that we need an international organisation that will make policy decisions about such an object.” Loeb pointed out that humans fear things like Artificial Intelligence and climate change, but have never given any thought to an alien threat. “We are worried about existential threats from artificial intelligence, from global climate change, from an asteroid impact, but we never discuss alien technology,” he said. Loeb added that there has to be a common policy in place about an attack from aliens. It would depend on the plans of the interstellar visitor. “The response has to depend on its properties and its intent — what is it doing as it comes closer to us? He stressed that it is important to come up with a policy fast. “And it’s just like having a visitor in your backyard. You can’t decide on the policy for all visitors. It really depends on the intent of the visitor, and it’s just next door,” the Harvard scientist said.
Harvard scientist is sure interstellar object is not a comet
Loeb doubled down on his claim that 3I/ATLAS is not a naturally occurring cosmic body. He wrote in a Medium post, “There were claims of a tail. But since 3I/ATLAS is accelerating and its current size is not much larger than the angular resolution of Earth-based telescopes, it is not easy to avoid fictitious elongation of the image as a result of the object’s motion.” He also points to its trajectory around the Sun, which he says is not natural. It has a retrograde orbital plane around the Sun, which doesn’t happen for a natural object, he says. 3I/ATLAS is travelling at a speed of 60 kilometres per second. Loeb says its colour and size are indicators that it is not a comet. It is also much bigger than the other two interstellar objects that paid us a visit – Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. Loeb says the likelihood of it being a natural object is 0.2 per cent.