Astronomer announced the observation of unusual anomalies in the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS

The recently discovered interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, which was mentioned by Russian President Vladimir Putin during the "Results of the Year", may be of artificial origin. Avi Loeb, an astrophysicist and professor at Harvard University, told Izvestia on November 19.

He noted that 3I/ATLAS became the third known body to arrive from outside the Solar System. The astrophysicist pointed out several strange features: the object's orbit lies almost in the same plane as the orbits of the planets (probability of chance 1 in 500), its axis of rotation points to the Sun (probability 0.5%), and there is also an anomalous "anti—tail" - a jet of matter about a million kilometers long, directed not from the Sun. like comets, but straight towards him.

"All these geometric anomalies make us wonder if there was some kind of design in the trajectory of the object," Loeb said.

The Harvard University professor added that the composition of the gas plume consists of 87% carbon dioxide, which is atypical for comets, and nickel was found in the emissions with almost no iron impurities, which is typical for industrial alloys.

The astronomer stressed that at the moment the most likely explanation is still a rare natural icy object that came from a distant star. However, he called for "keeping an open mind" for other possibilities and collecting maximum data when the object gets 269 million km closer to Earth.

According to Loeb, if the object turns out to be alien technology, it could pose a potential threat, so humanity needs to actively observe and study such visitors from the depths of space.

Alien object 3I/ATLAS will approach the Earth any day now.: what is it and is it dangerous?

On the same day, Putin jokingly called the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS a "Russian secret weapon," while emphasizing that Russia opposes the deployment of weapons in space. He explained that 3I/ATLAS is a comet of extragalactic origin, from another galaxy, so it behaves differently than comets originating from the Solar System.

Avi Loeb reported a new anomaly in the 3I/ATLAS object on December 18. The new phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the axis of rotation of the 3I/ATLAS core will be aligned with the direction of the Sun with an accuracy of up to eight degrees with a small probability when the interstellar object approaches the Sun at five times the distance from Earth.

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