The Deepdive
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The Deepdive
The Mystery of 3I Atlas: Alien Craft or Extraordinary Comet?
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.
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Welcome to the Deep Dive. So our solar system has a new guest, a really high-speed one, and this one it's making astronomers kind of scratch their heads.
Allen:Yeah, maybe reach for their tinfoil hats too. Just a little bit.
Ida:Huh, maybe we're talking about 3-itis-less. It showed up. Well, we detected it back in July 2025.
Allen:Right, it's the third visitor we know for sure came from outside our solar system and it is moving incredibly fast.
Ida:Like how fast are we talking?
Allen:At its peak it's clocked at something like 152,000 miles per hour, Just tearing through space.
Ida:Wow, okay, so it's definitely not from around here. That hyperbolic trajectory confirms it right.
Allen:Absolutely. It's the ultimate cosmic tourist you know, kicked out of some other star system ages ago. But here's the core of this deep dive, the real tension. Unlike the first two we found Umoa and Borisov this one Three-Eyed Atlas is stirring up way more controversy. It's spilling out beyond just academic papers.
Ida:Yeah, I've seen the headlines. So our mission today is basically to figure out why. Why are most scientists saying look, it's just a weird comet?
Allen:Right A natural but very unusual comet.
Ida:Yeah, While you've got this other pretty loud voice suggesting hold on, maybe, maybe it's not natural at all.
Allen:Exactly that we need to seriously consider if we're looking at well alien technology.
Ida:Okay, let's dig into that. What's the behavior that makes the simple comet explanation feel shaky?
Allen:Well, first off, just the scale and speed are impressive. Yeah, the nucleus, the solid bit could be anywhere from like 1400 feet across to maybe three and a half miles. That's pretty big it is and it's blisteringly fast. But the first really baffling thing was its brightness.
Ida:Ah yes, the brightness enigma, Because comets usually get brighter smoothly right as they warm up near the sun.
Allen:Typically yeah, A nice predictable curve.
Ida:Yeah.
Allen:But the three-eye toe, nope, it just jumped. Jumped. How much it went from being incredibly faint like 18th magnitude you can do serious telescopes for that Right To a much brighter 12th magnitude. Now magnitude is logarithmic, so that's six magnitude leap. It means the object got roughly 250 times brighter.
Ida:Whoa overnight.
Allen:Practically overnight. Yeah, it wasn't gradual, it was like a sudden flare-up and outburst. It just didn't fit the standard models for how comets heat up.
Ida:Okay, weird brightness Check, but then it also changed color.
Allen:It did. It went from looking sort of reddish, which is common for distant objects, to this really distinct, bright green glow as it got closer.
Ida:Green usually means decarbon, right C2. That's the stand-alone comet thing.
Allen:That's the textbook answer. Yeah, C2 molecules get hit by sunlight. They fluoresce green. So everyone pointed the James Webb 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 really weird.
Ida:So wait, it's glowing green, but the chemical that's supposed to make comets green isn't there.
Allen:Pretty much absent. Instead, the JWST found unusual amounts of other stuff Carbon dioxide okay, maybe expected in high amounts for an interstellar object.
Ida:Yeah, but also nickel and cyanogen and those don't glow green like.
Allen:Not in a way that explains this bright green fluorescence. No, Mm-mm. So we're looking at some unknown chemical process or maybe materials we just haven't seen behave this way before, something totally new from interstellar space.
Ida:Huh, Okay, Chemical mystery. What else Well adding to that?
Allen:some early observations suggested the light wasn't just coming from the fuzzy cloud around it, the coma. It seemed like a light might be coming directly from the surface itself, which is odd for a comet where the glow is usually the gas cloud. And then there was this strange anti-tail effect. The coma seemed to be expanding towards the sun. That's just backwards compared to what we usually see.
Ida:So a whole list of things that make you go, hmm, even before we get to the path it's taking.
Allen:Exactly, it's a lot of anomalies packed into one object.
Ida: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 tech argument really picks up steam, isn't it?
Allen:It really does, and this is where Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb comes in again. He made similar claims about Umuwu, I remember.
Ida:I do, Very controversial then too. What's his argument this time for 3I, Alice being potentially a piece of tech like a spacecraft or even a mothership?
Allen:It boils down to the trajectory specifics. First, the alignment Its orbit is almost perfectly flat, almost exactly parallel to the plane of our solar system, the ecliptic.
Ida:The ecliptic. That's like the main highway all the planets travel on, more or less.
Allen:Precisely so. Loeb asks why would a random rock flung out of another star system completely by chance just happen to arrive perfectly aligned with our planetary highway, he argues. The precision is just too much of a coincidence, it feels deliberate.
Ida:OK, that is interesting. What else about the path?
Allen:The destinations. Look where it's going. It's making a close pass by Mars, like really soon, October 3rd.
Ida:Mars flyby.
Allen: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:It could be dropping off probes, little observation gadgets, near interesting planets.
Allen:That's the speculation. Yeah, using the flybys as opportunities, but the absolute kicker, the part that really fuels the fire, is what happens when it gets closest to the sun.
Ida:Perihelion right, Late October.
Allen:Yep Around October 21st, it does something called the superior conjunction. From our viewpoint here on Earth, it positions itself exactly behind the sun.
Ida:Huh, Hiding behind the sun? I mean, couldn't that just be orbital mechanics? The natural path it takes?
Allen:It could be, but Loeb and others interpret it differently. They see it as potentially a deliberate move.
Ida:Deliberate how.
Allen: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:Or release those probes you mentioned.
Allen:Exactly Use the sun as cover for activities you don't want observed. It's a compelling, if speculative, idea.
Ida:And just to add another layer. Wasn't there something about where it came from?
Allen:Oh, yeah, Just to fan the flames. It's approaching us from the general direction of the Sagittarius constellation.
Ida:Sagittarius, why does that ring a bell?
Allen:That's the same patch of sky where the famous WOW signal came from back in the 70s, that really powerful, unexplained radio signal.
Ida:Wow, okay, that definitely adds some dramatic flair, doesn't it? Connecting those dots.
Allen:It certainly does. And Loeb even wrote a paper, sort of a thought experiment, a pedagogical exercise, he called it, where he explored the dark forest hypothesis, the idea that advanced civilizations might hide because space is dangerous. You don't know who's out there.
Ida:OK, that's a sci fi staple, but he took it further.
Allen:He actually suggested that if this thing were confirmed as technology, we might need to consider well defensive measures.
Ida:Whoa hold on Defensive measures. That's a massive leap from weird comet to potential threat.
Allen:It's a sensational jump, absolutely, but his framing is more like a challenge. Don't just dismiss the weirdness. Keep an open mind, be curious and actively look for the evidence that rules out the extraordinary explanation before you settle on the ordinary one.
Ida:Right, which brings us back to the mainstream view. Most scientists, nasa, they're sticking with comet right, despite all these anomalies.
Allen:Overwhelmingly yes. The official NASA stance is basically it looks like a comet, it acts like a comet. Mostly they see the alien tech claims as well nonsense on stilts, as one scientist put it, insulting even to the hard work being done.
Ida:Okay. So how do they explain the stuff that doesn't look like a normal comet, that sudden brightening, for instance the 250 times jump?
Allen:Their explanation hinges on it being an interstellar comet, Because it's likely been drifting in deep space for maybe billions of years. It probably holds on to way more volatile stuff, easily evaporated materials.
Ida:Like that carbon dioxide. The JWST saw.
Allen:Exactly Way more CO2 ice than our homegrown continents might have. So as it gets close to the sun and heats up fast, that CO2 turns to gas explosively outgassing.
Ida:And that causes the flare up.
Allen: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 hit Jupiter.
Ida:OK, so the idea is it's not alien engines it before it hit Jupiter? Okay, so the idea is it's not alien engines, it's just supercharged outgassing from ancient volatile ices.
Allen:That's the leading natural explanation for the brightness and maybe even some of the weird glow aspects. Our models for interstellar comets are just, you know, incomplete because we've seen so few.
Ida:And we've sort of been here before, haven't we With Oumuamua. That one was weird too Cigar-shaped, sped up unexpectedly.
Allen:That's the crucial precedent. Yeah, Oumuamua also had alien probe theories swirling around it. Because of that non-gravitational acceleration it sped up like it had an engine.
Ida:But that got explained naturally too eventually.
Allen:The consensus landed on outgassing, but of stuff like pure hydrogen gas which would be invisible. No visible coma, but enough thrust to change its speed. The lesson learned was objects from other star systems are different, they're made of different stuff, they behave differently. Expect the unexpected.
Ida:So unusual composition leads to unusual behavior. That looks artificial but isn't.
Allen:That's the argument.
Ida:Okay, beyond just weird comet, is there any other natural theory floating around? I thought I saw something about planet seeds.
Allen:Ah yeah, that's a fascinating alternative natural idea. Instead of just being debris, maybe objects like 3I Atlas are actually constructive.
Ida:Constructive. How?
Allen:Like planet-forming seeds, these fragments planetesimals ejected from other systems might travel to a new star system and actually help planets form there faster.
Ida:How would that work?
Allen:They bring in heavy elements material from their home system. They could act as nucleation sites, like little gravitational anchors, helping dust and gas clump together more easily, especially around bigger high-mass stars. It flips the script. They're not just junk. They could be vital parts of the galactic planet-building process.
Ida:Ancient world builders. That's a cool concept. Whether it's that or a spaceship or just a weird comet, time is running out to look at it right.
Allen:Definitely that superior conjunction. When it ducks behind the sun from our view, that's around October 21st the window for good Earth-based observation is closing really fast.
Ida:So these next few weeks are critical and that Mars flyby is key.
Allen:Absolutely October 3rd. That's probably our best close-up chance.
Ida:What are we using to look at them?
Allen:NASA and ESA are throwing quite a bit at it. The main one is the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter MRO. It has the high-rise camera.
Ida:High-resolution stuff.
Allen:But high-res. For Mars orbit From the distance to ATLAs. The resolution will be limited, maybe 30 kilometers per pixel, something like that.
Ida:Okay, so not enough to see like windows or anything.
Allen:Uh-huh. No, definitely not, but it's still valuable. It might help figure out if the light is really coming from the object itself or if it's all just reflected sunlight. That's a key question.
Ida:Any other eyes on it?
Allen:Yeah, nasa's Psyche mission, which is heading to an asteroid, and ESA's JUICE probe heading to Jupiter. They're also being positioned to try and get observations later in 2025, as their paths allow. Everyone wants a piece of this puzzle.
Ida:Okay, so let's recap. We've got visitor number three from interstellar space. It's ridiculously fast, glowing green for reasons we don't fully understand, brightening unpredictably and taking this path that seems well suspiciously convenient for hiding.
Allen:That sums up the weirdness pretty well. The natural comet idea is still the frontrunner, the scientific consensus, but you just can't ignore that long list of anomalies. It forces astronomers to keep that, you know, childhood curiosity alive.
Ida:You can't just shrug and say rock when the rock is doing acrobatics.
Allen:Exactly, you have to actively look for the proof, especially before it vanishes behind the sun and then eventually leaves our system altogether. The race is definitely on.
Ida:And thinking about that planet seed idea again. If this object really is ancient, if it's been traveling interstellar space for, say, a billion years like a cosmic tumbleweed, Collecting dust and maybe more across the galaxy. Yeah, what kind of unexpected stuff could it be carrying? Could there be materials, or even like biological relics, frozen inside from way out near the edge of the galaxy?
Allen:That touches on the old pants Burmese idea, doesn't it, that life itself could be seeded across the galaxy by objects like this?
Ida:So maybe 3 IT-less isn't just a weird comet or a potential alien probe, maybe it's delivering a history lesson, or even the building blocks of something new right into our backyard. Now that is something to think about.
