Elon Musk warns 3I/ATLAS could 'obliterate a continent' and 'kill most of human life'
Elon Musk warns 3I/ATLAS could 'obliterate a continent' and 'kill most of human life'.
The mysterious interstellar visitor known as 3I/ATLAS has been baffling scientists for four months now.
While most astronomers classify it as a comet tearing through our Solar System at a blistering 130,000mph, Harvard astronomer and physicist Avi Loeb figures it could be an alien 'mothership.'
Now, researchers are eager to study it more closely before it disappears back into the void. He initially framed it as a 'pedagogical' or teaching exercise when the comet was approaching perihelion, which is its closest point to the Sun, which occurred on 30 October.
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According to Loeb's reasoning, if an alien spacecraft wanted to conceal a manoeuvre, perihelion would be the perfect moment. The object would be hidden from Earth's view behind the Sun, allowing it to change course without detection.
Astronomers at NASA, SETI, and pretty much the entire professional astronomy world have dismissed this hypothesis as completely unnecessary, arguing that the object's behaviour can be fully explained by natural comet physics without invoking extraterrestrial technology.
But now the debate has entered a new arena with tech billionaire Elon Musk and UFC commentator turned podcaster Joe Rogan weighing in on the matter. During an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Rogan asked the X owner whether he was paying attention to 3I/ATLAS, referring to it vaguely as 'whatever it is.'
The Tesla CEO dismissed any alien speculation, referring to the object simply as a comet.
"One thing I can say is like, look, if I was aware of any evidence of aliens, Joe, you have my word. I will come on your show and I will reveal it on the show," Musk explained.
However, the SpaceX founder added that 'it could be aliens, I don't know,' before Rogan claimed that Loeb said something that very day about how the object had 'changed course.'
While it's unclear exactly which Loeb quote Rogan was referencing, the comet's trajectory has indeed changed slightly.
Loeb explained in a blog post that 3I/ATLAS has experienced 'radial acceleration away from the Sun of 1.1x10^{-6} astronomical units per day squared' and 'transverse acceleration relative to the Sun's direction of 3.7x10^{-7} astronomical units per day squared.'
That might sound weird if you're not familiar with comet behaviour, but it's actually completely normal.
More worringly, Musk warned that scientists must continue to monitor its approach in case it strays from its predicted flight path. He said if it struck Earth it 'would like obliterate a continent type of thing,' adding: "Maybe worse. Probably kill most of human life. If not all of us."
At one point in the podcast, Rogan brought up the supposedly unusual amount of nickel detected on the object, implying this could indicate alien construction. He incorrectly added that the only way nickel exists on Earth is in industrial alloys.
"No, there are definitely comets and asteroids which are primarily made of nickel," Musk replied. "So the places where you mine nickel on Earth are actually where there was an asteroid or comet that hit Earth that was nickel-rich. Nickel-rich deposits... are from impacts.
He added: "You definitely didn't want to be there at the time because anything would have been obliterated. But that's where the sources of nickel and cobalt are these days."