NASA releases a disturbing update on a 'high-speed' object racing towards Earth.
Recent observations from the Hubble Space Telescope have captured the clearest images ever taken of this mysterious 'interstellar object' as it continues its journey into the inner solar system.
Dubbed 3I/ATLAS, the cosmic visitor was first spotted on 1 July as it reached 420 million miles from the Sun.
The images reveal that 3I/ATLAS is travelling at a staggering 130,000 miles per hour (209,000 km/h), making it the fastest interstellar object ever detected by astronomers.
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While researchers at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory initially calculated the alien visitor was roughly seven miles across, new data suggests 3I/ATLAS measures at most 3.5 miles (5.6 km) wide and could be as small as 1,000 feet (320 metres).
Despite the revised measurements, 3I/ATLAS remains the largest interstellar object ever discovered, potentially up to 14 times larger than the second-biggest known visitor from another star system.
Harvard physicist Avi Loeb suggested the fast-moving object might not be natural at all. In a recent Medium blog post, Loeb floated the possibility that 3I/ATLAS could be some form of alien spacecraft, even speculating it might reach Earth 'by Christmas.'
Now, a July 2025 study by Harvard University scientists has added weight to these concerns with sobering conclusions about the object's potential collision implications.
"The consequences, should the hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity, and would possibly require defensive measures to be undertaken," the study reads, adding that they might 'prove futile.'
The study titled 'Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology?' analysed the movement patterns of 3I/ATLAS and hypothesised that the object could be 'technological, and possibly hostile.'
As for the origins of the comet, there's still some major uncertainty among the NASA experts.
"No one knows where the comet came from. It's like glimpsing a rifle bullet for a thousandth of a second," said Dr. David Jewitt, Science team leader for the Hubble observations, of the University of California. "You can't project that back with any accuracy to figure out where it started on its path."
3I/ATLAS's extreme velocity relative to our Sun confirms it has likely been travelling through the cosmos for billions of years.
As the object passed planets, stars, and nebulae during its journey, gravitational interactions continuously accelerated it through the 'slingshot effect.'
This process means the longer an object spends drifting through space, the faster it becomes, which explains how 3I/ATLAS achieved its record-breaking speed.
At this point, we will have to wait and see what happens in November or early December.
"By far the most likely outcome will be that 3I/ATLAS is a completely natural interstellar object, probably a comet, and the authors await the astronomical data to support this likely origin," the study concludes.