'Tis the season...to be probed by aliens. Close Encounters of the Third Kind gives us a fictionalized account of alien probing, whereas Fire in the Sky is based on the supposedly real alien abduction of Travis Walton that he outlined in his 1978 book, The Walton Experience.
NASA continues to claim we've never made contact with alien lifeforms out in space, although that hasn't stopped experts from speculating about what would happen if anyone did reach out from the cosmos.
Then again, with Stephen Hawking revealing why it's probably a good thing that we've never communicated with aliens, many are happy to leave the stars alone. Even as NASA's Voyager 1 continues to go further than mankind ever has, Elon Musk is planning to colonize Mars, but are we really alone out there?
The mysterious 3I/ATLAS is due to pass closest to the Sun today (October 29), and while NASA has officially designated it as a comet, others are convinced it's an 'alien mothership'. Among the conspiracy theorists is Harvard scientist Avi Loeb, who has shared his latest views in a Medium blog post.
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Alongside fears that 3I/ATLAS could intercept Earth and trigger a deadly 'Black Swan' event that would change civilization forever, Loeb has warned that alien probes could soon be plonking themselves down on our little planet.
3I/ATLAS will pass closest to the Sun at 11:47 Universal Time (UT), marking a distance of 1.36 Astronomical Units (AU) (around 203 million kilometers). The mystery object will be almost directly opposite Earth at this point, with NASA reiterating: "It will reappear on the other side of the Sun by early December 2025."
Loeb is convinced this won't be the kind of Christmas present we'll want to unwrap, with 'mini probes' apparently coming in time for 2026.
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Speculating about an alien craft a chance to change its direction and head to Earth after masquerading as a comet, Loeb explained: "For a spacecraft, perihelion is the optimal time for either acceleration or deceleration by an impulse from an engine, thanks to the gravitational assist from the Sun.”
If that wasn't terrifying enough, he added: "This is also true of a mothership releasing mini-probes that maneuver towards the planets. Unfortunately, we cannot observe 3I/ATLAS from Earth at this opportune time, which raises the question of whether its trajectory was fine-tuned by extraterrestrial intelligence?"
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3I/ATLAS will come within 97 million kilometers of Venus on November 3, and in that same week, it will be observable by the European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) mission. On December 19, 3I/ATLAS will apparently be closest to Earth, and while that stands at a thankful 267 million kilometers away, Loeb continued: "Will 3I/ATLAS send mini-probes towards Earth as Christmas gifts to humanity?"
Questioning whether the object is a Trojan Horse, he's asked his research team at the Galileo Project to keep monitoring for any unusual activity in Earth's atmosphere.
Even though Loeb has plenty of critics, he’s standing by his musings as he theorized: "If 3I/ATLAS was technologically manufactured — as suggested by its high abundance of nickel relative to iron, it might maneuver or release mini-probes.
"Other technological signatures include artificial lights or excess heat from an engine. We will know the nature of 3I/ATLAS better in the coming months."
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Discussing his hypothesis with Fox News, Loeb seemed to be on the same page as the rest of us, concluding: "My hope is it will not send us any gifts."