If Mars Attacks!, War of the Worlds, Independence Day, and any number of alien movies have taught us anything, it's that little bulb-headed dudes coming down from outer space usually ends badly for the human race. While we'd love to believe all aliens are as friendly as E.T., science fiction suggests this isn't the case.
As there's been no official contact with other lifeforms out in space, it unfortunately means that actual science doesn't give us much to go on.
Bulgarian mystic Baba Vanga seemingly predicted contact with aliens in 2026, but could we be ahead of schedule for once? There are plenty of theories, with astrophysicist Dr Robin Corbet suggesting that aliens haven't touched base with us yet because they simply can't. Then again, with the late Stephen Hawking warning us about why contacting others in the cosmos is a bad idea, we might be best off being left on our own.
We could sit here all day writing about conspiracy theories, but there's been a recent uptick in interest thanks to the imminent arrival of 3I/ATLAS. First discovered in July 2025, 3I/ATLAS is hurtling toward Earth at such a speed that NASA has struggled to identify exactly what it is, as others have branded it a 'hostile alien threat'. Thought to be billions of years older than the Sun, 3I/ATLAS has secured the record as the fastest interstellar object ever observed and is due to pass closest to Earth today (October 29).
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What's more, Physicist Dr John Brandeburg warned on X on 27 October that 3I/ATLAS might have just changed it's course and could be on track to 'intercept Earth'.
We say closest, but with that being 1.8 astronomical units (167 million miles) from Earth, you're unlikely to see it looming over your city. With the eyes of the world looking upward, scientists have made a fascinating discovery that's apparently trailing the comet (or alien spaceship, depending on what you believe).
According to Space.com, a team of researchers has detected a glowing nickel vapor in the gas surrounding the comet. Considering 3I/ATLAS is so far away from the Sun, temperatures out there should be far too cold to vaporize metals.
Remembering that the mysterious space object comes from outside our solar system, it suggests that the comet could provide invaluable insight into how materials from beyond behave.
As the outlet explains: "What makes interstellar objects so scientifically valuable is that they carry chemical and physical information from the star systems where they formed, potentially billions of years ago."
Described as a 'cosmic time capsule', 3I/ATLAS' nickel trail was first spotted by Chile's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in July. Noting spectral lines consistent with atomic nickel vapor, it was discovered some 3.88 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun. This is even more fascinating when you realize that it was nearly four times Earth's distance from the Sun.
As 3I/ATLAS has gotten closer to the Sun, the nickel vapor is said to have increased exponentially.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has also detected carbon dioxide, water ice particles, and carbon monoxide gas in the comet's atmosphere, which suggests a unique mix of frozen materials that are being released when heated up.
Looking ahead at what this means for science, the team concluded: "These observations help us understand whether the building blocks of planetary systems are similar throughout the galaxy or if they vary significantly between different stellar environments."