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(NewsNation) — Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb appears to be walking back his attention-grabbing theory that an interstellar object known as 3I/ATLAS could be some sort of alien technology sent to spy on Earth.
Much of the scientific community has said 3I/ATLAS is merely a comet, albeit a large one with unusual properties. The object reached its closest point to the Earth this week — if 170 million miles can be considered close — and was last seen heading out into space beyond the solar system.
“So far, so good,” Loeb told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” on Monday. “3I/ATLAS did not maneuver or display any unusual activity when it came closest to Earth.”
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Astrophysicist’s latest 3I/ATLAS theory: It’s interested in Jupiter
Loeb says the object’s anomalous qualities, including a jet pointing toward the sun, are still worth studying before 3I/ATLAS is gone in a few months. But as to whether 3I/ATLAS is alien tech, the scientist isn’t pushing so hard.
“At this point, given all the data that we have, I would agree that it’s most likely natural, but there are still a lot of things we don’t understand about it,” he said.
Scientist estimates age of 3I/ATLAS
Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku agrees that 3I/ATLAS has unique features, but consider the object’s age, he told NewsNation earlier this year.
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He said the interstellar object is different from other comets humans have observed, which have ranged in age from 3 billion to 4 billion years old.
“This is a very old object, perhaps 7 billion years old,” Kaku said of 3I/ATLAS. “That’s why, for example, the nickel content of the comet is off scale. Its chemical composition is not what an ordinary comet should be, and that, I think, is because over 7 billion years it’s had plenty of time to accumulate different gases, different elements, different kinds of environments that it goes into.
“I think that explains a lot of the mystery behind the comet.”
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