Nasa released the images of Comet 3I/ATLAS on Wednesday, an interstellar object that briefly disappeared from public view, fueling online speculation about alien technology. Multiple NASA spacecraft near Mars had photographed the comet, but the images remained under wraps as the US government entered a 43-day shutdown.Senior officials have now dismissed all rumours, stressing that the object behaves exactly like a comet, even if it shows some unusual chemical ratios.NASA released the long-awaited photographs at a press briefing. Amit Kshatriya, Nasa’s associate administrator, said the object was simply a comet and added, “It looks and behaves like a comet.”“We certainly haven’t seen any techno signatures or anything from it that would lead us to believe it was anything other than a comet,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of Nasa’s science mission directorate, as quoted by NBC News.University of Oxford astrophysicist Chris Lintott also dismissed claims of alien involvement in 3I/ATLAS, telling Reuters, “The idea that 3I/ATLAS could be an alien spacecraft is simply nonsense. There’s nothing about it that suggests such a thing, and you might as well argue that the moon is made of cheese,” Lintott said.The fresh photographs, captured from different spacecraft across the solar system, are expected to help scientists build a clearer three-dimensional picture of the visitor before it leaves for deep space.Scientists compared the process to watching a baseball from different parts of a stadium. Everyone has a view, but no single one is perfect.Researchers say 3I/ATLAS does have some unusual traits. The ratios of carbon dioxide to water and nickel to iron differ from typical solar system comets. The dust it sheds also reflects light in an unfamiliar way. But none of these features suggests alien involvement.As Nasa’s Nicola Fox put it, the agency has seen “no technosignatures.” One scientist compared the differences to tasting coffee from a new region, different, but still coffee.Speculation around 3I/ATLAS escalated after Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb suggested the interstellar visitor might even be an “alien probe,” citing its non-gravitational acceleration and unusually blue appearance near the Sun — claims that fueled online rumors.3I/ATLAS was first spotted in July. It passed inside Mars’ orbit last month and will come closest to Earth on 19 December, at a distance of around 170 million miles.It will then head toward Jupiter next spring, where Nasa’s Juno spacecraft may get the next look before the comet disappears back into deep space.
