Possibly Hostile 'Alien' Object Could Arrive in November 2025, Wild Research Paper Says
A team of researchers has presented the wild theory that an interstellar object might be hostile "alien technology" that could reach Earth in fall 2025.
The findings were reported by the New York Post, which wrote that the "inflammatory paper" was published on July 16 on the preprint server arXiv.
According to Live Science, the paper is controversial, was not peer-reviewed, and experts think its claims are "nonsense," however.
That site says that other scientists believe the object is natural.
3I/ATLAS was discovered on July 1 "barreling toward the sun at more than 130,000 mph (210,000 km/h)," and is a confirmed "interstellar object," according to Live Science, but "initial observations strongly suggest" it's a large comet "surrounded by a cloud of ice, gas and dust called a coma," the site reported.
The paper in question is titled, "Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology?" It was written by Adam Hibberd, Adam Crowl, and Abraham Loeb.
According to Live Science, Loeb is a Harvard University astronomer who is "renowned for linking extraterrestrial objects to intelligent aliens."
"At this early stage of its passage through our Solar System, 3I/ATLAS, the recently discovered interstellar interloper, has displayed various anomalous characteristics, determined from photometric and astrometric observations," the research trio wrote.
"As largely a pedagogical exercise, in this paper we present additional analysis into the astrodynamics of 3I/ATLAS, and hypothesize that this object could be technological, and possibly hostile as would be expected from the 'Dark Forest' resolution to the 'Fermi Paradox'. We show that 3I/ATLAS approaches surprisingly close to Venus, Mars and Jupiter..." the paper continued.
"Furthermore the low retrograde tilt of 3I/ATLAS's orbital plane to the ecliptic offers various benefits to an Extra-terrestrial Intelligence (ETI), since it allows the object access to our planet with relative impunity," they added. "The eclipse by the Sun from Earth of 3I/ATLAS at perihelion, would allow it to conduct a clandestine reverse Solar Oberth Manoeuvre, an optimal high-thrust strategy for interstellar spacecraft to brake and stay bound to the Sun."
The researchers noted: "An optimal intercept of Earth would entail an arrival in late November/early December of 2025."
Loeb wrote a blog post on the findings. "Today I co-authored an intriguing new paper with the brilliant collaborators Adam Hibberd and Adam Crowl from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies in London, UK," he wrote. "This new interstellar interloper has displayed a number of anomalous characteristics."
Possibly Hostile 'Alien' Object Could Arrive in November 2025, Wild Research Paper Says first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 26, 2025
