Meet Avi Loeb, the Harvard scientist who says ancient 3I/ATLAS comet is actually an alien ship

Economic Times

6 days ago

Agencies Born in Israel, Loeb earned his PhD in physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem by the age of 24.
A mysterious interstellar object named 3I/ATLAS, discovered on July 1, 2025, has triggered intense discussion among astronomers worldwide. Hurtling through space at over 210,000 km/h and sporting a glowing gas envelope roughly 24 km wide, the object is believed to be billions of years older than our solar system. While many researchers consider it an unusually ancient comet, a provocative theory has come from Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, who suggested it might be more than just ice and dust. In a preprint paper shared on July 16 via arXiv, Loeb — along with a small team of scientists from the UK's Initiative for Interstellar Studies — proposed that 3I/ATLAS could potentially be a technological artifact from an advanced alien civilization. 'The hypothesis in question is that [31/ATLAS] is a technological artifact, and furthermore has active intelligence. If this is the case, then two possibilities follow. First, that its intentions are entirely benign and second, they are malign,' Dr. Loeb, Adam Drowl, and Adam Hibberd, wrote in a paper published on July 17.
Loeb later clarified that the idea is a 'pedagogical exercise' rather than a confirmed theory, he warned that if the hypothesis were true, it could lend credibility to the Dark Forest hypothesis — the unsettling notion that alien civilizations stay silent to avoid hostile contact. In a blog post, he cautioned that the consequences for humanity could be dire if we were indeed being observed. Other scientists have pushed back firmly. Darryl Seligman of Michigan State University and Samantha Lawler from the University of Regina have both emphasized that 3I/ATLAS exhibits classical cometary features. Lawler called it 'an ordinary comet ejected from another solar system,' dismissing the alien technology theory as unlikely.
Avi Loeb is one of the most well-known — and controversial — voices in astrophysics today. He serves as the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University, and is the Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Loeb also leads the Galileo Project, which seeks scientific evidence of extraterrestrial technology near Earth. Born in Israel, Loeb earned his PhD in physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem by the age of 24. He went on to become a long-term member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and has contributed over 1,000 scientific papers, with an h-index of 131. He has written several popular books, including Extraterrestrial and Interstellar , which explore the possibility of alien life and humanity's place in the cosmos. Loeb previously chaired Harvard's Department of Astronomy (2011–2020) and helped launch the Black Hole Initiative. He has advised institutions ranging from the White House's President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) to the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative, a project aimed at interstellar travel.
Loeb is known not only for his academic achievements but also for his willingness to challenge conventional thinking — especially on the subject of extraterrestrial intelligence. Whether or not 3I/ATLAS proves to be a sign of alien life, Avi Loeb has once again sparked a global conversation.