Latest news with #AdamHibberd
Yahoo
27-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
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 According to Live Science, the paper is controversial, was not peer-reviewed, and experts think its claims are "nonsense," however.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 Solve the daily Crossword
Daily Record
26-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Record
Manhattan-sized object spotted in space 'could be alien spacecraft heading to attack Earth'
A draft scientific paper has proposed that the object, 3I/ATLAS, might be alien technology and could make a surprise attack on our planet An object the size of Manhattan could potentially be a hostile alien spacecraft set to attack Earth in November, according to a worrying recent study. Earlier this month, experts confirmed the sighting of a rare interstellar visitor, only the third ever detected, speeding through our Solar System at an incredible pace. The comet is known as 3I/ATLAS, and was formerly referred to as A11pl3Z. A draft scientific paper published on Tuesday suggests that the object might actually be extraterrestrial technology planning a surprise attack on our planet. The researchers propose that the object's orbit is such that it would allow an intelligent alien craft to approach Earth undetected. The report alleges that when it reaches its closest point to the Sun in late November, the object will be concealed from Earth's view, enabling it to execute a covert high-speed manoeuvre to decelerate and remain in the Solar System, secretly preparing for an attack. Scientists note that 3I/ATLAS follows an unusual trajectory that brings it very close to planets like Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, an event highly unlikely to occur by chance, with less than a 0.005 per cent probability, reports the Mirror. One of the authors of the paper, which has yet to undergo peer review, is Avi Loeb, a renowned Harvard astrophysicist recognised for his controversial research and outspoken views on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. He gained widespread attention for suggesting that the 2017 interstellar object 'Oumuamua might be an artificial probe created by an alien civilisation, based on its unusual acceleration and shape His co-authors are Adam Hibberd and Adam Crowl from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies in London. The authors emphasise that their paper is a theoretical exercise rather than a reflection of their personal beliefs. They state: "This paper is contingent on a remarkable but, as we shall show, testable hypothesis, to which the authors do not necessarily ascribe, yet is certainly worthy of an analysis and a report." However, the authors warn: "The consequences, should the hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity, and would possibly require defensive measures to be undertaken (though these might prove futile)." The study further adds: "The hypothesis is an interesting exercise in its own right, and is fun to pursue, irrespective of its likely validity." The celestial body, now officially named 3I/ATLAS (), is thought to originate from a distant star system and is hurtling through space at speeds exceeding 60 kilometres per second. The object was initially detected on July 1 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey telescope located in Río Hurtado, Chile. It's estimated that 3I/ATLAS measures between 10 and 20 kilometres across, although it could appear smaller if it's largely made up of reflective ice. Last month, a Scottish teenager was left stunned after spotting a 'UFO' in the skies over Midlothian. Kyle Jackson, 16, and his two pals saw the mysterious floating object overhead at around 11.10pm on Friday, June 6. The trio were walking near Newbattle High School in Easthouses, just outside Edinburgh, when they looked up and were left gobsmacked by what they saw. Kyle said the round and "completely silent" black object appeared to be moving below the clouds at speeds faster than a plane. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
Daily Mirror
25-07-2025
- Science
- Daily Mirror
Mystery object spotted in space 'may be alien spacecraft coming to attack Earth'
A new research paper, written by a prominent Harvard astrophysicist, has claimed a mystery object in our Solar System could be an alien spacecraft which may attack Earth in just months A mysterious object the size of Manhattan could be a hostile alien spacecraft and may attack Earth in November, according to a new study. Earlier this month, experts confirmed the discovery of a rare interstellar visitor, the third ever detected, hurtling through our Solar System at extraordinary speed. A draft scientific paper, which was published on Tuesday, has proposed that the object, 3I/ATLAS, might be alien technology and could make a surprise attack on our planet. The researchers suggest the object's orbit is such that it would make it easier for an intelligent alien craft to approach Earth without being noticed. The report claims that when it gets closest to the Sun in late November, the object will be hidden from Earth's view, allowing it to carry out a secret high-speed manoeuvre to slow down and stay in the Solar System to secretly prepare for an attack. Scientists add that 3I/ATLAS has an unusual path that comes very close to planets like Venus, Mars and Jupiter, something very unlikely to happen by chance, with less than 0.005% probability. One of the authors of the paper, which is not yet peer-reviewed, is Avi Loeb, a prominent Harvard astrophysicist known for his provocative research and outspoken views on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. He gained widespread attention for suggesting the 2017 interstellar object ʻOumuamua might be an artificial probe created by an alien civilisation, based on its unusual acceleration and shape. His co-authors are Adam Hibberd and Adam Crowl from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies in London. The authors make it clear that their paper is purely from a hypothetical point of view and not necessarily something they believe to be true. They write: "This paper is contingent on a remarkable but, as we shall show, testable hypothesis, to which the authors do not necessarily ascribe, yet is certainly worthy of an analysis and a report." However, they warn in the study: "The consequences, should the hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity, and would possibly require defensive measures to be undertaken (though these might prove futile)." The study goes on to say: "The hypothesis is an interesting exercise in its own right, and is fun to pursue, irrespective of its likely validity." The object, now officially designated 3I/ATLAS (previously known as A11pl3Z), is believed to have come from a distant star system and is travelling at over 60 kilometres per second. 3I/ATLAS was first spotted on July 1 by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) survey telescope at Río Hurtado, Chile. Estimates suggest it could be between 10 and 20 kilometres wide, though it may be smaller if composed mostly of reflective ice.
Gizmodo
24-07-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
Interstellar Visitor Zipping Through Our Solar System Could Be a Hostile Probe, Alien-Hyping Scientists Warn
There's a visitor in town, and its name is 3I/ATLAS. The presumed interstellar comet presents a rare opportunity for astronomers to study an object born a long time ago in a star system far, far away. But a new paper uploaded to the preprint arXiv server asks an intriguing question: Is the object actually alien technology? For Harvard astronomer and study co-author Abraham Loeb, this is not his first interstellar rodeo. In 2018, Loeb proposed that the interstellar object 'Oumuamua might be an alien probe. He's now back at it, along with co-authors Adam Hibberd and Adam Crowl from the UK's Initiative for Interstellar Studies, asking the same question about 3I/ATLAS. The team is essentially flagging 3I/ATLAS as a candidate for alien technology and, perhaps alarmingly, as something that might actually pose an existential threat to humanity. Sounds absolutely bonkers, but it's a topic worth exploring and not something to reflexively toss onto the garbage heap. From the moment it entered our view, 3I/ATLAS—the third interstellar object ever detected in our solar system—instantly became the biggest news in astronomy for the month, if not the year. Astronomers are using the rare opportunity to study the object in as much detail as possible using the best instruments available. A clear picture of the object is emerging, suggesting it's very likely an enormous, icy comet that's considerably older than our solar system; preliminary estimates suggest it's 0.74 miles long (1.2 kilometers) and dates back some 7 billion years. An Interstellar Comet Is Here, and Its Age Is Mind-Bending The interstellar interloper is zipping through our solar system at ludicrous speeds, clocking in at 37 miles (60 kilometers) per second. Its velocity is so extreme that it'll exit our solar system and disappear from our view later this year, escaping the gravitational influence of our Sun. Astronomers are therefore under a tight deadline to understand everything they possibly can about 3I/ATLAS—an object that originated in some faraway protoplanetary or planetary system. That said, astronomers have already made some great strides in sketching out the finer details of 3I/ATLAS, quickly churning out papers pertaining to the visitor's age, size, velocity, spin, and, most importantly, its origin, based on observational data. According to research released earlier this week, the object is a jumble of organic molecules, silicates, and carbon-based minerals, placing it in a similar compositional category as asteroids found between Mars and Jupiter. Based on current data—much of it from researchers working with the newly launched Vera C. Rubin Observatory—3I/ATLAS is expected to pass through the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter later this fall, reaching its closest point to the Sun in late October. Excitingly, the Sun's warmth should sublimate enough ice on the comet to brighten the coma and tail even further. Suffice it to say, astronomers' ongoing investigations into 3I/ATLAS largely confirm that it's a cometary castaway. Like other comets we've seen before, 3I/ATLAS likely emerged from natural processes and was banished to interstellar space by some gravitational interaction, such as a close encounter with a gigantic planet or a passing star. Importantly, and despite strange, unfounded claims made in the new Loeb paper, there's zero indication that 3I/ATLAS is anything but a natural object formed by natural processes. Yet that hasn't stopped Loeb and his colleagues from venturing beyond the existing evidence. What's more, they've violated Occam's razor—a central tenet of the scientific method. Scientists are told that the simplest explanation is often the best when tackling puzzling phenomena. In this case, the simplest explanation, given the existing evidence, is that 3I/ATLAS is a comet. Often, when astronomers detect something unusual or inexplicable in space, there's the urge to invoke extraterrestrial influence. The Many, Many Times Astronomers Mistook Mundane Phenomena for Aliens This seems to be the case here, but as we'll discuss next, these researchers are not wrong to be asking these sorts of questions. As Sara Webb, an astrophysicist at the Swinburne University of Technology, wrote in The Conversation, 'Objects like 3I/ATLAS remind us that space is vast, strange, and full of surprises. Most of them have natural explanations. But the strangest objects are worth a second look.' Loeb and his colleagues do bring up a salient point—that we need to be curious about this object and not simply assume that it is what we think it is. Moreover, the team's warning that this object, should it be an alien probe, poses a potential hostile threat to humanity is rooted in some fascinating—if not disturbing—philosophical arguments having to do with our failed search for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence. The first is the Fermi Paradox—the surprising observation that, despite our galaxy's immense size and extreme age, we have yet to see any signs of intelligent aliens. As Italian physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked in 1950, 'Where is everybody?' This conundrum, known as the Great Silence, is not so easy to brush aside, as virtually all proposed solutions fail to convincingly account for the conspicuous absence of a Milky Way filled with extraterrestrials and extraterrestrial technology. This has led a number of philosophers, astrobiologists, and science-fiction writers to propose some rather grim solutions to the Fermi Paradox, that is, solutions that point to a galaxy devoid of space-faring civilizations. Loeb's new paper invokes one of these solutions, an idea known as the Dark Forest hypothesis. The term is borrowed from sci-fi author Liu Cixin, who made note of this possibility in his The Three-Body Problem trilogy, specifically the 2008 novel The Dark Forest. In Liu's imagined universe, intelligent civilizations stay silent and hidden because any interaction with aliens could be fatal; since it's impossible to know another civilization's intentions, the safest move is to eliminate potential threats before they can act. Hence, a Dark Forest galaxy, in which advanced civilizations take the form of silent hunters. This general concept didn't start with Liu; sci-fi novelist and SETI expert David Brin has been ruminating over the possibility of killer alien probes since 1983. As Loeb and his colleagues argue in the new paper, 3I/ATLAS, should it be artificial, is likely to possess 'active intelligence.' If that's the case, the object might be friendly, evil, or possibly something in between, they write. If it's benign, we can relax, but it's the second possibility—that it's malign—that's cause for 'most concern.' That's because the Dark Forest resolution to the Fermi Paradox is the more likely scenario, 'as it would neatly explain the singular lack of success of the SETI initiative to-date,' according to the paper. In other words, the reason we have yet to encounter aliens is that they're stealthy hunters, and this interstellar visitor, should it be a probe, likely belongs to that class of civilizations. Which is obviously not good for us. This argument brings the Berserker probe concept to mind, an idea proposed by another science fiction writer, Fred Saberhagen. The concept is as simple as it is disturbing: the solution to the Fermi Paradox is that all intelligent life is wiped out by self-replicating machines—known as Von Neumann probes—that methodically sterilize the galaxy of intelligence. All this talk of interstellar probes may seem outlandish, but there are a few things worth considering. First, our galaxy, across its 13-billion-year history, has likely spawned numerous advanced civilizations, many of which were (or are) capable of launching probes on interstellar missions. Secondly, we ourselves have already launched three interstellar (or interstellar-bound) probes as a result of exploring our immediate environment: both Voyager probes and New Horizons. It's therefore not unreasonable to assume that interstellar probes of varying ages and technologies are zipping around the Milky Way. One day, we just might spot one of these alien artifacts passing through our neck of the celestial woods. Let's hope it's friendly.
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Harvard Paper Explores Possibility That Object Approaching From Beyond Solar System Is Hostile Alien Technology
A strange interstellar object is hurtling its way toward our pale blue dot — and according to a Harvard astronomer, there's a chance it's not a benign asteroid or comet, but instead some harmful form of alien tech. In a new, yet-to-be-peer-reviewed paper, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb — the same scientist who suggested that 'Oumuamua, the first interstellar object ever detected back in 2017, was alien in nature — teamed up with researchers from the Britain-based Initiative for Interstellar Studies to hypothesize not only that the newly-discovered interloper 3I/ATLAS is alien in origin, but that it may be from a hostile civilization, too. Loeb is an interesting character: he's an enormously accomplished academic and the former chair of Harvard's prestigious astronomy department, but in recent years has often made headlines for suggesting that various detections in the cosmos might be alien spacecraft. In other words, he was almost bound to weigh in on this latest interstellar visitor, which is only the third ever detected. And weigh in he did. Citing the so-called "dark forest" hypothesis — which comes from sci-fi writer Cixin Liu's novel of the same name and posits that the universe is full of silent and aggressive aliens, all staying as quiet as possible to avoid mutually-assured destruction — Loeb and his colleagues Adam Hibberd and Adam Crowl suggest that 3I/ATLAS could theoretically provide evidence that we are not alone, and that our neighbors would do us harm. "The consequences, should the [dark forest] hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity," Loeb wrote in a blog post accompanying the paper, "and would possibly require defensive measures to be undertaken (though these might prove futile.)" In another recent post, Loeb argued that 3I/ATLAS' strange characteristics — including that it's likely over a dozen miles in diameter, which is far larger than the obelisk-sized 'Oumuamua — render it statistically improbable. "If 3I/ATLAS is not an asteroid — based on the interstellar reservoir argument in my paper, nor a comet — based on the lack of the spectral fingerprints of carbon-based molecules around it, then what is it?" Loeb mused in that previous post. It's worth noting that these sorts of hypotheses have made Loeb controversial among skeptical colleagues who consider his quest for alien artifacts to be sensationalist in nature. In his latest paper, to be fair, Loeb acknowledged that there's a good chance 3I/ATLAS is not from an extraterrestrial civilization. "By far the most likely outcome will be that 3I/ATLAS is a completely natural interstellar object, probably a comet, and the authors await the astronomical data to support this likely origin," the scientific trio wrote. Still, Loeb argues that undertaking a "pedagogical exercise" like the one presented in the new paper is important not just to stretch open minds, but also to create protocols for determining the natures of future interstellar objects. "When viewed from an open-minded and unprejudiced perspective," the researchers concluded, "our paper includes many compelling insights that could be applied to tens of interstellar objects that are expected to be detected over the next decade." More on space objects: Remember That Asteroid NASA Deflected in a Test of Saving Earth? We Have Bad News Solve the daily Crossword
