Is this comet alien tech? ASU Planetarium Director explains

SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — On July 1, 2025, an interstellar object named 3I/ATLAS was discovered and on July 17 a paper was co-published by Abraham Loeb from the University of Harvard who theories that it could be alien technology.

After a CVHP reporter discovered the paper co-published by Loeb, he reached out to ASU’s Planetarium Director Kenneth Carrell for a better understanding of 3I/ATLAS and Loeb’s theory.

“This object is quite interesting,” said Carrell. “It’s only the third object we’ve detected coming into our Solar System from somewhere outside of it, all of which have been discovered since 2017. These objects have likely been passing through our Solar System since it was formed, but we are only now getting to a point where we have telescopes and instruments powerful enough to discover them on a (semi-)regular basis.”

What is 3I/ATLAS?

3I/ATLAS is a small comet-like object that was recently discovered reported Carrell. Observations of 3I/ATLAS indicate that its’ path is not bound to an orbit around our Sun, and therefore not part of our Solar System and it’s just passing through.

3I/ATLAS will come relatively close to Earth but not too close. its closest approach to us is about twice the distance between the Earth and Sun reported Carrell.

“It is a little misleading because all the objects are constantly moving, I believe the image shows the current positions,” said Carrell.

All the planets orbit the Sun in a counterclockwise direction, by the time the comet gets close to the Sun, Earth will be on the other side of the Sun. 3I/ATLAS will come relatively close to three planets which are Jupiter, Mars and Venus reported Carrell.

Background information on Loeb

Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, which is attempting to detect evidence of technosignatures and UFOs. Loeb has a history of publishing papers or pushing the ideas of alien technology for a few years now. Carrell told the publication that the very first interstellar object to come into our Solar System was ‘Oumuamua and Loeb suggested in blogs and published papers that the object was some kind of alien technology (the paper suggested it was a light sail). Loeb theorized this because there were some peculiarities with the path ‘Oumuamua took, especially as it left the Solar System. The scientific consensus was that ‘Oumuamua was an ordinary asteroid/comet-like object.

In 2023, Loeb led an expedition to the Pacific Ocean in an attempt to retrieve fragments of alien technology from a meteor impact that hit in 2014. On the expedition, he found small spheres of material that entirely consistent with normal meteorite fragments but claimed they could be alien technology said Carrell.

Carrell shares his thoughts about 3I/ATLAS

Carrel explained that there is always the possibility that objects such as 3I/ATLAS are actually some types of alien technology or transportation that either intentionally or unintentionally has made its way to our Solar System.

“However, the much more likely and scientifically sound possibility is that this is some small rocky object that formed around some other star, was flung out by the gravity of the star or one of its planets, and eventually passed through our neck of the woods,” said Carrell.

He then said that even though this may not seem as exciting as alien technology, it is still very fascinating, and each of these objects we discover tell us more about our own Solar System, the Milky Way, and the Universe as a whole.

“It is also fascinating that science is often pushed forward by science-fiction,” said Carrell. “I think the people who say these objects are alien technology may have been influenced by people like Arthur C. Clarke – it is very reminiscent of Rendezvous with Rama.”

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