Let us imagine for a moment that the new interstellar object, 3I/ATLAS is a spacecraft, guided to send mini-probes that will arrive at Earth and other planets in the coming months. Given the limited information about this object, how should we respond?
Currently, there is no international organization tasked with coordinating a response across the globe. We only discuss existential threats from artificial intelligence (AI), climate change or impact by near-Earth asteroids or comets. How should we tackle the threat to Earth from alien technology?
Here are some guiding principles that would be worth attending to:
1. The response must reflect specifically the detailed characteristics of the threat. It is inappropriate to imagine alien technologies based on our own experience on Earth, which spans only a century of scientific research after quantum mechanics and general relativity were discovered.
2. We must collect as much data as possible about the threat using all available ground-based and space telescopes, as well as all space assets currently employed for intelligence gathering and other national security priorities.
3. Information must be shared in full among all humans, since the response affects our shared future.
4. All nations must agree on a coordinated action plan based on the available data. This plan would be based on the understanding that we are all in the same boat, and if one of us rocks the boat, all of us might be at risk of drowning. The plan should include activation of space and air assets to defend humanity as a whole rather than any particular nation.
5. Violations of the agreed-upon international plan, including pirate communication or engagement attempts, will be punished by national or international authorities.
6. No nation will take advantage of the situation to hurt another nation.
7. Societal order will be maintained. Violence of humans against humans will be punished by law.
8. A representative international committee will be appointed to communicate with the alien visitors, whether they possess biological intelligence or alien AI. The committee will employ the best AI tools available to humanity for the task of decoding alien messaging.
9. Decisions must be prompt because of the physical proximity of the visiting devices. The situation is markedly different from the existing SETI protocol for the response to a radio signal from a source located thousands of light years away, where the threat is not imminent.
10. As the situation evolves, governments around the world must be in continuous contact, exchanging real time alerts in order to assess the circumstances in a timely fashion across the globe. What happens in one location could have implications in another location shortly afterwards.
11. Once the dust settles and the imminent threat is resolved, lessons for future visits should be adopted. The characteristics of past visits must be used to develop protocols for future visits based on the gathered information.
12. New astronomical observatories should be constructed as an alert system to future threats based on past experiences.
13. An array of space-based interceptors should be installed in orbit around the Sun. The spacecraft closest to the path of an incoming alien device, identified in advance by the astronomical observatories, will attempt to intercept the visitor far from Earth. Based on the nature of the threat, the interceptor could employ nuclear weapons to protect Earth. The defense strategy must be different from that developed by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office which has the limited objective of finding, tracking and understanding asteroids or comets that could pose an impact hazard to Earth. Unlike a rock, a technological device could maneuver and be guided by intelligence. Defending from alien technology requires a more sophisticated strategy than in the case of objects whose trajectories are shaped by gravity alone.
14. A substantial fraction of the 2.4 trillion dollars allocated annually to military budgets worldwide must be redirected to the development of new defense technologies and related scientific research with a long-term view.
15. Space exploration should include scouting missions to study our cosmic environment far from Earth, aimed to inform future plans for defending Earth against predators or for spreading humanity beyond Earth using sustainable habitats on large space platforms.
Currently, humanity is not prepared for a potential threat from alien technology. The wake-up call from 3I/ATLAS might stir us in the right direction. While the public is extremely interested in having a discussion about the possibility that 3I/ATLAS is alien technology (click here for the reasons), members of academia and the traditional SETI community are pushing against having any such discussion.
Gladly, it is not too late for us to get our act together. As 3I/ATLAS gets closer to the Sun, we could figure out its nature. As a comet, its outgassing would intensify and it may shed bits of ice from its surface. As a spacecraft, it may maneuver or shed mini-probes towards Earth. For a precautionary measure, I tasked the research team of the Galileo Project to search for an enhanced appearance of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena using our three Galileo observatories, soon after 3I/ATLAS approaches perihelion on October 29, 2025.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. The paperback edition of his new book, titled “Interstellar”, was published in August 2024.
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