A colossal interstellar space rock that was originally known as “A11pl3Z” but has since been given the designation “3I/ATLAS” will be making a very alarming run through our solar system in September and October. Based on their initial observations, scientists estimated that 3I/ATLAS has a diameter of approximately 20 kilometers, and that would make it larger than Manhattan. But now scientists are telling us that it is probably at most 5.6 kilometers wide. Even if it is only about 5 kilometers wide, we are still talking about an extinction-level event if it were to hit us. Over the next couple of months, 3I/ATLAS will be zipping through our solar system at a speed of about 130,000 miles per hour, and scientists assure us that the gravity of the sun cannot significantly alter the trajectory of anything moving that fast. But what if they are wrong?
As you will see below, 3I/ATLAS is supposed to fly past Mars at a distance of just 0.19 AU on October 3rd.
That is even closer than astronomers were originally projecting, and that is making some people nervous.
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Hopefully the experts are correct and there is no threat of collision, because if this thing actually hit Mars it would be a cataclysm unlike anything that any of us have ever seen.
According to Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, it appears that 3I/ATLAS may actually be emitting its own light.
Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS — which is zooming through our inner solar system — appears to be emitting its own light, according to Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb.
The observation by Loeb, if verified, would contradict NASA’s classification of the Manhattan-size object as a comet, the scientist argues in a new blog post.
Obviously, more observations will have to be done in order to confirm this.
But there are essentially two options.
If this theory is not true and 3I/ATLAS is not emitting its own light, Loeb says that this giant space rock is probably about 12 miles long.
If 3I/ATLAS were reflecting light, it would mean the object was 12 miles long, which is improbable, according to the astrophysicist.
I cannot even imagine an object that is 12 miles long and that is traveling at 130,000 miles per hour.
Can you?
The second option is that 3I/ATLAS is emitting its own light, and that would be even more ominous, because Loeb believes that 3I/ATLAS could potentially be “a spacecraft powered by nuclear energy.”
Loeb speculated that the nucleus of the object could in fact be nuclear — and possibly an engine crafted by an alien people.
“A natural nuclear source could be a rare fragment from the core of a nearby supernova that is rich in radioactive material. This possibility is highly unlikely, given the scarce reservoir of radioactive elements in interstellar space,” Loeb wrote.
“Alternatively, 3I/ATLAS could be a spacecraft powered by nuclear energy, and the dust emitted from its frontal surface might be from dirt that accumulated on its surface during its interstellar travel,” Loeb conjectured, adding, “This cannot be ruled out, but requires better evidence to be viable.”
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And Loeb has pointed out that the fact that the trajectory of 3I/ATLAS will take it so close to Mars, Venus and Jupiter is more evidence for the theory that it could be an alien spacecraft.
Loeb has also raised questions about its unusual trajectory.
“If you imagine objects entering the solar system from random directions, just one in 500 of them would be aligned so well with the orbits of the planets,” Loeb told Fox News Digital earlier this month.
The interstellar object, which comes from the center of the Milky Way, is also expected to pass near Mars, Venus and Jupiter, another improbable coincidence, he said.
“It also comes close to each of them, with a probability of one in 20,000,” he said.
For the record, I think that Loeb is way out in left field on this.
I do not believe that 3I/ATLAS is an alien spacecraft. But I do believe that it is a very dangerous space rock.
And it does appear that it will travel alarmingly close to Mars, Venus and Jupiter.
It follows a retrograde orbit aligned within 5 degrees of the ecliptic plane, passing close to Venus at 0.65 astronomical units, Mars at 0.19 AU, and Jupiter at 0.36 AU. Loeb calculates the probability of such alignments at 0.005 percent for random arrivals.
When I originally wrote about this giant space rock, we were being told that it would pass Mars at a distance of approximately 0.4 AU.
But now we are being told that it will pass Mars at a distance of just 0.19 AU on October 3rd.
I know that is still a relatively safe distance, but it is a little too close for comfort in my book.
And could it be possible that our astronomers will modify their projections again as we get closer to October 3rd?
They have already more than halved the projected distance between 3I/ATLAS and Mars.
This is a story that we will want to watch very closely.
Following the close encounter with Mars, 3I/ATLAS is expected to be closest to the Sun on October 30th.
Subsequently, 3I/ATLAS is supposed to come closest to Earth on December 19th at a distance of approximately 1.8 astronomical units.
That is very good news, because as I pointed out in a previous article, it has been estimated that if a giant space rock that is just 11 or 12 kilometers wide hit us it would “wipe out most everything on Earth.”
For an asteroid to wipe out most everything on Earth, it would have to be massive. Scientists estimate it would take an asteroid about 7 to 8 miles (11 to 12 kilometers) wide crashing into the Earth. Once it made impact, it would create a tremendous dust plume that would envelope the entire planet, block out the sun and raise temperatures where the asteroid made impact. Billions would die, and much of life on the planet would be destroyed. But, scientists believe some would survive.
Thankfully, 3I/ATLAS is not going to hit us, but the clock is certainly ticking for humanity.
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In fact, even mainstream scientists are now warning that humanity is living on borrowed time.
In a game of Russian roulette with a standard Colt revolver, the chances of instant death are one-in-six.
Terrifyingly, that’s the same as the odds of humanity being wiped out within 75 years – everyone dead in a cataclysmic and total breakdown of civilisation, according to Oxford University futurologist Toby Ord, an expert on the threat of artificial intelligence.
Does it sound impossibly bleak? His colleague Nick Bostrom is more pessimistic still. He rates the possibility of human extinction by the next century as one in four.
Pulitzer prize-winning writer Jared Diamond is even less hopeful, predicting our species’ chances of survival beyond 2050 – just 25 years away – are no better than evens, or 50/50.
Our self-destructive behaviors are slowly but surely killing our civilization in thousands of different ways.
So even if we are extremely fortunate and a giant space rock does not hit our planet in any of our lifetimes, the truth is that our civilization would still be facing one existential crisis after another.
Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
