Ever because it was first noticed hurtling by the photo voltaic system, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb has maintained that there’s an opportunity mysterious interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is a technological object despatched by an extraterrestrial civilization.
He’s meticulously catalogued what he claims are anomalous qualities of the article, which most of his friends consider is a pure comet from a distinct star system, from its unusually large suspected size to a rotation axis nearly completely perpendicular to the Solar to a “fine-tuned” trajectory that introduced it inside spitting distance of Mars and Jupiter.
Loeb has additionally been angered at NASA’s continued insistence that 3I/ATLAS is a pure comet — which, once more, is the opinion of most consultants — accusing them of “arrogance” and ignoring his documented anomalies. He additionally accused NASA of withholding observations by its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter whereas 3I/ATLAS made its closest method to the Crimson Planet in October, because of final yr’s authorities shutdown. (The photographs have been eventually released in late November.)
NASA isn’t the federal government establishment that Loeb is taking intention at. In a new blog post, the astronomer identified that ufologist John Greenewald Jr.’s Freedom of Data Act (FOIA) inquiry for “any assessments, reviews, or communications maintained by the Central Intelligence Company referencing 3I/ATLAS” had been pointedly shut down.
The CIA told Greenewald in a proper response to his FOIA that it’ll “neither affirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of data” associated to the article — a non-answer that could possibly be interpreted in strikingly alternative ways.
Greenewald is a widely known title in UFO circles. He based The Black Vault, an unlimited archive of hundreds of thousands of pages of presidency paperwork he’s uncovered by way of FOIA inquiries, together with declassified videos of what the Pentagon describes as unidentified anomalous phenomena.
Loeb says he discovered the reply — and the notable degree of secrecy — “shocking,” given NASA’s conclusion that “3I/ATLAS is unquestionably a comet of pure origin.”
“If this conclusion was clear all alongside to everybody inside authorities and academia — as NASA officers introduced the case, then why would the CIA deal with the attainable existence of data coping with a pure comet as delicate sufficient to be labeled?” he requested rhetorically.
Loeb recommended the federal government might need investigated whether or not 3I/ATLAS might pose a menace to nationwide safety, maybe over the potential of a “black swan occasion,” which has fascinated the researcher.
If scientists do finally uncover a probe despatched to us by an alien civilization, it might pose a serious menace to humanity, Loeb has asserted. He has previously hypothesized that the article could possibly be “akin to a Trojan Horse, the place a technological object masquerades as a pure comet.”
Discussions about such a risk could have been “hidden from public view as a way to stop panic from taking maintain for no good purpose,” Loeb contemplated, particularly contemplating a “black swan occasion continues to be thought to be extremely unlikely.”
Nonetheless, this principle presupposes that the CIA even has something to cover from the general public to start with. In any case, in its assertion to Greenewald, it didn’t rule out the “nonexistence of data.”
Moreover, as more data rolls in, Loeb’s far-fetched principle that 3I/ATLAS is a chunk of know-how continues to be challenged.
In different phrases, what would there even to cover if the article does turn into a non-threatening lump of ice?
Both manner, Loeb isn’t able to name it simply but. He has advocated for taking a more in-depth look as soon as it makes its closest approach to Jupiter in March.
“Except we verify, we’d by no means know if this swan is white or black,” he concluded in his weblog.
Extra on 3I/ATLAS: Scientists Announce Results After Scanning 3I/ATLAS for Alien Signals
