The “alien spaceship” making headlines around the world will come closest to Earth just before Christmas – but it will likely “hide” so us humans can’t see it.
The mysterious interstellar object, which has been dubbed 3I/ATLAS, over the weekend released “seven jets” with “glowing halo” as it neared the sun, with images revealing a “large glowing halo extending out to half a million kilometres” with at least “seven distinct jets”.
According to Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, some of them are anti-tails in the sunward direction. Dr Loeb has now revealed the “multi-jet structure” will arrive at its closest to Earth on December 19 in what could be our closest ever encounter with alien life and technology.
(Image: Instagram)
“This multi-jet structure constitutes a remarkable target for future observations with the Hubble and Webb telescopes, as 3I/ATLAS will arrive at closest approach to Earth on December 19, 2025,” he said as per Medium. “Its minimal distance from Earth will be 269 million kilometers, about a hundred times larger than the extent of the jet structure in today’s images.”
However, the Harvard boffin added the “space ship” is likely to be hidden from us, with Earth-based satellites unable to capture what is going on with these “jets”. Dr Loeb said: “It is therefore unlikely that particle probes on Earth-based satellites will be able to capture particles from these jets.
“The same holds for the particle detectors on NASA’s Juno spacecraft around Jupiter, which will probe 3I/ATLAS on March 16, 2026 from a distance of 53 million kilometers, an order of magnitude larger than the extent of the current jet structure.
(Image: Getty Images)
“Similarly, ESA’s Juice spacecraft on its way to Jupiter, is currently 64 million kilometers from 3I/ATLAS and unable to intercept these jets.”
He previously said of the jets: “The stacked images, constituting 24 exposures in the green filter, each lasting 35 seconds , 2 exposures in a red filter and 2 exposures in a blue filter, show a large glowing halo extending out to half a million kilometers (5 arcminutes).The images show at least 7 distinct jets, some of which are anti-tails in the sunward direction.”
While we don’t currently know for sure what the network of jets are associated with, Dr Loeb said we should keep an open mind that they could be of “technological origin”. He concluded: “Given these considerations, is 3I/ATLAS of natural or technological origin?
(Image: M. Jäger, G. Rhemann, E. Prosperi)
“Upcoming spectroscopic observations will allow us to determine the velocity, mass flux and composition of its jets and hence answer this foundational question. The foundation of pioneering scientific research is the humility to learn rather than the arrogance of expertise.”