The world held its collective breath this evening as NASA showcased new images of the mysterious object in space – but many people were left scratching their heads
NASA has thrown water on any idea that 3I/ATLAS could be anything other than a big piece of space rock – but that hasn’t stopped Elon Musk thinking it could be something far more otherworldly.
The US space agency hosted a press event this evening (November 18), broadcast on YouTube, where it shared new images of the mysterious object that was first discovered in our solar system on July 1. Since then, a number of people have suggested that it could be some sort of alien lifeform.
However, boffins at NASA confirmed that it was nothing more than a comet. “I’d like to address the rumours, I think it’s important that we talk about that. This object is a comet,” said Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator.
But an undeterred Musk – who is no stranger to space travel as the CEO of SpaceX – gave a one-word blunt response to the experts. He simply posted on a reply on X to NASA: “Alienz” along with an extra terrestrial emoji.
The controversial billionaire’s post then saw a slew of tongue-in-cheek “Are they picking you up?” responses.
Plenty of other social media users also appeared to be on Musk’s wavelength though and refused to believe what the scientists told them.
One wrote: “I’m not saying it’s aliens, but it’s aliens” while another added: “100% This entire press conference is suspect as F, it reeks”.
A third wryly commented: “For people who have nothing to hide, they sure do justify themselves a lot.”
Alien or not, readers, the latest photos that NASA shared with the public of 3I/ATLAS went down like a lead comet.
The images show 3I/ATLAS from NASA’s HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the closest camera it has to the the object.
But the problem was that it didn’t show much beyond a few grainy specks of light against a dark background.
As one person put it to the experts: “If we can see grains of sand on Mars, how is clearest photo for 3I/ATLAS what we’ve seen [this evening]?”
Despite explaining that Mars is a lot closer to us than than 3I/ATLAS, social media users were in disbelief over the poor photographic images.
One fumed: “We have better cameras than that, show us the up close photos dang it!!!!! Maybe they are hiding something or is it just a distraction!!!!!”
Another chuckled: “lol terrible images” as a fourth joked: “Looks like my grandfather with a flashlight in the backyard”.
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