Hobby astronomers claim to have captured footage of 3I/ATLAS ‘rotating’, lending weight to Professor Avi Loeb’s theory that the interstellar object could have ‘directional thrusters’
Stargazers are claiming to have seen 3I/ATLAS ‘rotating’ as NASA moved to quash speculation that the fast-moving interstellar object could be an alien spacecraft. If the motion apparently seen by backyard astronomers is genuine, it would add weight to the theory from Professor Avi Loeb that 3I/ATLAS may have ‘directional thrusters’.
On Wednesday, NASA held a press conference amid growing fervour that the object hurtling through our solar system could be an alien ‘mothership’. The space exploration agency refuted such speculation, confirming that it is a comet.
However, Professor Loeb has since questioned that interpretation of the evidence, saying NASA should have focused more in their press conference on what we still don’t know about 3I/ATLAS.
In the days leading up to the announcement, hobby astronomers captured footage of the object ‘rotating’, according to IBT.
In a YouTube clip titled ‘Comet 3I Atlas is SPINNING – I took a picture’, astrophotographer Ray says the object’s coma shows ‘subtle, continuous motion’ that he believes displays rotation.
Another video, ‘REAL FOOTAGE of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS?! Or …’, makes a similar claim, with the narrator asserting ‘rotation anomaly stuns astronomers worldwide’.
Stargazers are now trying to determine whether the rotation is genuine or an effect of long-exposure photography, atmospheric distortion or tracking drift.
Harvard astrophysicist Loeb wrote on his website that if the rotation proves genuine and is combined with the object’s other unusual behaviours, it “might not be a typical comet”.
Loeb suggested the anomalies could be produced by ‘directional thrusters, supporting the conspiracy theory about an alien spacecraft.
On Wednesday, following NASA’s announcement, he said: “NASA’s representatives should have emphasized what we do not understand about 3I/ATLAS rather than insist that it is a familiar comet from a new birth environment.
“They stated that 3I/ATLAS does what comets do, namely shed gas and dust and responds to gravity. But a spacecraft that collected dust and CO2, CO & H2O ices on its surface by traveling through the cold interstellar medium could have also developed an outer layer of dust mixed with ices that sublimate when illuminated by sunlight.
“We should not ‘judge a book by its cover’, because we all know about the Trojan Horse which appeared unthreatening to the guardians of the City of Troy. When monitoring an interstellar visitor, we should not fall prey to traditional thinking but scrutinize new interpretations.”
The Baird Professor of Science and Institute director at Harvard University, pointed again to anomalies which suggest 3I/ATLAS, including its mass compared to other interstellar objects, and the behaviour of jets which project from it, which “could reveal fragments from an iceberg that broke up or mini-probes released by a technological mothership”.
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