As the world began to look away from the green-tinged visitor streaking through our cosmic backyard, a cryptic message from the American intelligence community has reignited a firestorm of speculation.
3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object ever discovered in our solar system, was supposed to be a settled matter—a simple, albeit ancient, lump of ice and rock. Yet a startlingly guarded response from the CIA suggests that, behind closed doors, the official certainty may be far less absolute than NASA would have us believe.
