When the third interstellar visitor, 3I/ATLAS, flew into our cosmic backyard in July 2025, it brought with it a familiar storm of scientific debate and sensational headlines. The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) in South Africa found the object on July 1. It was quickly identified as a rare interloper from outside our solar system.
The man who famously backed the 'alien technology' theory for 'Oumuamua' is not backing down now that the object is moving past its closest approach to Earth on Dec. 19. Avi Loeb, a Harvard professor and the head of the Galileo Project, has said that he is sticking by his controversial 'Rank 4' assessment of the object, even though the mainstream scientific community is putting more and more pressure on him to call it a simple, natural comet.
