They called it 3I/ATLAS—the third interstellar object ever detected passing through our solar system. It was spotted on July 1 by a relatively small telescope in Chile, but the implications of its brief visit are anything but small. To most astronomers, it is a fascinating, yet natural, phenomenon. But to Harvard theoretical physicist Professor Avi Loeb, it is either an unprecedented cosmic anomaly or something far more unnerving: a piece of equipment that was 'sent' to us on purpose.
Loeb, the former chairman of Harvard's astronomy department, has made a name for himself by taking an aggressively open-minded approach to interstellar visitors. He has paid particularly close attention to 3I/ATLAS since its discovery, suggesting that a handful of peculiarities mean the world's scientific community should not be so quick to label it as just a random rock wandering through space.
