When Comet 3I/ATLAS swept through the Solar System in late 2025, astronomers quickly confirmed one extraordinary fact: it was not from here. Only the third known interstellar object ever observed, the comet arrived on a hyperbolic trajectory, travelled at extreme speeds and displayed behaviours rarely — if ever — seen in Solar System comets.
What followed was not just scientific excitement, but an explosion of online speculation. From alien probes to dormant spacecraft theories, the comet's unusual features have prompted a familiar question: if scientists are so careful in their language, what aren't they saying?
