Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Scientists Announce Results After Scanning 3I/ATLAS for Alien Signals Alien technology or a natural comet?
futurism.com ^ | Jan 3, 2026 | Victor Tangermann

Posted on 01/05/2026 12:54:32 PM PST by daniel1212

In July, researchers using the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System survey telescope in Chile made an exceedingly rare discovery: a mysterious object passing through the solar system at far too high a speed to be bound by the Sun’s gravity.

As the visitor made its closest approach to Earth, coming within just 167 million miles on December 19, an international team of researchers from the alien-hunting astronomy project Breakthrough Listen pointed the Green Bank Telescope — the largest single-dish radio telescope in the world — at 3I/ATLAS.

In a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed paper, they revealed sobering — albeit probably expected — results: the telescope failed to detect any “candidate signals” emanating from 3I/ATLAS on the day before it made its closest approach to Earth.

..despite a wealth of data suggesting it’s a natural comet with an icy core or nucleus and a bright cloud of gas and dust, or coma, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb has maintained that there’s a chance we could be looking at an alien artefact sent by an extraterrestrial civilization.

“No artificial radio emission localized to 3I/ATLAS was detected” by the Green Bank Telescope, as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) noted on its website.

...

“There is currently no evidence to suggest that [interstellar objects] are anything other than natural astrophysical objects,” the paper reads..

Most Popular

Cops Forced to Explain Why AI Generated Police Report Claimed Officer Transformed Into Frog

Scientists Announce Results After Scanning 3I/ATLAS for Alien Signals

Microsoft CEO Begs Users to Stop Calling It “Slop”

Mark Zuckerberg’s Former Top AI Scientist Reveals Exactly Why He Quit

Your Jaw Will Hit the Floor When You Find Out How Much the Average OpenAI Worker Makes



TOPICS: Books/Literature; Business/Economy; Education; Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: 3iatlas; aabt; aliens; aviloeb; harvard; naturalobject; professors; space
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-43 next last
Seems like a slow day on FR, so I thought I would post this .

As regards aliens sending an artefact/artifact, that proposal is an insult their intelligence, not that I think aliens exist, apart from the demonic.

1 posted on 01/05/2026 12:54:32 PM PST by daniel1212
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: daniel1212

I’m pretty certain Theres are lots and lots of alien civilizations in a universe the size of ours. I’m also pretty certain none of them have ever been here or ever will be. The size and expanse of our galaxy and the billion or so other galaxies are just too immense for comuting..


2 posted on 01/05/2026 12:59:13 PM PST by muir_redwoods (There will be a celebration in January 2025, either with champagne or with “hardware)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: daniel1212

It’s a rock. Space has lots of them. Interstellar ones are more rare, but interstellar space is also big, so there are lots of those as well.


3 posted on 01/05/2026 1:00:06 PM PST by Telepathic Intruder
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: muir_redwoods

What exactly is an ‘alien’?


4 posted on 01/05/2026 1:01:21 PM PST by Just mythoughts (Matthew 24:32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, .........)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: muir_redwoods

We know that because we most certainly know everything there is to know about physics.


5 posted on 01/05/2026 1:02:27 PM PST by GingisK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: daniel1212
Amazingly, we've decoded the title of the first message...

It seems quite harmless.

TO SERVE MAN.

6 posted on 01/05/2026 1:02:45 PM PST by Seaplaner (Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never...in nothing, great or small...Winston ChurchIill)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: daniel1212

See any pictures on what this gigantic thing looks like?-)


7 posted on 01/05/2026 1:06:10 PM PST by Harpotoo (Being a socialist is a lot easier than having to WORK like the rest of US;-))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Just mythoughts

One of the theories is that some of the aliens that visit are from OUR future.
Meaning they are humanoids that no longer have nearly as large physical body. That humans evolved to have much larger brains/heads in comparison to their body.

Similar to the fact that Neanderthal’s were much physically larger than modern man. They had much bigger bones, better eyesight, muscle mass, etc. They were predators. They hunted large game with spears.

So, maybe there are humans coming back in time to take samples.


8 posted on 01/05/2026 1:33:15 PM PST by woodbutcher1963
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: daniel1212

I’m not saying it’s a comet........

It’s a comet


9 posted on 01/05/2026 1:33:29 PM PST by Ronaldus Magnus III (Do, or do not, there is no try. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GingisK

I was offering an opinion based on fifty years of observation as an amateur astronomer. Your opinion is yours and you’re welcome to it


10 posted on 01/05/2026 1:35:13 PM PST by muir_redwoods (There will be a celebration in January 2025, either with champagne or with “hardware)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: daniel1212

the idea that non terrestrial aliens would use the same radio frequencies in the same way as we do is just bonkers.


11 posted on 01/05/2026 1:36:52 PM PST by algore
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: daniel1212; All

Has anyone watched “The Age of Disclosure”?

It is currently available on Prime for a fee.


12 posted on 01/05/2026 1:42:50 PM PST by woodbutcher1963
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: muir_redwoods

Yet we’re send probes out, landed on Mars and flying and driving all over Mars.

Voyager 1 Key Milestones:
Launch Date: September 5, 1977
Jupiter Flyby: March 5, 1979
Saturn Flyby: November 12, 1980
Entered Interstellar Space: August 25, 2012 (so it’s been interstellar for 14 years)

It’s 15.8 billion miles from earth and still communicating.

As for commuting, another life form may have figured the distance/time thing out...or maybe billions of light years for them is a few minutes in time for us.

Think outside the box... For some reason folks base their idea of aliens on physics as we understand it and in the big picture we don’t know what we don’t know..


13 posted on 01/05/2026 1:43:09 PM PST by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: daniel1212

As a commnt on a slow day, I have tried to keep up on the subject but could not.

My conclusion is that no one, including many experts in their field, actually knows what 3I/ATLAS is. 3I/ATLAS is, I have concluded, a phenomenon that is unknown before now.

3I/ATLAS came from space, close enough to be viewed, and continued on it’s journey.


14 posted on 01/05/2026 1:48:03 PM PST by bert ( (KE. NP. +12) Quid Quid Nominatur Fabricatur)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: daniel1212

The comet made its closest approach to Mars. From Earth’s point of view the Sun was in the way at the time.


15 posted on 01/05/2026 1:48:39 PM PST by Nateman (Democrats did not strive for fraud friendly voting merely to continue honest elections.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: muir_redwoods
I majored in Physics, but got my BS in Computer Science instead of physics. I've made laboratory and monitoring equipment ever since. I also follow the history of science, which tells me that we are only about 200 years in to meaningful science, with most the heavy-duty knowledge being gained only within the last 120 years.

Suppose our civilization had not experienced the Dark Ages? Where would we be today? I tickle my mind with the notion that there is life "out there". There have been observations over hundreds of years by credible that something may be visiting us. Rather than tucking my head into the sand to deny those sightings, I assume somebody knows more than we do.

16 posted on 01/05/2026 1:51:41 PM PST by GingisK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: algore

We have so far been unable to communicate with earth bound Apis mellifera.

Until we learn to communicate with the honeybees that live among us, we can forget about communicating with aliens from space


17 posted on 01/05/2026 1:52:47 PM PST by bert ( (KE. NP. +12) Quid Quid Nominatur Fabricatur)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Just mythoughts

In this context the term is used to mean a sentient being originally arising on a planet or moon associated with a star other than the sun.


18 posted on 01/05/2026 1:54:29 PM PST by muir_redwoods (There will be a celebration in January 2025, either with champagne or with “hardware)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: daniel1212

19 posted on 01/05/2026 1:55:53 PM PST by Governor Dinwiddie ( O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, and his mercy endures forever. — Psalm 106)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: GingisK

Sure Theres something out there, trillions of light years of nothing but dust and gas interrupted very, very infrequently by stars. The immensity of space in our own galaxy is astounding. The fact that there are at least a billion such galaxies poses a comparison of a single grain of sand on earth to a similar grain of sand on mars.

I began to understand this when I stopped observing things “up there” and viscerally realized those things were “out there”. Theres simply no good reason to travel to other stars either for us or for anyone.


20 posted on 01/05/2026 2:02:51 PM PST by muir_redwoods (There will be a celebration in January 2025, either with champagne or with “hardware)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-43 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson