Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS: NASA Clears Key Points And Rumors About Alien Spaceship In Recent Briefing

The Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was founded by NASA in July. Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is third confirmed object to arrive from another star. Astronomers have closely followed its passage through the solar system. 

As the icy visitor brightened its cost toward the sun, the rumors also started circulation all over the internet claiming it to be alien spaceship. There was a recent 43-days long government shutdown when NASA could not comment on the object or release new images. Last week when the shutdown ended the NASA called a much-awaited briefing in which NASA shared its observation and early analysis from more than 20 missions regarding the Solar system. NASA assembled the most complete and accurate picture yet of the rare visitor in the solar system. NASA cleared that 3I/ATLAS is a natural object, not an alien technology or spaceship. 

NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya stated that “We very much want to find signs of the life in the universe, but 3I/ATLAS is a comet” 

Here are the key points that NASA revealed about the interstellar visitor 

The object is a comet 

In July 2025, about two weeks after 3I/ATLAS was discovered. Three researchers, including Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, stated in a non-peer reviewed preprint claiming that the interstellar can possibly be alien technology. 

During a briefing, Amit Kshatriya stated that “this object is comet” he said at the outset. “it look ands and behaves like a comet, and all evidence point to it being a comet.” 

A solar system wide watchtower 

Despite its challenging position on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth, the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was successfully observed through an unprecedented, coordinated campaign involving over 20 NASA and ESA missions, including space telescopes and spacecraft near Earth, Mars, and Jupiter. 

This “fleet-wide campaign” provided multiple vantage points, with key observations coming from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and MAVEN near Mars, which captured images and detected hydrogen gas, respectively. Data from instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Hubble, Swift, Psyche, Lucy, and SOHO helped scientists determine the comet’s water.                            

A rare window into distant, older star systems 

Scientists say that 3I/ATLAS has likely been traveling through interstellar space for a long time. Statler suggested that the comet’s speed when it entered our solar system is circumstantial evidence pointing to its origin in a much older planetary system. 

That “gives me goosebumps to think about, frankly,” he said, noting that 3I/ATLAS may reveal insights into cosmic history that predates the formation of both Earth and the sun 

Intriguing chemical clues 

While the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is generally behaving as expected by vaporizing water and carbon dioxide as it nears the Sun, observations have revealed several intriguing twists that set it apart from typical solar system comets. 

These anomalies include a significantly higher ratio of carbon dioxide to water and gas that is unusually rich in nickel relative to iron, both of which are highly compelling for researchers. Furthermore, the comet’s dust displays atypical grain sizes and exhibited a curious, drawn-out behavior where it was initially pushed toward the Sun before solar radiation reversed its direction, highlighting that scientists are still in the early stages of understanding the unique properties and origins of this object.