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Cool Worlds · Yesterday · 31 min

Could 3I/ATLAS Be Technological?

Use code coolworlds at https://incogni.com/coolworlds to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan. Déjà vu? Professor Avi Loeb has sparked controversy by suggesting - again - that a recently detected interstellar body passing through the Solar System (3I/ATLAS) could be an alien spacecraft. Today, we dive into what he his claiming and whether it holds up - just the science. Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping, edited by Jorge Casas. Special thanks to Jason Wright for fact checking. → Support our research: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support → Get merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/cool-worlds → Check out our podcast: www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsPodcast THANK-YOU to D. Smith, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, S. Brownlee, E. West, T. Zajonc, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, J. Rockett, M. Sanford, T. Donkin, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Armstrong, B. Smith, J. Bergman, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, N. Corwin, K. Howard, G. Metts, R. Provost, G. Fullwood, N. De Haan, R. Williams, E. Garland, R. Lovely, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, T. Edris, M. O'Brien, D. Lee, M. Czirr, I. Williams, B. Reese, A. Nimmerjahn, C. Seay, D. Johnson, L. Cunningham, M. Morrow, M. Campbell, B. Devermont, P. Borisoff, H. Schiff, J. Cos, C. Hansen, R. Chaffee, A. Ortiz, B. McMillan, B. Cartmell, J. Bryant, J. Obioma, M. Zeiler, S. Murray, S. Patterson, C. Kennedy, G. Le Saint, W. Ruf, A. Kochkov, B. Langley, P. Stevenson, T. Ford, A. Laroye, I. Venzor, R. Raszka, B. Gaalen, J. Alley, D. Aron, G. Thomsen, S. Shardool, A. Phan Le, N. Offor, A. Huch, J. Morrison, C. Fitzsimmons, W. Smith, A. Twyman, B. Burgess, B. Bueche, D. Hoffman & J. Murph. REFERENCES ► Avi Loeb's blog: https://avi-loeb.medium.com ► Hibberd, Crowl & Loeb 2025, "Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology?": https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12213 ► Loeb 2018, "Six Strange Facts About`Oumuamua": https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.08832 ► Amrhein et al. 2019, "Scientists rise up against statistical significance", Nature, 567, 305-307: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00857-9 ► Tonry et al. 2018: "ATLAS: A High-Cadence All-Sky Survey System", PASP, 130, 064505: https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.00879 ► Loeb, Hibberd & Crowl 2025: "Intercepting 3I/ATLAS at Closest Approach to Jupiter with the Juno spacecraft": https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21402 ► Loeb & MacLeod 2024, "Interstellar meteors from the tidal disruption of rocky planets on eccentric orbits around M dwarfs", A&A, 686, A123: https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.09399 ► Hopkins et al. 2025, "From a Different Star: 3I/ATLAS in the context of the Ōtautahi-Oxford interstellar object population model", ApJL accepted: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.05318 ► Belyakov et al. 2025, "Palomar and Apache Point Spectrophotometry of Interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas", RNAAS, 9, 149: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11720 ► Jewitt et al. 2025, "Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Interstellar Interloper 3I/ATLAS": https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02934 ► Dorman et al. 2013, "The Spatial Distribution of C2, C3 and NH in Comet 2P/Encke", ApJ, 778, 140: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/778/2/140/pdf MUSIC Licensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) [shorturl.at/ptBHI], Artlist.io, via CC Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) or with permission from the artist. 0:00 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Two 3:38 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Three 6:01 Triad - Reverence 7:37 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Four 10:30 Jeremy Soule - Silent Footsteps 13:15 Jeremy Soule - Dragonsreach 15:40 Jeremy Soule - Under the Ancient Sun 18:47 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Five 20:46 Hill - The Meek CHAPTERS 0:00 Intro 4:35 Trajectory 6:04 Incogni 7:37 Close Encounters 10:50 Speed 13:24 Size 23:38 Outro #CoolWorlds #3IATLAS #Interstellar Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Use code coolworlds at https://incogni.com/coolworlds to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan.

Déjà vu? Professor Avi Loeb has sparked controversy by suggesting - again - that a recently detected interstellar body passing through the Solar System (3I/ATLAS) could be an alien spacecraft. Today, we dive into what he his claiming and whether it holds up - just the science.

Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping, edited by Jorge Casas. Special thanks to Jason Wright for fact checking.

→ Support our research: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support
→ Get merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/cool-worlds
→ Check out our podcast: www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsPodcast

THANK-YOU to D. Smith, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, S. Brownlee, E. West, T. Zajonc, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, J. Rockett, M. Sanford, T. Donkin, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Armstrong, B. Smith, J. Bergman, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, N. Corwin, K. Howard, G. Metts, R. Provost, G. Fullwood, N. De Haan, R. Williams, E. Garland, R. Lovely, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, T. Edris, M. O'Brien, D. Lee, M. Czirr, I. Williams, B. Reese, A. Nimmerjahn, C. Seay, D. Johnson, L. Cunningham, M. Morrow, M. Campbell, B. Devermont, P. Borisoff, H. Schiff, J. Cos, C. Hansen, R. Chaffee, A. Ortiz, B. McMillan, B. Cartmell, J. Bryant, J. Obioma, M. Zeiler, S. Murray, S. Patterson, C. Kennedy, G. Le Saint, W. Ruf, A. Kochkov, B. Langley, P. Stevenson, T. Ford, A. Laroye, I. Venzor, R. Raszka, B. Gaalen, J. Alley, D. Aron, G. Thomsen, S. Shardool, A. Phan Le, N. Offor, A. Huch, J. Morrison, C. Fitzsimmons, W. Smith, A. Twyman, B. Burgess, B. Bueche, D. Hoffman & J. Murph.

REFERENCES
► Avi Loeb's blog: https://avi-loeb.medium.com
► Hibberd, Crowl & Loeb 2025, "Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology?": https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12213
► Loeb 2018, "Six Strange Facts About`Oumuamua": https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.08832
► Amrhein et al. 2019, "Scientists rise up against statistical significance", Nature, 567, 305-307: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00857-9
► Tonry et al. 2018: "ATLAS: A High-Cadence All-Sky Survey System", PASP, 130, 064505: https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.00879
► Loeb, Hibberd & Crowl 2025: "Intercepting 3I/ATLAS at Closest Approach to Jupiter with the Juno spacecraft": https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21402
► Loeb & MacLeod 2024, "Interstellar meteors from the tidal disruption of rocky planets
on eccentric orbits around M dwarfs", A&A, 686, A123: https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.09399
► Hopkins et al. 2025, "From a Different Star: 3I/ATLAS in the context of the Ōtautahi-Oxford interstellar object population model", ApJL accepted: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.05318
► Belyakov et al. 2025, "Palomar and Apache Point Spectrophotometry of Interstellar Comet 3I/Atlas", RNAAS, 9, 149: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11720
► Jewitt et al. 2025, "Hubble Space Telescope Observations of the Interstellar Interloper 3I/ATLAS": https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02934
► Dorman et al. 2013, "The Spatial Distribution of C2, C3 and NH in Comet 2P/Encke", ApJ, 778, 140: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-637X/778/2/140/pdf

MUSIC
Licensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) [shorturl.at/ptBHI], Artlist.io, via CC Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) or with permission from the artist.
0:00 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Two
3:38 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Three
6:01 Triad - Reverence
7:37 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Four
10:30 Jeremy Soule - Silent Footsteps
13:15 Jeremy Soule - Dragonsreach
15:40 Jeremy Soule - Under the Ancient Sun
18:47 Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Five
20:46 Hill - The Meek

CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
4:35 Trajectory
6:04 Incogni
7:37 Close Encounters
10:50 Speed
13:24 Size
23:38 Outro

#CoolWorlds #3IATLAS #Interstellar

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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