Alien or a chunk of ice? The mystery of the color-changing comet
Skeptics' version: just an ancient comet
The "extraterrestrial" theory has powerful opponents. Astronomer Leonid Elenin believes the comet has been traveling through space for 3 to 7 billion years, and its high speed is the result of gravitational maneuvers near other stars.
"All the evidence points to this being an ordinary comet ejected from another solar system, just as countless billions of comets have been ejected from ours," confirms astronomer Samantha Lawler of the University of Regina (Canada).
Skeptics argue that all observed anomalies — the acceleration, gas emissions and change in color — fit the standard model of an active comet. No signs of an artificial object, such as radio signals or complex maneuvers, have been recorded.
The scientific community is split into two camps over the mysterious comet 3I/ATLAS, which is approaching Earth. While some astronomers study it as a rare sample of material from another star system, others do not rule out that they are dealing with an artifact of an alien civilization.
The main puzzle: anomalous evolution
The trigger for heated debate was a unique property of the comet — it has changed color three times since its discovery. Initially green, it turned blue after approaching the Sun, and now it even glows a pale-blue. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb called this phenomenon "anomalous evolution."
"Human history is full of misconceptions. The claim that everything in the sky is either icy rocks or human-made technology will not save us from cosmic neighbors, if they exist," the portal udm-info.ru quotes the scientist.
Physicist Michio Kaku also allows that the object could be a "sentient guest" from space, since interstellar "visits" are extremely rare. Before 3I/ATLAS, only two cases were known: the asteroid ʻOumuamua in 2017 and comet Borisov in 2019.
What is known for sure?
The object 3I/ATLAS was discovered in July 2025. Its age is estimated at 7 billion years, making the comet older than our Solar System. Its diameter is about 20 kilometers.
The comet has already been photographed by orbital spacecraft near Mars, and Hubble recorded a bluish gas cloud around its nucleus. It poses no threat to Earth: the minimum distance to our planet will be about 270 million kilometers.
Thus, 3I/ATLAS remains one of the most intriguing mysteries of modern astronomy, stirring the minds of both scientists and anyone interested in the secrets of the Universe.
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Alien or a chunk of ice? The mystery of the color-changing comet
A new interstellar object — the comet 3I/ATLAS — has entered the Solar System at tremendous speed. But its anomalous behavior, in particular unexplained changes in color, has prompted some scientists to seriously ask whether this "icy wanderer" might be the creation of extraterrestrial intelligence.