Kim Kardashian excitedly asked the head of NASA a question just before Halloween: “Wait, what’s the truth about 3I/ATLAS?” she wrote on the social media platform X. She was asking about a comet called 3I/ATLAS that is currently passing through the universe.
Sean Duffy, acting NASA administrator and former reality TV star, responded enthusiastically, like a high school science teacher: “Great question!” He explained that 3I is the third known object to have come from outside our solar system.
He assured her that, regardless of what she had heard about the comet’s possible origins, there was no reason to be alarmed. “There are no aliens,” he added. “There is no threat to life on Earth.” This cluster of rock, dust, and ice, and whether it was sent by an intelligent being, has suddenly become a hot topic in many people’s minds.
Kardashian inquired about it, as did Joe Rogan on his podcast. A surge of people Googled NASA’s planetary defenses.
Andrew Siemion is the lead researcher for Breakthrough Listen, which uses large radio telescopes to search for extraterrestrial communications. He recounts that he was recently at an airport when a stranger who had been listening to their conversation “grabbed my shoulder and said, ‘Are you talking about 3I/ATLAS?'” He replied that he was.
“People are aware of it,” Siemion commented, “and they’re very excited about the interstellar object.” In recent years, there has also been much speculation about extraterrestrials. Loeb has appeared on numerous news programs since July, when 3I/ATLAS was first detected by the University of Hawaii’s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (hence the name ATLAS).
