The “alien mothership” declare, put ahead by Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, has been refuted by Elon Musk. Musk, talking on Joe Rogan‘s podcast, acknowledged that the scientific rationalization for the nickel-rich object, which modified its orbit, is just a comet approaching the Solar.
Elon Musk, the world’s richest particular person and CEO of the personal area firm SpaceX, spoke concerning the new interstellar object 3I/ATLAS and the speculation that it might be an “alien mothership.” Unsurprisingly to most likely anybody, it’s clear this object shouldn’t be a spaceship.
On July 1, 2025, ATLAS astronomers detected an object passing by way of our Photo voltaic System at excessive pace, quickly to exit. Different telescopes additionally turned to this object—now referred to as the comet 3I/ATLAS—and confirmed it was certainly on an escape trajectory. This grew to become the Photo voltaic System’s third confirmed interstellar customer, following 1I/’Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019.
Scientists wish to research this object far more intently, primarily as a result of it’s an interstellar object which will have traveled alone for 10 billion years—a time capsule from an earlier period of the universe and a traveler from a special nook of our galaxy.
Nevertheless, the explanation the item has drawn a lot consideration is the wild hypothesis that it might be an alien automobile. This concept was initially proposed by Harvard astronomer and physicist Avi Loeb. Loeb recommended, as a “educating train,” that an alien craft wishing to cover would possibly select to remain behind the Solar to maneuver throughout its closest strategy on October 30.
Musk and Rogan Be part of the Fray
Though this speculation was dismissed as “pointless” by NASA, SETI, and virtually the whole astronomical group, the names that actually matter have now determined to affix the controversy: Elon Musk and UFC commentator/podcaster Joe Rogan.
Rogan requested the proprietor of X, who was showing on The Joe Rogan Expertise podcast, if he was being attentive to 3I/ATLAS, “no matter it’s.” Musk shortly shut down the alien hypothesis, appropriately figuring out the item as a comet. Musk advised Rogan, “I promise you, Joe. If I’m conscious of any proof of aliens, I’ll come in your present and announce it on the present.”
As Loeb himself defined in a weblog put up, 3I/ATLAS is experiencing an acceleration of “1.1×10^(-6) au/day squared radially from the Solar” and “3.7×10^(-7} au/day squared transversely to the Solar’s route.” Whereas this sounds unusual, it’s not sudden and doesn’t imply it’s an alien ship. As comets strategy the Solar, they warmth up, and the unstable ices on their floor sublimate (vaporize), inflicting them to lose mass. The precept of conservation of momentum exhibits that the item accelerates because of this. The comet’s trajectory modified as a result of it was behaving identical to a comet approaching the Solar.
What Does the Uncommon Quantity of Nickel Imply?
Rogan then introduced up the problem of the bizarre quantity of nickel within the object. He implied this might be an indication of an alien craft and incorrectly added that on Earth, nickel is just present in industrial alloys. That is the place Musk stepped in to indicate his area experience.
Musk replied to Rogan, “No, there are undoubtedly comets and asteroids made primarily of nickel.” He continued: “The locations the place you mine nickel on Earth are literally the place a nickel-rich comet or asteroid impacted the Earth. Nickel-rich deposits… come from impacts. You wouldn’t wish to be there on the time, as a result of all the things could be destroyed. However at the moment, these are the sources of nickel and cobalt.”
With Musk’s reply, Rogan moved to a different subject and skim a Reddit put up. The put up quoted once more from Avi Loeb‘s weblog put up, which talked about the “first trace that one thing apart from gravity is affecting its acceleration.” As defined earlier, this was doubtless the results of a comet‘s outgassing. Rogan once more tried to say nickel is just present in manufacturing.
After Musk acknowledged for a second time that there are many nickel-rich objects within the universe, he returned to his personal space of experience, including, “When you made all of it out of nickel, that may be a really heavy spaceship.”
When Musk didn’t associate with the “alien mothership” state of affairs, the pair moved on to how a lot destruction the item would trigger if it hit Earth. Musk stated, “It may destroy a continent,” and added: “Perhaps even worse. It could most likely kill most, if not all, of human life.” However through the dialog, no indication was on condition that this object had any chance of hitting Earth.
In conclusion, Musk was insistent that the item has a pure rationalization. Simply as each astronomer has been saying for the previous few months, this object is a comet…
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