3I/ATLAS Interstellar Object Anomalies | Avi Loeb

In "Rendezvous With Rama", Arthur C. Clarke predicted extraterrestrial first contact would begin with an interstellar object. Was he right? Dr. Avi Loeb discusses the anomalous properties 3I/ATLAS.

In his recent article, "Preliminary Anomalies of 3I/ATLAS", Dr. Avi Loeb discussed the trajectory, albedo, and other characteristics that make this interstellar object so unique. Mainstream science identifies it as a comet surrounded by a coma, but even if its natural, 3I/ATLAS is still a surprising visitor from another star.

In the 1973 Hugo and Nebula award-winning novel, "Rendezvous With Rama", Arthur C. Clarke predicted an encounter extraterrestrial intelligence in a passing interstellar object. In the novel, the Rama extraterrestrial object was discovered by a system called "Spaceguard" used to track potentially hazardous objects - in real life, the 3I/Atlas interstellar object Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) station at Río Hurtado, Chile.

Is life imitating art? In addition to Rendezvous with Rama, it's worth mentioning some of Arthur C. Clarke's other predictions, including home computers, video calls, the internet, email, telecommunting, online banking, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, telecommunications satellites, satellite TV, and spacecraft gravity assists. So, when a scientist with a track record like Clarke makes a prediction about interstellar objects, doesn't it seem fair that we'd want to take it seriously?

Now in the case of 3I/ATLAS, Wikipedia describes it as an "active comet surrounded by a coma", and images taken by Hubble this month do appear to show vapor boiling off it. This makes it difficult to determine the exact size of the nucleus, and a comet coma could account for the increased albedo cited by Loeb.

Dr. Avi Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University. Avi is a theoretical physicist who works on astrophysics and cosmology, formerly the longest serving chair of Harvard's Department of Astronomy, the founding director of Harvard's Black Hole Initiative and director of the Institute for Theory and Computation within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Among his many achievements, Avi is a best-selling author, has published over 700 papers and essays, made major contributions to scientific topics including black holes and gravitational microlensing, and received recognition and awards from dozens of prestigious scientific organizations and academic institutions.


LINKS & RESOURCES:

Exploring Themes From "Preliminary Anomalies of 3I/ATLAS"
  / preliminary-anomalies-of-3i-atlas  

The Galileo Project
https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/galil...

Rendezvous With Rama
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendezv...