Scientists Say Comet Hurtling Toward Earth Is Much Bigger Than They Thought

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00:00Scientists say comet hurtling toward Earth is much bigger than they thought.

00:06Something unusual is moving through our solar system, and scientists are racing to understand

00:10it.

00:11The giant interstellar object 3I Atlas has stunned researchers after new findings revealed

00:17it's far larger than expected, and may even be a technological probe from another civilization.

00:23Discovered by NASA on July 1st, the object is now being tracked as it speeds through

00:27space.

00:28It's the third recorded interstellar object, after Omoamoa and comet 2I Borisov.

00:34Loeb's team confirmed it weighs over 33 billion tons, with a core possibly more than 3 miles

00:40wide, about the size of Manhattan.

00:43Covered in carbon dioxide, it's shedding gas and dust as it nears the sun, and it's exhibiting

00:48unexplained acceleration.

00:50When Omoamoa showed similar behavior, Loeb suggested it could be alien technology using

00:55solar power or light sailing.

00:57He now explores the possibility that Atlas might also be a technological artifact, potentially

01:03sent to observe Earth.

01:05His paper outlines two scenarios.

01:07One, the object is benign and simply gathering data.

01:11Two, it's malign, and its presence could signal something more threatening.

01:15It's important to note, Atlas is not on a collision course with Earth.

01:20There's no risk of it slamming into the planet.

01:23But it is flying dangerously close to several planets in our neighborhood, including Jupiter,

01:28Venus, and Mars.

01:29Over the weekend, it passed within 1.67 million miles of Mars orbit.

01:34The object has a rare low retrograde tilt spinning opposite to most bodies in the solar system.

01:39Loeb's team believes this unusual motion could help it measure planetary orbits and masses,

01:44possibly as part of a recon mission ahead of a larger approach.

01:48As Loeb says, we should have found hundreds like this before Atlas.

01:53That we didn't makes it rare and worth watching.

01:56One thing's clear, this isn't just another space rock.