On July 1, NASA’s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) spotted something unusual streaking through space. The object, named 3l/ATLAS, isn’t just another asteroid. It’s an interstellar object—a traveler from far beyond our Solar System. Instead of circling the Sun like our planets do, it swooped in from another star system, passed close to Earth, and kept racing off into the unknown.
That alone is exciting. Interstellar objects are rare, hard to catch, and usually gone before we even notice them. But what makes this one even more intriguing is a bold idea from Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb: maybe 3l/ATLAS isn’t just a rock. Maybe, he suggests, it could even be “extraterrestrial technology.”
What’s the big deal with this visitor?
Journalist Jose Manuel Nieves broke it down on the TV show Todo es mentira (Everything is a lie). The strange part is how 3l/ATLAS moved. Most asteroids and comets we see are born in the Solar System. They orbit the sun and eventually swing past us again. But this object? Not at all. It came flying in from deep space, cut across the system at incredible speed, and is never coming back.
The real head-turner is its path. Loeb pointed out that it didn’t just glide randomly through space. Somehow, its trajectory brought it very close to several major planets—including Earth. “So for that trajectory to be so apparently well calculated and so well measured, it has very little chance of being casual,” he said.
The odds of that happening by chance are tiny, and that’s why some scientists are raising their eyebrows.
A path planned by… aliens?
Here’s the detail that really got people buzzing: when 3l/ATLAS was at its closest point to Earth, it was hidden. Its position put it on the far side of the Sun, completely out of view from Earth.
Loeb explained: “When it gets closer to the Sun, and consequently to the Earth, it will be on the opposite side, which means that we will not be able to see it when it is as close as possible.” For him, that perfect positioning might not be an accident—it could even look like a way of staying unnoticed.
Now, does that mean aliens? Not necessarily. But it’s easy to see why the idea of an “intentional” flight path makes people wonder if we just had a brush with technology not our own.
Why It Matters for Us
Whether 3l/ATLAS turns out to be just a very weird rock or something more, the discovery reminds us of one thing: the universe is full of surprises. Our Solar System isn’t an isolated bubble. Objects from distant stars cross our skies, sometimes even passing near Earth, and each one brings us a little closer to answering the question we’ve all asked at some point: are we alone?
I’m still calmly waiting that answer but for now, let just stay with what we already now: The space is an unsolved mystery, full of possibilities and theories yet to confirm. Objects fly around Earth all the time, sometimes they pass by, sometimes they land, leaving us souvenirs of others planets, sometimes they orbit around us and watch us for a while before tacking back their course.
Thanks to NASA’s Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System and curious minds like Avi Loeb’s, we’re not just making lists of space rocks. But really staying open to possibilities and different questions—even the really wild ones.
Maybe that’s the best part of discoveries like this: they remind us that beyond the Sun we see everyday, there are so many more surprises, just waiting for us to explore.