NASA has warned that a massive "interstellar" comet is hurtling through space.The agency noted that 3I/ATLAS is not expected to pose a threat to Earth.According to NASA, the comet was first detected by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile. In a July 2 press release, they explained that it was "arriving from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius," and "is currently located about 420 million miles away.""The comet poses no threat to Earth and will remain at a distance of at least 1.6 astronomical units (about 150 million miles or 240 million km)," NASA noted. "It is currently about 4.5 astronomical units (about 416 million miles or 670 million km) from the Sun."3I/ATLAS is scheduled to get closest to the Sun around October 30 "at a distance of 1.4 au (about 130 million miles or 210 million km) — just inside the orbit of Mars."."The interstellar comet's size and physical properties are being investigated by astronomers around the world," NASA added. "3I/ATLAS should remain visible to ground-based telescopes through September, after which it will pass too close to the Sun to observe. It is expected to reappear on the other side of the Sun by early December, allowing for renewed observations."In a yet-to-be peer reviewed paper, Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb undertook a "pedagogical exercise" explaining what could happen if the comet turns out to be "a technological artifact" with "active intelligence.""This paper is contingent on a remarkable but, as we shall show, testable hypothesis, to which the authors do not necessarily ascribe, yet is certainly worthy of an analysis and a report," Loeb and his co-authors Adam Hibberd and Adam Crowl wrote. "The consequences, should the hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity, and would possibly require defensive measures to be undertaken (though these might prove futile). The hypothesis is an interesting exercise in its own right, and is fun to pursue, irrespective of its likely validity."
