NASA has released a series of long-awaited images of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it zipped past Mars in mid-October, and though most of the images are blurry, the agency says it's confident this is, in fact, a comet, not an alien spacecraft. That idea, floated by Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, gained traction online as the release of the images, taken by a fleet of spacecraft including the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lucy mission, were delayed due to the recent government shutdown. Some suggested there was a cover-up. But "this object is a comet," NASA associate administrator Amit Kshatriya said during a Wednesday press conference, per the New York Times. "It looks and behaves like a comet, and all evidence points to it being a comet."
Scientists noted that while 3I/ATLAS does have some unusual characteristics compared to comets that form within our solar system—such as its ratios of carbon dioxide to water and nickel to iron, and the way its dust reflects light—none of these quirks suggest it is anything other than a natural object. "We haven't seen any technosignatures," said Nicola Fox, associate administrator for NASA's science mission directorate, using the term for signs of alien technology.
According to Ars Technica, the comet appears to be "unusually nickel-rich," which may suggest it "is older than the Solar System itself, and came from a star that formed relatively early in the Universe's history, and thus had far fewer of the heavy elements." The comet, first spotted from Earth in July, ventured into Mars' orbit last month during its closest approach to the sun, and is now heading back out of the solar system at over 150,000mph. Only the third confirmed interstellar visitor, it will make its closest approach to Earth next month at a distance of 170 million miles, the Times reports.
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