Elon Musk Believes 3I/Atlas Can 'Obliterate a Continent'

Talks about the mysterious interstellar object 3I/Atlas continue to hound the world, with even Elon Musk having his own opinion about what it really is and if it poses a threat to planet Earth.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO spoke to Joe Rogan during his guest appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast to share his thoughts about the controversial comet with the size of Manhattan.

Scientists were baffled about the unusual behaviour of the approaching interstellar object, especially because of its close proximity to Jupiter, Venus and Mars and its strange tail that points towards the Sun.

In his opinion, Musk claimed that the 3I/Atlas could be an 'alien spaceship' since something is directing its trajectory beyond gravity.

Musk's 3I/Atlas theory

Though still uncertain, the world's richest man told the podcast host that he will reveal any proof about the existence of aliens on the show.

'One thing I can say is, if I was aware of any evidence of aliens, Joe you have my word that I will come on your show and reveal it,' Musk stated. 'I keep my promises.'

He also referenced the belief of some conspiracy theorists that people should commit suicide when an alien ship arrives on Earth. He said, 'I'm never committing suicide, to be clear. Ever!'

The business mogul then told the podcast commentator that only a few asteroids and comets are made mostly of nickel, then proceeded with information about how humans benefited from them when they entered the Earth's atmosphere.

'The places where you mine nickel on Earth are actually where there was an asteroid or comet that hit Earth that was a nickel-rich meteorite,' Musk said. 'You definitely didn't want to be there at the time, because anything would have been obliterated. But that's what the sources of nickel and cobalt are these days. There are cases where very nickel-rich asteroids meet Earth.'

The Tesla boss also added that the presence of nickel on the interstellar object does not mean it is not a naturally occurring comet.

Can 3I/Atlas destroy the Earth?

Whether the approaching space object is a natural comet or an alien-made spacecraft, its overall makeup could make a huge impact on Earth once it hits the planet's surface.

'It would be a very heavy spaceship if you made it all out of nickel,' he added. 'That's a heavy spaceship. It would like, obliterate a continent type of thing. Maybe worse.'

Rogan expressed his concern, saying that the Earth will have a problem once it hits the surface and would possibly kill millions of people.

'It depends on what the total mass is,' Musk told the podcast host. 'The thing is, in the fossil record, there's arguably five major extinction events, like the biggest one of which is the Permian extinction, where almost all life was eliminated, that actually occurred over several million years.'

'There's the Jurassic, I think that one's pretty definitely an asteroid... but what they don't count are the ones that merely take out a continent because those don't really show up on the fossil record,' the businessman also shared.