Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS' NASA Images 'Not Acceptable' To Avi Loeb: Harvard Scientist Insists It's A Mothership Sent To 'Seed' Jupiter With Tech

The arrival of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has captivated global audiences, fuelling a heated cosmic controversy over its true nature. Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has denounced NASA's high-resolution images of this space anomaly as 'not acceptable', arguing they conceal evidence of artificial design amid the interstellar comet frenzy.

As the cosmic visitor hurtles towards Jupiter in what some describe as a precise orbital dance, Loeb's 'mothership theory' proposes it is an alien technology vessel engineered to seed the planet with advanced probes, igniting debates on Harvard astrophysicist insights into extraterrestrial visitation.

The Discovery and Anomalies of 3I/ATLAS

Astronomers detected 3I/ATLAS on 2 July 2025 via the ATLAS survey, classifying it as the third interstellar object after 'Oumuamua and Borisov. Travelling on a hyperbolic orbit at 65.9 kilometres per second, it achieved perihelion on 29 October 2025, 2.2 astronomical units from the Sun, inviting intense observation.

NASA's HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter photographed it on 2 October 2025, when the comet was 190 million miles away, revealing an unusual leading glow instead of a trailing tail. Amateur astronomers, including Michael Jäger, recorded X-shaped jets—opposing vertical streams forming patterns with the tail, spanning a million kilometres—suggesting ejections or directed emissions.

Loeb identifies these, plus the object's mass exceeding predecessors by a thousandfold and collimated jets, as anomalies indicative of unnatural propulsion, urging re-evaluation of this cosmic visitor's origins. Such peculiarities, observed since August 2024, continue to challenge cometary norms and demand advanced spectral analysis.

Avi Loeb's Mothership Theory and Jupiter Focus

Loeb envisions 3I/ATLAS as a mothership, a technological harbinger dispatching mini-probes to Jupiter. 'Let us suppose, hypothetically, that the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is a mothership that was designed to seed Jupiter with technological devices,' he hypothesises.

Its trajectory intersects Jupiter's Hill radius on 16 March 2026 at 53.5 million kilometres, primed for gravitational capture of released 'gadgets'. 'It comes exactly at the right distance from Jupiter for Jupiter's gravity to dominate. So, if it wants to release some probes near Jupiter, that's where it needs to be,' Loeb asserts, attributing the alignment to intentional navigation possibly aided by thrusters.

The jets, he suggests, may trace 'small mini-objects that departed from 3I/ATLAS' technological rather than cometary debris. 'Jupiter is easy to recognise, the biggest planet... perhaps that's what attracted their visit,' he adds, prioritising the gas giant over Earth.

This Jupiter seeding paradigm, though contentious, has inspired calls for unfiltered data. On X, @AstronomyVibes echoed the theory, 'Avi Loeb reveals: 3I/ATLAS could be a massive technological mothership intentionally sent into our solar system'.

NASA's Stance and Scientific Community Reactions

NASA maintains that 3I/ATLAS is a standard comet, presenting 20 November 2025 images of a 'fuzzy white ball' with MAVEN ultraviolet data confirming icy makeup. Loeb brands the event 'deceptive', faulting it for echoing the 'official mantra that 3I/ATLAS is a natural comet' without novelty.

'There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact,' he quipped, insisting that 'NASA should have emphasised what we do not understand about 3I/ATLAS'. Peers diverge sharply. Penn State astronomer Jason Wright counters that anomalies stem from natural outgassing, not spacecraft traits. Loeb continues to argue it might be an alien spacecraft, while Wright critiques the claim as speculative.

Advocates, however, champion data primacy: 'The verdict should not be decided by administrators at NASA. It should be decided by data,' Loeb emphasises. With the comet's Earth approach on 19 December 2025 at 170 million miles, anticipation builds for paradigm-shifting insights into the potential of alien technology.