What If 3I/ATLAS Is AI/ATLAS? Harvard Professor Unveils 18 Anomalies Of Interstellar Object

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has published a provocative essay posing a question that sounds ripped from science fiction: What if the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is actually an artificial intelligence from another civilisation?

The former chair of Harvard's astronomy department laid out 18 separate anomalies he claims set the cosmic visitor apart from any known natural comet. His latest Medium post, titled 'What if 3I/ATLAS Is AI/ATLAS?', arrived just as a former Bank of England analyst urged central banks to prepare for potential financial chaos following official confirmation of extraterrestrial intelligence, according to his essay.

Loeb consistently states that 3I/ATLAS is 'most likely natural' but insists the anomalies warrant investigation. He ranks the object at 4 on his own 10-point classification scale.

From Trajectory To Triple Jets

The anomalies span orbital mechanics to chemical composition. Loeb notes that 3I/ATLAS follows a retrograde trajectory aligned within five degrees of the ecliptic plane. The probability of such alignment by chance? Just 0.2 per cent, according to his analysis.

He points to the arrival timing that brought it within 29 million kilometres (18 million miles) of Mars and 53.6 million kilometres (33.3 million miles) of Jupiter whilst remaining unobservable from Earth at perihelion. On 16 March 2026, 3I/ATLAS will pass 53.6 million kilometres from Jupiter, near the planet's Hill radius of 53.5 million kilometres.

Most striking are Hubble images from 14 January 2026 showing three mini-jets emerging from the nucleus at exactly 120-degree intervals, Loeb reported. This symmetric pattern, combined with a sunward-pointing anti-tail ten times longer than wide, captured Loeb's attention.

Typical comets produce chaotic jets from uneven solar heating.

Chemical Fingerprints Raise Eyebrows

Spectroscopy reveals a gas plume containing only four per cent water by mass, whereas familiar comets are dominated by water ice. The nickel-to-cyanide levels appear orders of magnitude higher than observed in thousands of catalogued comets.

'Such abundance ratios are found in industrially-produced nickel alloys,' Loeb writes, though he acknowledges this could reflect an unusual natural origin.

3I/ATLAS also displays extreme negative polarisation unprecedented among known comets. It arrived from a direction within nine degrees of the famous 1977 'Wow! Signal', a radio burst never explained.

Scientific Community Pushes Back

Penn State astronomer Jason Wright has systematically challenged each anomaly, arguing unusual properties are expected from an interstellar comet with a different formation history, according to his blog post. NASA concluded in November 2025 that 3I/ATLAS behaves like a regular comet.

The Breakthrough Listen initiative searched for technological radio signals in December 2025 using the Green Bank Telescope. Researchers found no transmissions in the 1-12 GHz frequency band.

Princeton astrophysicist Josh Winn raised statistical concerns, noting none of the anomalies were predicted in advance. Winn argued the real question is not how unlikely any single trajectory parameter might be, but how likely any trajectory would have some feature that could retrospectively be deemed interesting.

Financial World Takes Notice

Loeb's essay draws on a Sunday Times report revealing Helen McCaw, a former Bank of England analyst, has written to Governor Andrew Bailey warning official alien confirmation could destabilise global markets. McCaw contacted Loeb months ago after he began publishing about 3I/ATLAS.

Loeb separately submitted a white paper to the United Nations addressing risks from interstellar objects carrying alien technologies.

The CIA responded to a Freedom of Information request on 31 December 2025 with a 'Glomar response', stating it can 'neither deny nor confirm the existence or nonexistence of records', Loeb noted. He found this noteworthy given NASA's stance that the object is definitively natural.

3I/ATLAS was discovered on 1 July 2025 by the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile, only the third confirmed interstellar object ever observed. The International Asteroid Warning Network is collecting data until 27 January 2026.

Loeb, who heads the Galileo Project and founded Harvard's Black Hole Initiative, plans to update his assessment once new observations are analysed. 'Scientific work requires patience,' he writes, 'since new knowledge comes one day at a time.'