Nasa to hold urgent briefing TODAY as mysterious 'interstellar object' heads closer to Earth

A raging debate over the visitor's alien origins could be put to bed as soon as Tuesday afternoon
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Nasa has called an urgent briefing today to share a series of updates on the mysterious "interstellar object".
The so-called "alien visitor", currently steaming towards our planet after rounding the Sun, has become the centre of a raging debate over its true origins.
But today, America's space agency will be hosting a live event at 8pm GMT to share new images of the comet, officially designated 3I/ATLAS.
The "probe" is only the third object ever to travel through our solar system from elsewhere in the galaxy.
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And just days ago, astronomers shed further light on 3I/ATLAS's makeup.
David Jewitt and Jane Luu found the visitor's body was intact having travelled around our star.
It was surrounded by a glowing coma - a plume of gas that is stretched out in two directions, one pointing toward the sun and another away from it.
Some claim this adds to Harvard astrophysicist Professor Avi Loeb's theory that the comet may have alien origins.

America's space agency will be hosting a live event at 8pm GMT to share new images of the comet (pictured)
|NASA/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
The double-direction gas prompted Prof Loeb to speculate 3I/ATLAS may actually have "thrusters".
"Technological thrusters which point their exhaust towards the sun would accelerate away from the Sun," the professor said.
"This post-perihelion manoeuvre might be employed by a spacecraft that aims to gain speed rather than slow down through the gravitational assist from the Sun."
His words came just as US Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna revealed how some information about the visitor was being withheld from the public.
INTERSTELLAR OBJECT UPDATES - READ MORE:

The visitor is only the third object ever to travel through our solar system from elsewhere in the galaxy
|NASA/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Ms Luna said she had been denied access to US Government records about the object and claimed members of the US intelligence community blocking the truth behind 3I/ATLAS.
"I do believe it's a passing through comet, and so I don't think we are going to have any contact with any non-human intelligence yet, but the ruling is still out there on what this is," she told NewsMax.
Nasa insists that 3I/ATLAS poses no threat to Earth and will stay at a safe distance.
The comet's closest approach to our planet will see it pass us some 170 million miles away.

PICTURED: The first known image of 3I/ATLAS, taken in summer 2025
|NASA/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Nasa's Acting Administrator Sean Duffy was recently forced to clarify the comet contained "no aliens" and "no threat to life here on Earth".
While David Jewitt, who saw it return from its solar trip a few days ago, told The New York Times: "The whole subject is contaminated by this assertion that it might be a spacecraft... I think in people's minds, you know, yeah, it's a spacecraft."
Everything seen by telescopes on the ground and in space "fits what we see in other comets", he added.









