Mysterious Manhattan-Sized Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Sparks Alien Theories Ahead of Halloween
Manhattan-Sized Visitor: Alien Mothership or Giant Comet? Discovery and Orbit Astronomers first spotted 3I/ATLAS on July 1, 2025, when the ATLAS asteroid survey telescope in Chile reported a fast-moving fuzzy object science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. Archived images quickly confirmed it follows a steep, open-ended (hyperbolic) path – a clear sign it was not born in our Solar System. NASA confirms that 3I/ATLAS is the third known interstellar visitor (after 1I/ʻOumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019) science.nasa.gov science.nasa.gov. From its inbound direction near the constellation Sagittarius, it likely originated far from the Sun, perhaps even from the galactic center region science.nasa.gov. This