Scientists are urging NASA to send a message to a mysterious interstellar object before it is too late.

The object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, is taking an uncommon retrograde route and is expected to come closest to the sun on October 29, 2025. Harvard physicist Avi Loeb suggested this timing might offer a perfect chance for a discreet observation of Earth.

Although Loeb is not entirely convinced that 3I/ATLAS has extraterrestrial origins, he proposed sending a message as a precautionary measure and composed a six-word statement for such an event.

The physicist told the Daily Mail that he wants to beam, ‘Hello, welcome to our neighborhood. Peace!’

‘The only way to reach it now is with a beam of light,’ Loeb explained, suggesting a radio message could be sent in hopes of detecting a response. 

Loeb cautioned that if this object is indeed an alien probe, it could potentially reach Earth by Christmas 2025, leaving humanity only a few months to prepare for a potential meeting.

However, he also acknowledged the risks, noting that any intelligent life aboard might see the signal as a threat. 

‘A visitor to our backyard, like 3I/ATLAS, can easily enter our home planet, Earth, within a travel time of less than a few months,’ Loeb said.

A Harvard physicist is calling on NASA to beam a message to the interstellar object hurting through space before it is too late

NASA detected the object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, on July 1, sparking a flurry of scientific analysis to determine its origin.

Despite over 200 scientists concluding it is most likely a comet, Harvard physicist Avi Loeb cast doubt with his recent pre-print paper, highlighting a significant absence: the lack of a visible tail on 3I/ATLAS.

‘There were reports of a tail,’ Loeb remarked, ‘but 3I/ATLAS’s acceleration and its current size, which is barely larger than what Earth-based telescopes can resolve, make it difficult to avoid falsely elongated images due to the object’s motion.’

He also questioned the object’s unusual absence of gas emissions and its exact, retrograde path that suspiciously matches well with the inner solar system.

Loeb has developed what he calls the ‘Loeb Scale’, a ranking system to evaluate the likelihood that an object is artificial, and gave 3I/ATLAS a six out of ten.

That suggests it is more likely than not to be engineered, though he emphasized that this score may change as more data becomes available.

‘During an exchange with 3I/ATLAS, we could use the Turing Test as a measure of the intelligence with which we communicate, as long as the two sides develop a common language for communication,’ Loeb shared in a blog post.

‘Our side of the communication channel can be assisted by our most advanced artificial intelligence systems to decode the messages we receive. 

The scientist noted that there is not enough data to rule out that the object is not of alien origin and Earth should communicate with it as a precaution

Avi Loeb has remained adamant that something about 3I/ATLAS does not add up. He said its retrograde orbit, meaning it’s moving against the flow of the solar system, is oddly aligned with Earth’s path

‘But as anyone who went on a blind date knows, exchanging text messages could be a very different experience than an actual encounter ‘in person.”

 Among his more provocative theories, Loeb suggested 3I/ATLAS could be an alien mothership releasing small probes to intercept Earth.

‘The more likely scenario from an engineering perspective involves a mothership that releases mini-probes which perform a reverse Oberth maneuver to slow down at perihelion and intercept Earth,’ Loeb wrote.

This type of maneuver uses the sun’s gravitational pull at the object’s closest approach to adjust the trajectory efficiently, enabling the probes to reach Earth without large amounts of fuel.

Chris Lintott, an astronomer at the University of Oxford, dismissed Loeb’s theory as ‘nonsense on stilts,’ calling it ‘an insult to the exciting work going on to understand this object.’

However, Loeb said his analysis remains rooted in observational data.

His latest paper, based on ground-based telescope readings between July 2 and 29, revealed reddening colors in 3I/ATLAS, usually interpreted as surface dust or organic compounds.

Loeb noted that spectroscopic data from this and three previous studies show no signs of atomic or molecular gas in a coma, a feature typically expected in comets.

While the reddening may suggest dust, it could also mean the object simply has a naturally red surface, much like D-type asteroids or other ancient space rocks. 

‘Continued monitoring around perihelion is necessary to track changes in activity and color,’ the study concluded, ‘which will provide insights into the evolution of interstellar materials under solar radiation.’