Is Hostile Alien Technology Heading towards Earth?

A.J. Pike     

Planet Earth - A trio of researchers, led by esteemed Harvard University controversial astrophysicist, Avi Loeb, have published a research paper that wrestles with the belief that what has been initially identified as comet 31/ATLAS, could possibly be an interstellar object that is whizzing through our solar system, heading towards Earth. They are positing the wild, or not so wild idea, that the object, which has no visible tail, as comets generally possess, is not some random space rock that has arrived in our solar system by happenstance, but is in fact an intelligently controlled alien spacecraft?

Even though the researchers who pose this outlandish theory doubt it, the fact of the matter is no one knows for certain what in the world has entered our solar system. 31/ATLAS made news earlier in July 2025 when it was confirmed to have originated outside Earth’s solar system, which makes it just one of three known interstellar objects ever discovered in our cosmic neighborhood. According to NASA, the object, which scientists estimate to be more than 12 miles wide, is moving at 37 miles per second relative to the Sun on a trajectory that will bring it approximately 130 million miles from Earth on October 30, 2025.

Mr. Loeb is famed for encouraging Astrophysicists to have an open mind about extraterrestrials. He has put forth theories in the past that have rankled other scientists in the field. He is co-founder of the Galileo Project, a research program at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics dedicated to the search for extraterrestrials. 

Mr. Loeb’s paper, which he claims is more of an “interesting exercise in its own right, and an idea that is fun to explore,” purports the idea that the object could very well be “hostile alien technology.” He goes on to state that his hypothesis proposes that “our cosmic neighborhood is a dangerous one, filled with intelligent civilizations on other planets that are hostile and are purposely silent to avoid detection by potential predators.” 

Experts, of course, doubt Mr. Loeb’s sensational theory. 

“Any suggestion that it’s artificial is nonsense on stilts, and is an insult to the exciting work going on to understand this object,” said Chris Lintott, an Astronomer at the University of Oxford. 

In 2017, when comet Oumuamua, entered the solar system, and became the first interstellar object ever detected in the solar system, Mr. Loeb theorized it was an alien spaceship mainly due to its strange shape and orbit. But a subsequent study explained the comet’s odd orbit as a simple physical mechanism thought to be common among many icy comets. 

But other scientists are not so quick to dismiss Mr. Loeb’s theory. They bring up the renowned theoretical physicist, the late Stephen Hawking’s warning to humanity that attempting to establish communication with alien civilizations could result in catastrophe for mankind. 

“If aliens ever visit us,” Mr. Hawking said in an episode of Into the Universe. “The outcome might be similar to when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for native Americans.”

According to Mr. Hawking, it’s a mistake to assume advanced civilizations would automatically be peaceful. If anything, given the historical record of human behavior, especially when powerful societies encounter less developed ones, it suggests conquest, colonization, or indifference to suffering, being just as likely to occur as aliens that are willing to practice diplomacy. 

Mr. Hawking believed alien civilizations capable of interstellar travel would likely have exhausted their own planet’s resources, prompting them to roam the galaxy in search of new worlds to inhibit and strip for minerals and materials. In such a scenario, Earth could be seen as a habitable target rather than a partner.

Despite being a passionate advocate for the search for intelligent life beyond Earth, Mr. Hawking drew a sharp line between listening and reaching out. While projects like Breakthrough Listen, which Mr. Hawking supported, aim to detect alien signals, other efforts such as Breakthrough Message and METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) propose actively sending messages into space to alert other civilizations to our presence. Mr. Hawking firmly opposed these later efforts. In his view, passive observation made scientific sense, but advertising our location to unknown cosmic neighbors was dangerously naive. 

“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet,” he warned. 

Strangely enough, there were very few recorded sightings of UFOs before the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japan in 1945. The explosion produced a mushroom cloud that was 60 miles wide and reached up into the stratosphere. Such an explosion could have very well marked a road map to the planet Earth. It was during the 1950s that hundreds of UFO sightings began to be reported and continue to this day.

As far as 31/ATLAS is concerned, Mr. Lintot’s words “the exciting work going on to understand this object” does not offer any real comfort as to what is the intent of this interstellar object. Is it a comet or is it something else?