No traces of alien technology have been found on comet 3I/ATLAS, which visited the inner part of the Solar System. This was reported by researchers at the SETI Institute after they conducted a series of radio-wavelength observations of the interstellar object.
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS
Discovered last summer, comet 3I/ATLAS caused quite a stir toward the end of that same year. It is only the third interstellar object known to scientists, so at the time people kept asking researchers whether it might actually be a spacecraft from another civilization. And now that question has been officially answered by the leading “alien hunters” of the scientific world — the SETI Institute.
They published the results of their study in The Astronomical Journal. The paper gives a very specific answer to the question: there are no alien technologies on the comet emitting radio signals. This means that, most likely, there are no traces of an 11-billion-year-old civilization there either. That is the estimated age of this cosmic iceberg.
The scientists’ confidence is based on an analysis of radio-astronomical observations carried out precisely at the time when everyone around was talking about the arrival of aliens. In October 2025, 3I/ATLAS passed within 30 million kilometers of Mars. At that time, it was observed by NASA spacecraft in orbit around the planet. In December, the interstellar object reached its closest point to Earth. That was when scientists had the opportunity to study it using radio antennas.
What the Studies Showed
When the researchers conducted their observations, the distance between Earth and 3I/ATLAS was 167 million kilometers, and the session itself lasted about seven hours. During that time, scientists managed to identify 74 million different radio signals, almost all of which had nothing to do with the comet.
At the same time, 200 of them turned out to be emissions from our own transmitters in orbit and on Earth’s surface, reflected off the comet. This makes it possible to rule out the possibility that we are simply unable to detect signals coming from this celestial body.
The problem is that there are no such signals. There are no traces indicating that anyone ever placed equipment on the comet. It is now moving away from the Sun again and will never return. Its current distance is 1.3 billion kilometers. This ancient iceberg, whose size is estimated at between 440 meters and 5.6 kilometers, continues its journey.
According to phys.org
