Our Cosmic Humility is on the Line: Will NASA Release the 40-Day-Old HiRISE Images of 3I/ATLAS?
5-minute read
Let’s face it: our existence on Earth is fleeting. We inhabit a tiny speck of rock orbiting an average star in a galaxy teeming with billions of others, most of which have been around far longer than our Sun. In the grand cosmic narrative, our story is but a blip. Yet, this very humility—this awareness of our smallness—should drive us to explore the vast unknowns of space and time. But here’s where it gets controversial: what if our quest for knowledge is stifled not by the mysteries of the universe, but by the arrogance of expertise?
Recently, I was asked by multiple journalists, including Gadi Schwartz of NBC News and Elizabeth Vargas of NewsNation, why comet experts are so quick to dismiss alternative interpretations of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS. My response? Experts, like AI systems, often regurgitate what they’ve been trained on. If an AI is fed only comet data, it will label anything in the sky as a comet, anomalies be damned. This is precisely why 1I/'Oumuamua, which exhibited non-gravitational acceleration without visible gas or dust, is labeled a 'dark comet'—a comet that doesn’t act like one. Similarly, objects like 2020 SO and Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster, both human-made, behave like dark comets, yet experts exclude these from their datasets. Add to this the Pavlovian resistance to new ideas, and you have a recipe for intellectual stagnation. This is the part most people miss: experts often protect their turf by dismissing what doesn’t fit their established narratives.
Take the recent observations of 3I/ATLAS, which displayed seven jets. Comet experts insist these must be from sublimating ice, not, say, thrusters from a spacecraft. But why rule out the latter without evidence? And this is where it gets even more intriguing: as 3I/ATLAS approaches Earth in December 2025, we’ll have the chance to measure these jets’ speed, density, and composition. If it’s a natural comet, we should see fragments from its perihelion fireworks. But what if we don’t? What if the data points to something else entirely?
Enter NASA’s HiRISE camera, which captured images of 3I/ATLAS in October 2025 as it passed near Mars. These images, held up by bureaucratic delays during the government shutdown, could provide crucial clues. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna has already called for their release, emphasizing that science should never be hostage to politics. The public’s fascination with 3I/ATLAS is palpable—even a customer service rep recognized my voice from podcasts and asked for updates! As of November 11, 2025, Earth-based observatories are back in action, tracking 3I/ATLAS as it moves away from the Sun’s glare.
But here’s the bold part: I’ve placed a bet with Michael Shermer of the Skeptics Society that by 2030, we’ll find undeniable evidence of extraterrestrial technology. The stakes? A donation to the Galileo Project, which I lead. With billions of Earth-like systems in the Milky Way, many older than ours, and our own Voyager probes set to traverse the galaxy in less than a billion years, the search for extraterrestrial artifacts isn’t just plausible—it’s imperative. As I’ve said, life is sometimes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Let’s approach this interstellar blind date with optimism and curiosity.
About the Author
Avi Loeb is the founder of the Galileo Project and director of the Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University. He is also the bestselling author of Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth and Interstellar. His work challenges conventional thinking and invites us to explore the unknown.
Now, here’s the question for you: Do you think 3I/ATLAS could be more than just a comet? And if so, are we ready to embrace what that might mean for humanity’s place in the universe? Let’s discuss in the comments!
