Though many scientists agree that a newly discovered interstellar object is a comet, a Harvard scientist believes it’s an object with alien origins.

Interstellar Alien Spacecraft?

Astronomers first discovered the unknown space object, now called “3I/ATLAS”, on July 1st. It was confirmed as an interstellar object less than 24 hours later.

According to Live Science, the object is moving toward the sun at more than 130,000 mph (210,000 km/h). Initial observations have suggested it’s a comet surrounded by gas, ice, and dust. A new paper, however, asserts that the object may be extraterrestrial in origin.

Professor Avi Loeb, an astronomer at Harvard University, said there are signs that the comet could actually be an alien craft. According to CBS News, this theory is based on the object’s extremely unusual speed and trajectory, which Professor Loeb says will take it close to Mars, Venus, and Jupiter.

“We should put all possibilities on the table that it’s a rock, a comet, or something else until we get the evidence, the data that will tell us what it is,” Loeb said in an interview with WBZ-TV.

According to NASA, Comet 3I/ATLAS poses no threat to Earth and will remain far away. Professor Loeb stated that the object will pass closest to the sun on October 29th of this year.

“I think that when we have a blind date from a visitor from another star, all bets are off,” said Loeb. “We shouldn’t assume anything, and we should assess the risk given the data that we have.”

In a blog post explaining the new paper, Loeb wrote that if 3I/ATLAS is a “technological artifact,” it could be evidence of the dark forest hypothesis, which purports that the reason we haven’t found evidence of extraterrestrial life is that they’re intentionally staying silent to remain invisible to potential predators or prey.

“We see a lot of houses on the cosmic street that look just like ours, analogs of the Earth’s sun system,” Loeb said. “And I think it’s very arrogant of us to assume that they don’t have residents.”