I admit it. I was utterly swept up by the 3I/Atlas mania earlier this fall.
Discovered over the summer, 3I/Atlas is a rare interstellar comet. It’s only the third that humans have ever detected coming from another solar system, and some early observations suggested it doesn’t behave like the comets we’re used to. One prominent astrophysicist promoted the theory that it was alien technology. Well, you can imagine what the internet and social media did with that.
Today, 3I/Atlas makes its closest pass of Earth. At a distance of about 170 million miles, which is about twice as far as our planet is from the Sun, the comet will be visible from telescopes on all seven continents. As it’s gotten closer, research seems to indicate that it’s not a spaceship, dashing the hopes of space lovers and conspiracy theorists the world over. But if 3I/Atlas proves them wrong, I want to go on the record here: fashion designers had its number all along.
