A leading group in the search for extraterrestrial life has made it abundantly clear: The asteroid appears to be completely natural and devoid of any alien technology.
The SETI Institute said Wednesday that extensive radio observations with its telescope in Northern California found no signs of extraterrestrial technology from our solar system’s latest visitor.
Something labeled 3I/ATLAS it was discovered last summer sweeping our neck of the world’s forests. Scientists quickly recognized it as a star that migrated from another star, although few insisted without evidence that it could be associated with intelligent life.
It was only the third known object from a distant star – all considered natural – to venture into the sands of the sun.
Multiple NASA spacecraft watched the space ice ball as it passed Mars last October, traveling within 30 million kilometers (19 million miles) of the red planet. The closest it ever came to Earth was in December at a distance of 269 million kilometers.
SETI said it conducted more than seven hours of observation in July immediately after the comet was discovered, looking for various radio signals. The team identified nearly 74 million narrowband radio waves.
