Could the latest 'interstellar comet' be an alien probe?

3I/ATLAS appeared to be traveling at 245,000 kilometers per hour, making it the fastest object ever detected in our solar system.

Harvard astrophysics professor Avi Loeb and colleagues last week uploaded a paper titled Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology? to the arXiv preprint server. (The paper has not yet been peer reviewed.)

Loeb is a controversial figure among astronomers and astrophysicists. He has previously suggested that the first known interstellar object, 1I/Oumuamua, discovered in 2017, may also have been an alien craft.

Among other oddities Loeb suggests may be signs of deliberate alien origin, he notes the orbit of 3I/ATLAS takes it improbably close to Venus, Mars and Jupiter.

I have no substantial acumen in the field of statistics. I do know, though, that within a whole universe of possibilities, very improbable things happen all the time. That 3I/ATLAS should be found, after-the-fact, to be set to come improbably close to Venus, Mars, and Jupiter may be of less significance than it might seem. If this had been predicted before the object's path through our solar system had been ascertained, it would be more scientifically valuable.

3I/ATLAS gives every impression of being an interstellar comet, rather than an extraterrestrial space vessel. We now have independent sources confirming the existence of an icy, dusty coma around the object, just as would be expected of a comet. Dr. Abraham (Avi) Loeb has readily admitted that the object is very likely a comet, despite his speculations to the contrary.