Dr. Ken Gayley, an astronomy professor at the University of Iowa, joined LiveNOW’s Austin Westfall to answer questions about the online conspiracies that suggest 3I/ATLAS might be an artificial object or even a probe from another civilization.

Gayley emphasizes that objects like 3I/ATLAS are likely natural, formed in different star systems under circumstances we don’t yet understand.

"We would always start off with the assumption that these are natural objects and we would study them in that way. And if there's really very powerful evidence that they're not, then we might be led toward another direction," Dr. Gayley offered. "But for now, there's still plenty of evidence that these are potentially just completely natural objects."

Banner Photo: Hubble captured this image of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on July 21, 2025, when the comet was 277 million miles from Earth. Image: NASA, ESA, David Jewitt (UCLA); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)