Are internet rumours of a comet hurtling towards Earth true?
Key Takeaways
- Rumors on social media claim comet 3I/ATLAS is on a collision course with Earth and might be an alien spacecraft.
- The rumors were amplified by sensationalized news articles and social media posts falsely linking the comet to military coordination and secret missions.
- Comet 3I/ATLAS was detected by NASA's ATLAS telescope on July 1 and is traveling at a record speed for an interstellar visitor.
- NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have confirmed that the comet poses no threat to Earth.
- The closest documented approach of the comet to Earth was approximately 270 million kilometers on July 21.
Rumors have spread widely across social media platforms suggesting that the comet 3I/ATLAS, first detected by NASA's ATLAS telescope on July 1, is on a collision course with Earth and represents a significant threat to humanity. Speculation escalated as users shared screenshots of sensationalized articles and attributed false claims to scientists, suggesting the object might be an alien spacecraft conducting reconnaissance. These alarming posts, which referenced military meetings and secret counter-missions, garnered hundreds of thousands of views, prompting widespread alarm. Al Jazeera's fact-checking agency, SANAD, investigated these claims to verify the facts surrounding the interstellar object. Both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have definitively confirmed that comet 3I/ATLAS poses absolutely no danger to Earth or any other planet. NASA noted that its closest approach to Earth occurred on July 21 at a distance of about 270 million kilometers, and the ESA confirmed this distance is more than 2.5 times that between the Earth and the Sun.
