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Speaker 1: Welcome curious minds to the deep dive. Today. We're not

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just looking up at the stars. We're diving headfirst into

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a cosmic mystery. Some of that has scientists, well pretty

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much everywhere in a frenzy of observation, debate, and maybe

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just a little bit of awe. Imagine, if you will,

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a celestial body really unlike anything we've truly understood before,

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just barreling through our solar system.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, just shooting through.

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Speaker 1: And it's moving at speeds that, honestly, it's hard to

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even wrap your head around, glowing in a way that

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seems to kind of break the rules of physics as

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we know.

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Speaker 2: Them, right. It challenges our basic assumptions.

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Speaker 1: And it's forcing us, really forcing us to question everything

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we thought we knew about interstellar objects.

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Speaker 2: It really is.

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Speaker 1: And this isn't, you know, science fiction, This isn't some

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movie plot.

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Speaker 2: No, this is based on real observations, very recent.

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Speaker 1: One exactly, observations that have well sent shockwaves through the

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astronomical community. Okay, so let's unpack this a bit. We've

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got this truly astonishing set of observations and some groundbreaking,

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maybe even audacious.

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Speaker 2: Interpretations, definitely pushing the envelope some.

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Speaker 1: Of them, and these interpretations they could either rewrite our

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textbooks overnight, you know, fundamentally shift our understanding of our

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place in the cosmos.

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Speaker 2: A huge paradigm shift.

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Speaker 1: Or at the very least profoundly refine how we understand

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cosmic phenomena.

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Speaker 2: Either way, it's valuable.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, It's a win for curiosity, right, a win for

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just the relentless pursuit of knowledge. Exactly this particular object,

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its official designation is three I Atlas. It isn't just

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some interesting data point, No, far from it. It's like

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a cosmic rar shock test, you.

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Speaker 2: Know, that's a great way to put it.

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Speaker 1: It's prompting us to confront the limits of our current understanding.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so what is it?

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Speaker 1: Is this a pristine relic, maybe a frozen chunk from

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another star system holding clues about alien worlds?

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Speaker 2: The natural explanation Actually, because.

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Speaker 1: It's something far more deliberate, something engineered, a silent visitor,

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maybe bearing a message we can barely even start to decipher.

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Speaker 2: And what's truly fascinating here, I think, and what makes

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this deep dive so compelling, yeah, is just how incredibly

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disparate the interpretation can be from the exact same data.

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Speaker 1: Two completely different stories from the same numbers.

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Speaker 2: And it shows how quickly science is forced to adapt,

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or at least react, when it faces something truly anomalous.

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So our mission today really is to thoroughly explore the

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two main possibilities these incredibly divergent ideas about three Ialyis's identity. Okay,

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will meticulously examine the evidence the arguments for each side,

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without taking sides ourselves, of course.

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Speaker 1: Just laying out the facts, the interpretations.

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Speaker 2: Exactly, letting the data and the questions it raises speak

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for themselves. This deep dive is into well a whole

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trove of recent astronomical observations, scientific papers all about this

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object that has astronomers not just buzzing.

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Speaker 1: Buzzing is putting it mildly, I think, right.

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Speaker 2: They're buzzing with excitement, but in some cases they're scrambling

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for precious telescope time because the clock's ticking precisely they

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know the window to gattle more clues is rapidly closing.

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So we're going to break down these arguments pillar by pillar,

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as some researchers put it right.

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Speaker 1: The different lines of evidence.

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Speaker 2: See what crucial measurements are still needed and understand why

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this clock is ticking, making it maybe the most urgent

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astronomical investigation of our time.

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Speaker 1: It really is a profound mystery, and it seems to

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only deepen the more we look, doesn't it. And like

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any good mystery, those first clues are merged with its

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well it's dramatic entrance, its arrival in.

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Speaker 2: Our solar system where it all began.

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Speaker 1: So how did it first appear on our cosmic.

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Speaker 2: Doorstep the arrival of the cosmic stranger?

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Speaker 1: Okay, so the story of three I at lists. It

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begins on what might have seemed like just another day,

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July first, twenty twenty five. That's when NASA's Atlas Telescope network,

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this is like a system designed to scan the heavens

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for incoming stuff.

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Speaker 2: Asteroids commet our planetary defense system essentially.

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Speaker 1: Exactly, it caught sight of something truly remarkable. Our sources

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describe it as a massive twenty kilometers shadow.

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Speaker 2: Twenty kilometers that's huge.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, think about that, roughly the size of a small

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city maybe like San Francisco or something.

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Speaker 2: Wow. And it was slipping past Venus and an absolutely

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astounding speed one hundred and thirty seven thousand miles.

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Speaker 1: Per hour, just incredible velocity.

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Speaker 2: For most of us, that number is almost abstract.

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Speaker 1: Hard to grasp.

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Speaker 2: But to put it in perspective, that's fast enough to

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cross the entire continental US in like under two minutes.

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Whoa should imagine the sheer kinetic energy, the immense momentum

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of something that big, moving.

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Speaker 1: That fast, carving its path through space.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, carving a path through the quiet vacuum of space.

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It's just a mind boggling scale of motion. But what

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immediately flagged this object is something profoundly out of the ordinary.

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Beyond just its size and speed, there was more. Oh yeah,

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it was its trajectory. Within just a few hours of

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the first sighting, astronomers nailed down its orbit that quickly, yeah,

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pretty fast, and it was quickly classified as hyperbolic.

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Speaker 1: Okay, hyperbolic? What does that mean? In plain terms?

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Speaker 2: It means it's not doing a gentle loop around our Sun,

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like planets or even most comments we see.

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Speaker 1: Not captured by gravity exactly. A hyperbolic orbit means it's

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not bound by our Son's gravity at all. It's screaming

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in from interstellar.

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Speaker 2: Space from between the stars, right.

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Speaker 1: Makes a brave dramatic pass, maybe gets a little gravitational nudge,

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a slingshot, and then it's gone hurtling back into the

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cosmic voiage just as fast as it arrived.

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Speaker 2: A temporary visitor.

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Speaker 1: Totally a transient visitor, a cosmic drive by if you like. Okay,

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and to really underscore how rare this is, within just

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three days, the Minor Planet Center officially designated it three

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I Atlas. The three eye stands for interstellar object, and

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the three means it's only the third confirmed interstellar visitor

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I've ever.

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Speaker 2: Seen, only the third after Umumua and.

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Speaker 1: Boris exactly following Umua in twenty seventeen and then the

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more conventional Boris in twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 2: Wow.

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Speaker 1: This exclusivity alone, the fact we've only positively id'd three

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in all of human history, that tells you how profoundly

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special this sighting is.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely makes you wonder how many more are out there

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we just haven't seen.

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Speaker 1: Right. It's like finding a message in a bottle, but

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the bottle is the size of a city, and it's

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zipping past at impossible speed.

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Speaker 2: Which immediately raises a really important question, doesn't it, which

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is what kind of comet forgets to act like one,

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because that was the initial assumption, the most logical one.

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Speaker 1: Right, glowing thing moving fast, it must be.

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Speaker 2: A comment almost always the first suspect, but the first

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peculiarities of three i atlis. They started challenging that assumption

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right away. Yeah, and pretty dramatically. Okay, like what, Well,

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the central mystery that popped up almost at once was

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the object's sun facing side.

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Speaker 1: Huh.

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Speaker 2: It was observed to be glowing like the inside of

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a blast.

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Speaker 1: Furnace, Like a blast furnace.

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Speaker 2: That sounds intense, extremely intense. Yeah, Now think about that light.

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If all that brightness was just reflected.

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Speaker 1: Sunlight bouncing off ice or rock.

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Speaker 2: Right bouncing off a solid surface, well, the physics dictates

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a truly colossal object to reflect that much light.

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Speaker 1: How colossal.

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Speaker 2: Our sources indicate that for it to appear that bright

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by reflection alone, we'd be looking at something equivalent to

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ten manhattans glued together.

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Speaker 1: Ten manhattans. That's that's enormous twenty kilometers.

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Speaker 2: You said, roughly, Yeah, a truly monstrous object that would

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make even the biggest known comet nuclei look well, pretty small.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So that scale of brightness if it's just reflection

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is already pushing the boundaries of plausibility for a natural object.

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Speaker 2: It really is. But then came the spectral analysis, you know,

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where astronomers break down the light to see what chemicals

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are present.

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Speaker 1: Reading its chemical fingerprint.

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Speaker 2: Exactly, and that revealed even more profound anomalies. Spectra from

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the European Southern Observatory they showed none of the usual

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comet lines.

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Speaker 1: No comet lines, what are those? Normally?

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Speaker 2: These are specific spectral signatures from things like evaporating water, ice,

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carbon monoxide, other volatile stuff.

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Speaker 1: The things that make commets well comets.

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Speaker 2: Right, they formed the coma, the fuzzy head, and the

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tail as the comet gets close to the sun and warms.

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Speaker 1: Up, and three iyatlas had none of that.

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Speaker 2: Crucially, it showed no tail whatsoever, not even the faintest

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little wisp.

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Speaker 1: Wow, okay, no tail.

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Speaker 2: So this complete absence of expected cometary activity, combined with

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that intense, unexplained glow that was way too bright for

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just reflection, it immediately set this object apart from its

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supposed brethren. It hinted that its nature might be far

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more complex, far more alien, perhaps than just a simple,

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dirty snowball.

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Speaker 1: So it was glowing, but not like a comet.

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Speaker 2: Glow, precisely glowing without the usual cometary fireworks. Yeah, that's

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just baffling.

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Speaker 1: Okay, here's where it gets really interesting for me, where

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the conventional explanations really start to wobble.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, this next part is key.

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Speaker 1: Let's dig into that glow more because it's not just bright.

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Our sources say it's wrong in its orientation.

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Speaker 2: Wrong.

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Speaker 1: How well, commets as we understand them, right, they glow

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brightest on the side facing the sun, the side getting

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heated up.

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Speaker 2: Makes sense, and the tail points away exactly.

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Speaker 1: Tail always points directly away from the sun, pushed by

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solar wind radiation pressure. That's textbook stuff, cosmic norm Okay,

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but three I atlas, it just flips that script entirely,

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like it didn't read the textbook. Yeah, how so its

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brightest patch isn't the trailing side, the sun heated side,

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where you'd expect the most outgassing or reflected light.

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Speaker 2: Where is it?

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Speaker 1: Then it's on the leading edge, the side literally plowing

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straight into the solar wind as it rushes through.

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Speaker 2: Space, the front that's counter into it.

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Speaker 1: Totally consider the implications it's leading edge where it's facing

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the full force of its journey, interacting with whatever's out there.

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That's the part that's intensely bright.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't sound like reflected sunlight.

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Speaker 1: Doesn't behave like it, nor is it consistent with typical

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cometary outgassing, which would get blown behind.

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Speaker 2: The object right forming the tail.

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Speaker 1: Furthermore, the spectral evidence looking across infrared and visible light,

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it's described as too smooth for simple reflected light.

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Speaker 2: Too smooth.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, when light bounces off a natural, uneven, dusty, icy

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surface usually get a more textured spectrum, specific bumps and

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wiggles from absorption and emission.

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Speaker 2: Makes sense, different materials reflecting differently.

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Speaker 1: But whatever the surface of three iet liss is, it

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seems to be converting energy into light with astonishing efficiency

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almost eighty percent.

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Speaker 2: Eighty percent, that's huge, what's normal?

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Speaker 1: Well, to put that in perspective, our sources highlight that

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the best lab test we've ever done. Even with fancy

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materials like special magnesium silicate coatings designed for maximum brightness.

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Uh huh, they've only managed maybe a twenty five percent

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bump in brightness.

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Speaker 2: Wow, so eighty percent.

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Speaker 1: Is off the way off the charts. This isn't just impressive.

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It challenges the very physical processes we think are possible

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in natural celestial bodies.

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Speaker 2: So what could do that?

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Speaker 1: It suggests either some fundamental, unknown energy conversion mechanism we've

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never seen before, or, as some are now proposing, an

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engineered system operating at a level far beyond what we

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consider natural. The numbers just don't line up with a

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natural object. It's almost as if it's designed to convert

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energy into light really efficiently, really deliberately. It's a puzzle.

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Speaker 2: The radical hypothesis and artificial probe.

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Speaker 1: And this profound energy anomaly, the weird glow, plus all

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the other flexing observations, they bring us squarely to one

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of the most radical interpretations. And it's spearheaded by a

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figure who's already let's say, familiar with scientific controversy.

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Speaker 2: Oh, I think I know what you mean. A VI Loba.

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Speaker 1: Harvard's a VI lobe. Yeah, exactly, the same scientists who

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stirred up that huge debate about Umamua, the first into

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stellar object.

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Speaker 2: The light sale hypothesis.

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Speaker 1: Right, suggesting it might have been an alien light sale. Well,

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this time Lobe, along with his post dot Carsonizel Okay,

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they've published another paper, a thirty two page pre print,

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and the title is pretty provocative. Is three I atlas

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an artificial nuclear powered probe.

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Speaker 2: Wow, they're not pulling any punches there, nuclear powered probe.

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Speaker 1: Straight to the point and their case for this extraordinary claim,

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it isn't based on just one thing. It rests on

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five distinct pillars of evidence.

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Speaker 2: They call them five pillars.

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Speaker 1: Observations and calculations, which when you take them all together,

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they argue, start to paint a very different picture, a

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quite astounding picture compared to a natural comment.

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Speaker 2: An argument that definitely grabs headlines.

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Speaker 1: Oh absolutely, and divides the scientific community for sure.

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Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into those pillars, because each one, even

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on its own, sounds pretty anomalous. They are what's the

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first pillar lobe in a Zell highlight.

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Speaker 1: Pillar one is the object's unlikely.

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Speaker 2: Orbital plane, its path through space.

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Speaker 1: Exactly. When we look at all the known interstellar objects

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we've cataloged, a staggering ninety eight percent of them are

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tilted really steeply compared to the ecliptic, the.

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Speaker 2: Ecliptic being the flat plane where our planets orbit the Sun.

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Speaker 1: Roughly, that's right, most interstellar visitors come screaming in from

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way above or way below this plane. They don't usually

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line up neatly with our planetary highway.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so they come in at odd angles.

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Speaker 1: Usually yes, but three I atlas our source of state.

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It lies almost perfectly flat within our solar system's.

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Speaker 2: Plane, flat like aligned with the planets.

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Speaker 1: Eerily aligned with the orbits of Earth, Mars, Jupiter. It's

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sitting right there in the main disc.

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Speaker 2: Huh, that is different.

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Speaker 1: Think about it. Out of the handful we've seen and

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the many more we've tracked, this one decides to flatten

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itself right into our system's main thoroughfare.

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Speaker 2: What are the odds of that happening randomly?

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Speaker 1: Logan azell calculate the specific alignment as a one in

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five hundred coincidence if it were purely random.

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Speaker 2: Chance, one in five hundred. Okay, that's not a passable,

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but it's noticeable.

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Speaker 1: It's noticeable to give you a sense. It's roughly the

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same probability as flipping a coin and getting heads nine

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times in a row.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, that's unlikely.

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Speaker 1: It suggests an incredibly specific and therefore statistically unlikely orientation

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for just a random natural object hurtling through space, So it.

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Speaker 2: Begs the question just astronomically rare luck or something else.

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Speaker 1: That's the question they pose with pillar one. And if

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we connect this to the bigger picture, Pillar two strengthens

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this argument even more. It moves beyond just the entrance

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angle to its actual journey through our system. Okay, this

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pillar focuses on the object's convenient close approaches to planets.

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Convenient how so, trajectory simulations of three i AT lists

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show it skimmed incredibly close to several of our inner planets,

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almost like it was well deliberately navigating which planets. Specifically,

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it passed within point three astronomical units of Venus.

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Speaker 2: That's pretty close, and AU is Earth Sun distance right.

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Speaker 1: Right about ninety three million mile, so point three is

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less than a third of that. Then it passed zero

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point five AU from Mars and point eight AU from Jupiter.

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Speaker 2: Venus, Mars, Jupiter. Yeah, those are key players for gravity

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assists exactly.

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Speaker 1: Our sources describe these as precise maneuvers that hand out

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free gravity kicks, seemingly optimized for interstellar travel, like.

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Speaker 2: How we use gravity assists for our own space.

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Speaker 1: Probes, precisely to save fuel gain, speed, change direction. But

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it requires incredibly precise timing in trajectory for a natural

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object to achieve this sequence of three such beneficial gravitational

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assists purely by random chance. Well that stretches the bounds

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of probability significant.

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Speaker 2: Well, yes, significantly. What are the odds on that?

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Speaker 1: Lobin Azel's calculations put the chance of all three close

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approaches happening by random chance at a minuscule zero point

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zero zero five percent.

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Speaker 2: Yep, tiny, Okay, that's not just unlikely. That's that's borderline

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unbelievable for random chance, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: It pushes the boundary of what we normally accept as

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random coincidence in the vastness of space. It's the kind

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of probability that if you saw it in a lab experiment,

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you'd immediately suspect something non random was going on, like

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throwing three darts at a map of the Solar System

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and hitting all the perfect gravity assist spots.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so point zero zero five percent is incredibly low,

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But you know, the universe is huge, billions of objects.

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Doesn't incredibly rare still happen sometimes? Yeah? Or is there

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something about this combination that really makes it stand out.

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Speaker 1: That's precisely the crux of the debate, and it's an

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excellent question. It thinks, well, yes, rare events do occur

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in a vast universe. The combination of multiple independent rare events,

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all pointing towards what looks like an optimized path that

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starts to strain the just random chance explanation. For some scientists, it's.

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Speaker 2: The accumulation of coincidences exactly.

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Speaker 1: It's one thing for an object to have an unusual orbit, Okay,

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rare but possible, right. It's another thing for it to

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have an unusual orbit and make perfectly timed close approaches

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to multiple planets, and for those approaches to provide beneficial

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gravitational boosts.

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Speaker 2: Layering improbability on improbability.

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Speaker 1: Precisely, each event individually is rare. Their conjunction, however, is

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what pushes that statistical needle way over into the realm

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of the almost impossible. Some would argue without some underlying

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non random cause, it's about cumulative improbability.

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Speaker 2: You really do have to wonder are these just more

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lucky alignments or could there be something more deliberate at

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play here? It adds another layer to these improbable coincidences.

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Especially when we get to the third pillar, perihelium timing

359
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perihelium being its closest approach to the Sun exactly.

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Speaker 1: Our sources highlight that three Eyeatlis's closest approach to the

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Sun happened while Earth was on the opposite side of

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the Sun.

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Speaker 2: Oh. Interesting, so we didn't get a good look when

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it was closest and brightest.

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Speaker 1: Pretty much. Now, a speculative interpretation here, and we should

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stress it is speculative, okay, is that this timing would

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be convenient if you want to dodge the planet with

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the biggest radio dishes.

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Speaker 2: Meaning US Earth, meaning US. If this were an artificial

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probe intentionally or not, it's trajectory placed it out of

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direct line of sight from Earth's most powerful telescopes and

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radar systems during its peak activity near the Sun.

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Speaker 1: Hmmm, dodging the paparazzi kind of.

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Speaker 2: While this point doesn't offer you know, direct physical evidence

375
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of artificiality, like the glow or the orbit mighte, it

376
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certainly adds another curious layer to this pile of improbable

377
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alignments that proponents of the artificial probe idea find compelling.

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Speaker 1: Another huh, that's weird.

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Speaker 2: Moment exactly. It makes you pause and consider the sheer

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confluence of these statistical outliers. Is it playing a game

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of cosmic hide and seek?

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Speaker 1: And this brings us right back to that inexplicable light, that.

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Speaker 2: Glow, Yeah, the energy problem.

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Speaker 1: Pillar four attempts to provide a potential explanation for that

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energy anomally we discussed earlier. Okay, It addresses the mysterious

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forward glow and proposes a mechanism for its immense brightness,

387
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which is a compact nuclear reactor, a nuclear reactor on board,

388
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that's the proposal. Lobe calculates that such a reactor perhaps

389
00:19:02,799 --> 00:19:05,640
driving a magnetohydrodynamic engine okay.

390
00:19:05,599 --> 00:19:09,279
Speaker 2: MHD drive. That sounds like advanced propulsion, very advanced.

391
00:19:09,480 --> 00:19:14,079
Speaker 1: It uses powerful magnetic fields to push superheated charged gas

392
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or liquid like a super efficient jet engine without moving parts.

393
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He calculates that the system could emit the observed infrared intensity.

394
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Speaker 2: So the reactor provides the energy for the glow.

395
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Speaker 1: That's the idea. It's an attempt to provide a theoretical

396
00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:33,240
mechanism rooted in known physics, even if advanced physics, for

397
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that blast furnace glow and the eighty percent energy conversion

398
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efficiency that baffled.

399
00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:40,839
Speaker 2: Everyone, especially the fact that it's on the leading edge.

400
00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:44,640
Speaker 1: Exactly if an internal power source was generating this energy,

401
00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:48,640
and that energy was being efficiently converted into light, perhaps

402
00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:51,880
interacting with the solar wind or interstellar medium out front,

403
00:19:52,319 --> 00:19:55,640
it would potentially reconcile several of the most puzzling.

404
00:19:55,240 --> 00:19:58,200
Speaker 2: Data points, the ones that challenge the natural comet model. Right.

405
00:19:58,279 --> 00:20:00,920
Speaker 1: It's a bold claim, no doubt, thinking the observed light

406
00:20:01,039 --> 00:20:04,240
directly to an engineered power source, But it does attempt

407
00:20:04,319 --> 00:20:08,839
to offer a unified, if extraordinary explanation for multiple anomalies.

408
00:20:09,079 --> 00:20:11,599
Speaker 2: Okay, so if it's not behaving like a comet, it's

409
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making statistically improbable maneuvers. Yeah, maybe it's power by a reactor.

410
00:20:16,119 --> 00:20:18,519
What about its sheer size? You said, twenty kilometers?

411
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Speaker 1: That brings us to the fifth and final pillar. The

412
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size paradox paradox Well our astronomical expectations, based on how

413
00:20:26,960 --> 00:20:31,000
we think planets form and how systems eject material, they

414
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suggest that natural objects larger than about ten kilometers should

415
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be vanishingly rare among interstellar wanderers.

416
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Speaker 2: Vanishingly rare. Why think about it?

417
00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:44,839
Speaker 1: The gravitational kicks needed to eject smaller stuff pebbles, rocks,

418
00:20:44,960 --> 00:20:48,559
smaller comments are relatively common events and planetary systems. Okay,

419
00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:51,960
But to fling a truly massive ten kilometer plus chunk

420
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of rock and ice clear across interstellar distances, overcoming the

421
00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:59,559
strong gravity of its home star. That requires a much

422
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more energy, ergetic, and thus much rarer event.

423
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Speaker 2: So big things are harder.

424
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Speaker 1: To throw, that far, much harder. Yet three a atlas

425
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is estimated at a colossal twenty kilometers twice that vanishingly

426
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rare threshold. So this observation for Lowbanizelle leads to a

427
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provocative implication, which is that such a large object wouldn't

428
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exist naturally floating between stars, unless, of course, someone built

429
00:21:21,440 --> 00:21:22,640
them that big on purpose.

430
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Speaker 2: Wow, okay, built, not born, that's.

431
00:21:26,359 --> 00:21:29,640
Speaker 1: The implication they draw. It's like finding a perfectly spherical,

432
00:21:30,039 --> 00:21:33,599
giant glowing boulder in a river that should only have small,

433
00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:38,039
irregular stones. Its size just doesn't fit the expected natural population.

434
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Speaker 2: So putting it all together, the colossal size, the unnatural glow,

435
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the weird orbital alignment, the precise gravity assists, maybe even

436
00:21:46,720 --> 00:21:48,000
the evasive timing.

437
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Speaker 1: It forms a compelling, albeit highly speculative case for the

438
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artificial probe hypothesis.

439
00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:57,079
Speaker 2: It forces us to ask, what if the universe isn't

440
00:21:57,119 --> 00:22:00,400
just throwing random rocks at us? What if occasionally sends

441
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something different.

442
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Speaker 1: That's the multi billion dollar question, isn't it?

443
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Speaker 2: Conventional wisdom strikes back in natural comment.

444
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Speaker 1: Now, as you can imagine, a hypothesis is of radical. Yeah,

445
00:22:09,359 --> 00:22:12,240
especially coming from someone like Lobe who's known for pushing boundaries.

446
00:22:12,480 --> 00:22:15,599
It's been met with shall we say, strong pushback from

447
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the wider astronomical community.

448
00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:20,599
Speaker 2: I bet what The main counter arguments, Well, some are

449
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quite blint.

450
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Speaker 1: Oxford's Chris Lnt, for example, publicly called the alien interpretation

451
00:22:26,319 --> 00:22:27,759
nonsense on Live BBC.

452
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Speaker 2: Nonsense strong word.

453
00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:33,559
Speaker 1: Very strong, and that sentiment is echoed by many. Lenz

454
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take on those probability arguments, the one in five hundred orbit,

455
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the point zero zero five percent close approaches.

456
00:22:39,839 --> 00:22:41,519
Speaker 2: Yeah, the really low odd stuff.

457
00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:45,519
Speaker 1: His view is that probability arguments look shiny only after

458
00:22:45,559 --> 00:22:47,279
you already know the orbit. Uh.

459
00:22:47,400 --> 00:22:50,359
Speaker 2: The hindsight bias, confirmation bias exactly.

460
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:53,799
Speaker 1: It's a crucial counterpoint. It suggests that once we've observed

461
00:22:53,839 --> 00:22:56,680
something unusual, it's easy to look back and calculate how

462
00:22:56,680 --> 00:23:00,440
improbable it was, making it seem deliberate or special, even

463
00:23:00,440 --> 00:23:02,720
if it was just an incredibly rare role of the

464
00:23:02,759 --> 00:23:03,559
cosmic dice.

465
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Speaker 2: In a big enough universe, rare things happen.

466
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Speaker 1: Critics argue precisely that in a cosmos teeming with untold

467
00:23:09,880 --> 00:23:13,960
numbers of objects over billions of years, extremely rare coincidences

468
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will happen eventually.

469
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Speaker 2: So attributing every statistical anomaly to aliens might be jumping

470
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the gun.

471
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Speaker 1: That's the concern. It might prematurely close off more mundane

472
00:23:22,759 --> 00:23:25,559
even if they're complex natural explanations that we just haven't

473
00:23:25,559 --> 00:23:26,319
figured out yet.

474
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:29,279
Speaker 2: That's a very fair point about confirmation bias. It's easy

475
00:23:29,279 --> 00:23:32,319
to connect dots in hindsight. What about the physical evidence

476
00:23:32,519 --> 00:23:36,279
The initial report said no comment lines. Has that changed?

477
00:23:36,359 --> 00:23:39,079
Are there other data points that muddy the waters for

478
00:23:39,119 --> 00:23:39,960
Lobes pillars?

479
00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:42,720
Speaker 1: Absolutely? And this is where the plot thickens even more,

480
00:23:43,079 --> 00:23:46,440
because while Loeb and Azelle are presenting their five pillars,

481
00:23:47,039 --> 00:23:50,079
other astronomers are finding data that points towards a more

482
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:55,519
conventional explanation. Still intriguing, but conventional like what. For instance,

483
00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:59,400
ESS's Marco Michelli points out that later Atlas data may

484
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:02,119
be more fine, maybe taken as the object got closer

485
00:24:02,160 --> 00:24:06,599
and warmer, actually shows faint traces of cyanogen and diatomic carbon.

486
00:24:06,880 --> 00:24:09,559
Speaker 2: Cyanogen and diatomic carbon, those sound familiar.

487
00:24:09,599 --> 00:24:14,160
Speaker 1: They are unequivocally classic comet fingerprints. These are the specific

488
00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:17,119
molecular gases we absolutely expect to see outgassing from an

489
00:24:17,319 --> 00:24:19,039
icy body as it heats up near the sun.

490
00:24:19,240 --> 00:24:22,400
Speaker 2: So comet signatures were found eventually, faint ones.

491
00:24:22,519 --> 00:24:26,160
Speaker 1: Yes. Mitchelli interprets these faint signals as a clear indication

492
00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:28,440
that three I at Liss is indeed waking up near

493
00:24:28,480 --> 00:24:30,480
the sun, just like a normal comet would.

494
00:24:30,559 --> 00:24:33,599
Speaker 2: So maybe the no comet lines was just too early

495
00:24:34,039 --> 00:24:35,640
or too subtle initially.

496
00:24:35,440 --> 00:24:39,559
Speaker 1: That's the suggestion. Perhaps the activity was extremely subtle at first,

497
00:24:39,599 --> 00:24:43,200
just beginning hard to detect, or maybe the initial observations

498
00:24:43,359 --> 00:24:47,279
just missed it. It's a critical reminder that observation is

499
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:51,400
rarely black and white, right, especially with distant, fast moving things.

500
00:24:51,680 --> 00:24:54,920
Initial readings can be incomplete or just change as the

501
00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:55,799
object evolves.

502
00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:59,960
Speaker 2: So if those fainter comet lines are there, how does

503
00:25:00,079 --> 00:25:03,759
the conventional wisdom explain the really weird stuff? The blast

504
00:25:03,759 --> 00:25:07,480
furnace glow, the leading edge brightness, that crazy eighty percent

505
00:25:07,480 --> 00:25:12,160
efficiency that still seems to defy a simple, dirty snowball model.

506
00:25:12,359 --> 00:25:15,319
Speaker 1: That is absolutely the persistent challenge for the conventional view,

507
00:25:15,319 --> 00:25:17,680
and it's a very active area of research right now.

508
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:20,200
Speaker 2: They don't have a slam dunk explanation for the glow yet, not.

509
00:25:20,319 --> 00:25:24,559
Speaker 1: One single universally accepted natural phenomenon that neatly accounts for

510
00:25:24,599 --> 00:25:27,839
all the observed characteristics, especially the energy output and efficiency,

511
00:25:28,279 --> 00:25:31,480
as cleanly as Lub's artificial hypothesis attempts to.

512
00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:32,640
Speaker 2: So what are the ideas.

513
00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:36,640
Speaker 1: Some theories proposed maybe three i atlis has an unusually

514
00:25:36,759 --> 00:25:40,880
high concentration of super volatile compounds, things that react very

515
00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:44,880
strongly to even faint sunlight, creating a brighter than expected

516
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:46,839
but still natural emission.

517
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:47,359
Speaker 2: Okay.

518
00:25:47,759 --> 00:25:51,480
Speaker 1: Others suggest maybe a peculiar surface composition or a highly

519
00:25:51,559 --> 00:25:54,480
porous structure that could trap and reflect light in weird

520
00:25:54,519 --> 00:25:59,240
ways or even amplify faint emissions somehow unusual geology essentially,

521
00:25:59,319 --> 00:26:03,519
but nothing conquer nothing that ties it all together perfectly. However,

522
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:06,440
the argument from the mainstream is just because we don't

523
00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:09,240
have the complete natural explanation yet doesn't mean we should

524
00:26:09,319 --> 00:26:12,359
leap to extraordinary conclusions like alien reactor.

525
00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:15,279
Speaker 2: Right, absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence, or in

526
00:26:15,319 --> 00:26:17,799
this case, absence of a natural explanation isn't proof of

527
00:26:17,839 --> 00:26:19,240
an artificial one exactly.

528
00:26:19,559 --> 00:26:23,000
Speaker 1: Science often works by gradually refining our understanding of complex

529
00:26:23,079 --> 00:26:25,960
natural stuff, and three atlasts might just be a particularly

530
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:29,599
extreme example that's pushing the boundaries of our current comet models.

531
00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:32,400
It might force us to update those models and adding

532
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:35,799
more weight to the natural origin theory. The zwiki transient

533
00:26:35,799 --> 00:26:40,119
facility another big observatory great at Wide Field surveysf They

534
00:26:40,200 --> 00:26:43,559
released time lapse data of three iatlists and what they

535
00:26:43,599 --> 00:26:46,720
saw was a clear periodic increase.

536
00:26:46,319 --> 00:26:49,880
Speaker 2: In brightness, periodic like regular pulsing.

537
00:26:49,559 --> 00:26:51,440
Speaker 1: Happening every seven point four hours.

538
00:26:51,799 --> 00:26:53,039
Speaker 2: Okay, what does that suggest?

539
00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:57,480
Speaker 1: That periodicity is a classic telltale sign of an object rotating,

540
00:26:58,039 --> 00:27:01,200
and a rotation period of seven point four hours that's

541
00:27:01,559 --> 00:27:04,000
common in elongated cometary nuclei.

542
00:27:04,160 --> 00:27:06,279
Speaker 2: So it's spinning like a typical comet.

543
00:27:06,039 --> 00:27:09,039
Speaker 1: Mite pretty much as a comet tumbles, and they're often

544
00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:12,680
sort of oblong, potato shaped. Different facets catch the sunlight

545
00:27:12,799 --> 00:27:15,960
or out gas volatiles at different rates as it spins.

546
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:18,519
Speaker 2: Leading to regular fluctuations and brightness exactly.

547
00:27:18,680 --> 00:27:22,119
Speaker 1: This observation fits very neatly into the standard understanding of

548
00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:26,359
cometary behavior. It offers a straightforward natural explanation for at

549
00:27:26,440 --> 00:27:28,200
least some of the observed changes in light.

550
00:27:28,319 --> 00:27:30,960
Speaker 2: Okay, so that's a point for the comic camp definitely.

551
00:27:30,599 --> 00:27:33,759
Speaker 1: For these researchers, their bottom line is pretty clear. Despite

552
00:27:33,759 --> 00:27:36,519
all the drama and the weirdness, three I Atlas is

553
00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:39,839
probably just another dirty snowball, albeit.

554
00:27:39,519 --> 00:27:42,400
Speaker 2: A whopper, a very big, very puzzling snowball.

555
00:27:42,039 --> 00:27:47,960
Speaker 1: Maybe exactly, unusually large, maybe unusually inactive initially, maybe unusually structured,

556
00:27:48,519 --> 00:27:51,640
but ultimately still within the realm of natural phenomena, even

557
00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:54,759
if it's an exceptionally strange one a pattern.

558
00:27:55,079 --> 00:27:58,400
Speaker 2: Or just better telescopes the itthorical.

559
00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:00,200
Speaker 1: Context, it really is like the universe is giving us

560
00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:02,079
this cosmic roar shock.

561
00:28:02,119 --> 00:28:03,440
Speaker 2: Test is it? It feels like it?

562
00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:06,160
Speaker 1: What do you see exactly? Objects that make us question

563
00:28:06,279 --> 00:28:09,200
our neat little categories. And to really get a handle

564
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:11,519
on this debate around three ialis it helps to put

565
00:28:11,519 --> 00:28:15,160
it in context with its predecessors, the other interstellar visitors

566
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:16,200
we've met recently.

567
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:19,279
Speaker 2: The previous two Yeah, Ummua and boris right, Back.

568
00:28:19,079 --> 00:28:21,720
Speaker 1: In twenty seventeen, we had um Umua, the first one

569
00:28:21,759 --> 00:28:25,400
ever confirmed, zipped through famously accelerated away from the Sun

570
00:28:25,440 --> 00:28:27,279
with no visible jets, no coma.

571
00:28:27,039 --> 00:28:29,000
Speaker 2: Which is what sparked the initial light sale debate.

572
00:28:29,039 --> 00:28:32,559
Speaker 1: Precisely, it was just weird flatten tumbling. Didn't look or

573
00:28:32,599 --> 00:28:35,480
act like any comet or asteroid we knew, which led

574
00:28:35,519 --> 00:28:39,039
to Avilobe to propose as controversial but fascinating light sale

575
00:28:39,079 --> 00:28:43,519
idea a potential alien probe. It was a real enigma, set.

576
00:28:43,279 --> 00:28:44,519
Speaker 2: The stage for strangeness.

577
00:28:44,599 --> 00:28:48,319
Speaker 1: Then fast forward to twenty nineteen and Boris arrives, and

578
00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:52,119
this object, by contrast, acted like a textbook comet from

579
00:28:52,119 --> 00:28:52,960
another star.

580
00:28:53,039 --> 00:28:56,720
Speaker 2: Totally normal, almost boringly so compared to ummum woah.

581
00:28:56,759 --> 00:29:00,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, it had a clear coma, a distinct tail out

582
00:29:00,359 --> 00:29:04,599
gas like crazy. It behaved exactly as our models predicted

583
00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:06,799
an icy wanderer from another system should.

584
00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:09,680
Speaker 2: It was reassuring in a way made us think Umuo

585
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:11,759
was maybe just a one off weirdo right.

586
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:16,119
Speaker 1: It reinforced our conventional understanding, brought back a sense of normalcy.

587
00:29:16,559 --> 00:29:20,119
Astronomers breathed a sigh of relief, thinking, Okay, the universe

588
00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:23,079
mostly makes sense. And now here in twenty twenty five

589
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:24,799
we get three i at lists.

590
00:29:24,839 --> 00:29:25,880
Speaker 2: The plot twist, and.

591
00:29:25,960 --> 00:29:29,240
Speaker 1: Our sources aptly describe it as an object that refuses

592
00:29:29,279 --> 00:29:30,079
to pick a side.

593
00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:31,640
Speaker 2: It's not clearly one or the other.

594
00:29:31,839 --> 00:29:35,200
Speaker 1: No, it presents this unique, almost contradictory blend. You've got

595
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:38,960
the startling anomalies, that intense forward to glow, the improbable orbit,

596
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:39,799
the huge.

597
00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:41,720
Speaker 2: Size, all the stuff pointing towards something weird.

598
00:29:41,799 --> 00:29:45,079
Speaker 1: But then you have these faint, intriguing hints of familiarity,

599
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:48,680
the cyanogen, the diatomic carbon, the rotation period.

600
00:29:48,359 --> 00:29:50,720
Speaker 2: The little bits that whisper comet exactly.

601
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:55,160
Speaker 1: It's neither a clear Umamoua like enigma demanding a totally

602
00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:59,240
new explanation. Nor is it a straightforward Boris like comet

603
00:29:59,279 --> 00:30:00,599
that fits neatly in a box.

604
00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:01,480
Speaker 2: It's ambiguous.

605
00:30:01,599 --> 00:30:06,240
Speaker 1: Precisely. This ambiguity, this cantilizing mix of the familiar and

606
00:30:06,279 --> 00:30:09,000
the utterly basket, that's what makes us so compelling, so

607
00:30:09,119 --> 00:30:10,319
scientifically juicy.

608
00:30:10,680 --> 00:30:13,480
Speaker 2: It's almost like the universe decided to mash up the

609
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:15,759
weirdest parts of Ummua and the most normal parts of

610
00:30:15,799 --> 00:30:18,519
Boris into one object, just to mess with us.

611
00:30:18,599 --> 00:30:20,680
Speaker 1: They're right, just to keep us on our toes.

612
00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:24,519
Speaker 2: And this dichotomy, this ambiguity, is absolutely critical when you

613
00:30:24,559 --> 00:30:26,759
try to interpret the bigger picture. Yeah is there a

614
00:30:26,799 --> 00:30:27,640
trend here? Yeah?

615
00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:28,359
Speaker 1: What is the trend?

616
00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:32,039
Speaker 2: Well, low Ebb naturally sees a profound trend emerging from

617
00:30:32,079 --> 00:30:32,960
these three visitors.

618
00:30:33,079 --> 00:30:34,000
Speaker 1: How does he frame it?

619
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:37,279
Speaker 2: You've used it as a progression. First umu wum wah

620
00:30:37,279 --> 00:30:40,920
a possible light sail, Then boris a normal comment, and

621
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:44,480
now three i atlis a potential nuclear craft.

622
00:30:44,759 --> 00:30:48,400
Speaker 1: So increasingly complex or puzzling objects the hymn.

623
00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:51,440
Speaker 2: Yes, it suggests maybe a pattern hinting at a diversity

624
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:54,720
of technologies, or maybe just bizarre natural phenomena that were

625
00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:57,279
only just starting to glimpse from outside our solar system.

626
00:30:57,400 --> 00:31:00,000
Speaker 1: It's an exciting narrative, if true, very.

627
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:03,680
Speaker 2: If highly speculative. It paints a picture of a universe

628
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:09,759
potentially more populated, more active, maybe weirder than we once imagined. However,

629
00:31:10,839 --> 00:31:14,519
the critics offer a more grounded interpretation, though still significant.

630
00:31:15,119 --> 00:31:19,119
They largely see better telescopes and observational biases.

631
00:31:19,279 --> 00:31:22,359
Speaker 1: Ah, so it's not the objects changing, it's us getting

632
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:23,480
better at seeing them.

633
00:31:23,559 --> 00:31:28,079
Speaker 2: That's the argument. Our observational capabilities are improving exponentially year

634
00:31:28,119 --> 00:31:32,160
after year. Yeah, new telescopes, better detectors, smarter algorithms.

635
00:31:32,160 --> 00:31:34,279
Speaker 1: We can see fainter things, more detail.

636
00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:38,759
Speaker 2: Exactly, our ability to detect fater objects, analyze more subtle features,

637
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:42,319
track paths with insane precision. It's all getting much better.

638
00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:44,480
Speaker 1: So maybe we're just now able to spot the really

639
00:31:44,559 --> 00:31:47,680
unusual natural objects, the outliers.

640
00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:50,599
Speaker 2: That's the idea. We can now spot the truly anomalous

641
00:31:50,839 --> 00:31:53,480
natural comments, or maybe just the more unusual ones that

642
00:31:53,559 --> 00:31:56,680
would have previously just zipped by unnoticed or maybe got

643
00:31:56,680 --> 00:31:58,759
misclassified as a dim asteroid or something.

644
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:03,119
Speaker 1: So what lobes as a trend of exotic visitors.

645
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:06,920
Speaker 2: Critics ce as our technology simply revealing more detail about

646
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:11,200
the inherent and maybe extreme diversity of natural objects out there.

647
00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:15,519
It leads to more questions about nature, not necessarily about aliens.

648
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:18,319
Speaker 1: So is it aliens or is it just better glasses?

649
00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:20,799
Speaker 2: That's a good way to put it, and the truth

650
00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:23,920
our source notes quite wisely, I think that the truth

651
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:26,000
is probably hiding in the gap between.

652
00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:30,680
Speaker 1: Those viewpoints, somewhere between radical speculation and cautious empiricism exactly.

653
00:32:31,079 --> 00:32:34,119
Speaker 2: And it's this tension, this gap between competing ideas that

654
00:32:34,240 --> 00:32:38,039
really drives science forward. It pushes us to get new observations,

655
00:32:38,240 --> 00:32:42,079
ask deeper questions, and really refine what we understand.

656
00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:44,240
Speaker 1: The race against time a closing window.

657
00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:48,079
Speaker 2: But this isn't just some leisurely academic debate. Fascinating as

658
00:32:48,119 --> 00:32:48,400
it is.

659
00:32:48,559 --> 00:32:49,960
Speaker 1: No you mentioned the urgency.

660
00:32:50,160 --> 00:32:52,960
Speaker 2: There's a frantic sprint against the clock happening right now.

661
00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:56,960
The urgency surrounding three ilis is palpable in the scientific community.

662
00:32:57,039 --> 00:32:57,680
Speaker 1: Why the rush.

663
00:32:57,759 --> 00:33:00,480
Speaker 2: It's flying through right right, but it's flying out. Our

664
00:33:00,519 --> 00:33:06,079
sources emphasize this critical and rapidly shrinking time frame. If

665
00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:09,200
three I Atlas is an artificial probe, we have maybe

666
00:33:09,319 --> 00:33:13,319
six months before its sling shots past Jupiter and gone forever.

667
00:33:13,640 --> 00:33:17,160
Speaker 1: Six months. That's not long in astronomical.

668
00:33:16,559 --> 00:33:19,480
Speaker 2: Terms, not at all. This isn't a static target sitting

669
00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:23,160
there waiting for us. It's a transient visitor, rapidly departing

670
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:28,960
our cosmic neighborhood. The window forgetting definitive answers is incredibly.

671
00:33:28,400 --> 00:33:31,599
Speaker 1: Narrow, unprecedented time pressure almost pretty much.

672
00:33:32,079 --> 00:33:34,160
Speaker 2: But even if it turns out to be completely natural,

673
00:33:34,559 --> 00:33:38,960
just a comet, the stakes are still incredibly high for observation. Why,

674
00:33:39,559 --> 00:33:43,400
if it's natural, every telescope on or above Earth still

675
00:33:43,440 --> 00:33:46,079
owns a once in a lofetime chance to watch a

676
00:33:46,079 --> 00:33:49,200
pristine relic from another star evaporate under our sun.

677
00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:52,599
Speaker 1: Ah to see material from another solar system up close

678
00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:55,079
as it interacts with our sun exactly.

679
00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:57,839
Speaker 2: That would offer invaluable insights into the composition of other

680
00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:00,000
star systems. Stuff we've never been able to directly obsord

681
00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:01,119
at this level of.

682
00:34:01,079 --> 00:34:05,519
Speaker 1: Detail before, So, either way alien artifact or unprecedented natural comment,

683
00:34:05,599 --> 00:34:07,200
the chance to study it is fleeting.

684
00:34:07,559 --> 00:34:12,719
Speaker 2: Absolutely, the stakes are incredibly high for understanding our placed

685
00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:16,159
in the cosmos, how solar systems interact, what kind of

686
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:19,880
material or maybe what kind of technology gets exchanged between

687
00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:20,360
the stars.

688
00:34:20,559 --> 00:34:23,039
Speaker 1: It really is a beautiful example of how quickly the

689
00:34:23,039 --> 00:34:25,159
scientific community can mobilize, isn't it.

690
00:34:25,159 --> 00:34:27,199
Speaker 2: It truly is a global effort.

691
00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:32,280
Speaker 1: When faced with something this compelling, this urgent. The response

692
00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:36,800
from observatories worldwide has been immediate, very collaborative.

693
00:34:36,880 --> 00:34:38,039
Speaker 2: Everyone wants a piece of the action.

694
00:34:38,199 --> 00:34:43,280
Speaker 1: Definitely. The James Webb's Space Telescope arguably our most powerful eye.

695
00:34:43,079 --> 00:34:44,480
Speaker 2: On the universe JWST.

696
00:34:44,639 --> 00:34:47,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's already booked for twelve hours in mid August,

697
00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:50,719
specifically to hunt for heat signatures from three i.

698
00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:53,519
Speaker 2: Atlists using its infrared capability exactly.

699
00:34:53,599 --> 00:34:57,280
Speaker 1: Webb's amazing infrared vision is uniquely suited to detect those

700
00:34:57,360 --> 00:35:01,239
faint thermal emissions that could distinguish different energy sources. Is

701
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:03,400
it the low heat of ice turning to gas or

702
00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:05,400
the specific glow of a hot reactor?

703
00:35:05,519 --> 00:35:07,280
Speaker 2: A key test, and it's not just wet.

704
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:10,440
Speaker 1: The brand new Vera Reuben observatory one in Chili with

705
00:35:10,639 --> 00:35:15,079
huge camera, that's the one. It's unparalleled wide field survey power.

706
00:35:16,039 --> 00:35:19,079
It's going to be deployed to pin down rotation and

707
00:35:19,119 --> 00:35:20,039
surface composition.

708
00:35:20,119 --> 00:35:20,880
Speaker 2: How will it do that?

709
00:35:21,119 --> 00:35:24,559
Speaker 1: Its ability to scan huge areas of the sky deeply,

710
00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:28,679
over and over. That's crucial for watching the object's full rotation,

711
00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:33,480
detecting subtle brightness changes that might indicate outgassing jets, and

712
00:35:33,559 --> 00:35:35,800
refining what its surface is actually.

713
00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:37,360
Speaker 2: Made of, building a better picture over time.

714
00:35:37,519 --> 00:35:41,599
Speaker 1: Exactly, every single observation from every telescope, it either chips

715
00:35:41,639 --> 00:35:45,039
away at Loab's grand claim of an artificial probe, or

716
00:35:45,079 --> 00:35:47,639
it chips away at the standard comet model, maybe forcing

717
00:35:47,719 --> 00:35:50,719
us to revise it. Either way, it pushes our understanding

718
00:35:50,800 --> 00:35:53,880
closer to the truth. It's really a testament to human

719
00:35:54,039 --> 00:35:56,880
ingenuity and that insatiable drive to figure things out.

720
00:35:57,039 --> 00:35:59,199
Speaker 2: The decisive tests before New Year and.

721
00:35:59,199 --> 00:36:02,159
Speaker 1: These observations, especially the upcoming ones, they are just about

722
00:36:02,199 --> 00:36:03,880
gathering more incremental data.

723
00:36:04,039 --> 00:36:04,519
Speaker 2: No.

724
00:36:04,519 --> 00:36:08,400
Speaker 1: No, these are potentially make or break measurements. They could

725
00:36:08,440 --> 00:36:11,880
provide definitive answers about the object's fundamental.

726
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:12,679
Speaker 2: Nature, the smoking gun.

727
00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 1: Maybe potentially. The scientific community has zeroed in on three

728
00:36:18,280 --> 00:36:21,760
crucial tests that are expected to decide the debate.

729
00:36:21,559 --> 00:36:23,639
Speaker 2: Before New Year for the this year.

730
00:36:23,679 --> 00:36:26,719
Speaker 1: Wow, yeah, the timeline is tight. The results from these

731
00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:30,360
tests they won't just be interesting, they'll be truly monumental,

732
00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:34,039
regardless of what they reveal. Okay, These tests are specifically

733
00:36:34,039 --> 00:36:37,639
designed to give clear, almost binary answers that will either

734
00:36:37,679 --> 00:36:41,880
strongly support the artificial probe idea or firmly subment its

735
00:36:41,880 --> 00:36:45,280
identity as a natural, if weird comet.

736
00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:47,360
Speaker 2: An astronomical showdown, you could.

737
00:36:47,199 --> 00:36:50,320
Speaker 1: Call it that, and the results are very very eagerly awaited.

738
00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:52,679
Speaker 2: Okay, let's break down these three tests. What's the first

739
00:36:52,679 --> 00:36:53,440
crucial measurement?

740
00:36:53,719 --> 00:36:56,320
Speaker 1: Test Number one involves the infrared spectrum of three i

741
00:36:56,440 --> 00:36:58,119
AT lists in more detail.

742
00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:00,320
Speaker 2: Looking at its heat signature again but very precise.

743
00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:03,639
Speaker 1: Exactly as we touched on. Infrared light tells us about

744
00:37:03,639 --> 00:37:08,159
temperature and crucially, composition, and the predictions for this test

745
00:37:08,239 --> 00:37:11,239
are remarkably distinct. It gives us a direct way to

746
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:12,960
peak under the hood, so to speak.

747
00:37:13,039 --> 00:37:14,599
Speaker 2: Okay, what are the two possibilities?

748
00:37:14,679 --> 00:37:17,400
Speaker 1: If three i atlas is a natural comet doing its

749
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:21,519
comedy thing, worming up outgasing, it should brighten specifically at

750
00:37:21,559 --> 00:37:24,920
three point four microns due to organics.

751
00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:27,440
Speaker 2: Three point four microns Why that specific wavelength?

752
00:37:27,599 --> 00:37:31,000
Speaker 1: That wavelength is a well known spectral signature of various

753
00:37:31,119 --> 00:37:34,559
organic molecules like hydrocarbons, stuff we typically find in the

754
00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:37,400
icy nuclei of cognits as they heat up in sublime.

755
00:37:37,719 --> 00:37:40,440
It's a fingerprint for natural cometary material.

756
00:37:40,599 --> 00:37:43,559
Speaker 2: Okay, so three point four microns means comet. What's the

757
00:37:43,559 --> 00:37:44,039
other option?

758
00:37:44,159 --> 00:37:47,559
Speaker 1: However, if the object is powered by that compact nuclear

759
00:37:47,599 --> 00:37:52,559
reactor lobe hypothesized, then its infrared spectrum will spike at

760
00:37:52,639 --> 00:37:56,280
four point eight microns. Were hot uranium oxide close.

761
00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:59,840
Speaker 2: Four point eight microns a completely different fingerprint.

762
00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:03,920
Speaker 1: Completely different. That's the specific thermal signature associated with fission material.

763
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:07,440
Like uranium oxide operating at extremely high temperatures, So.

764
00:38:07,440 --> 00:38:10,920
Speaker 2: It's a clear either the specific wavelength of the brightest

765
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:12,519
infrared glow will be a dead.

766
00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:15,280
Speaker 1: Giveaway, like a cosmic fingerprin Yeah, telling as if we're

767
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:17,760
looking at space, dust and organics, or something much more

768
00:38:17,880 --> 00:38:21,079
energetic may be engineered. That's number two. This one is

769
00:38:21,119 --> 00:38:24,599
about looking for the subtle whispers of intent you could say,

770
00:38:24,719 --> 00:38:29,159
or just confirming natural processes. It centers on acceleration residuals.

771
00:38:29,559 --> 00:38:32,840
This means meticulously observing the object's precise.

772
00:38:32,519 --> 00:38:36,199
Speaker 2: Motion, tracking its path with extreme accuracy.

773
00:38:35,760 --> 00:38:38,960
Speaker 1: Extreme accuracy to see if it speeds up or slows

774
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:43,039
down by even a few centimeters per second outside gravitational predictions.

775
00:38:43,159 --> 00:38:44,039
Speaker 2: Centimeters per second.

776
00:38:44,039 --> 00:38:48,840
Speaker 1: That's tiny, incredibly tiny, but potentially hugely significant. All bodies

777
00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:51,519
in the Solar System move according to the very precise,

778
00:38:51,599 --> 00:38:56,119
predictable laws of gravity plus a little nudge from sunlight pressure. Right,

779
00:38:56,360 --> 00:38:59,679
Any deviation from that predicted path, no matter how small,

780
00:39:00,159 --> 00:39:01,000
needs explaining.

781
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:02,920
Speaker 2: Could a natural comet deviate?

782
00:39:03,159 --> 00:39:07,000
Speaker 1: Yes, a natural comet can exhibit slight non gravitational acceleration.

783
00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:11,639
It happens due to a symmetric outgassing. Basically tiny jets

784
00:39:11,639 --> 00:39:14,840
of gas shooting off unevenly, acting like minuscule thrusters.

785
00:39:14,920 --> 00:39:17,199
Speaker 2: Okay, so commets can push themselves.

786
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:19,800
Speaker 1: Slightly, slightly and usually in ways related to their heating

787
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:24,000
and rotation. But if we observe a consistent directed acceleration

788
00:39:24,079 --> 00:39:27,480
that doesn't align with any observed outgassing pattern, or one

789
00:39:27,480 --> 00:39:30,480
that's just too powerful to be explained by those tiny jets,

790
00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:33,559
then what that's a thruster at work. That's the quote.

791
00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:38,119
It would strongly imply an active engineered propulsion.

792
00:39:37,519 --> 00:39:39,559
Speaker 2: System, a non natural force acting on.

793
00:39:39,519 --> 00:39:44,039
Speaker 1: It, exactly, a deliberate external force at play, not just

794
00:39:44,079 --> 00:39:47,679
the passive forces of gravity and solar radiation. Like watching

795
00:39:47,760 --> 00:39:50,480
a boat move across a lake. If it changes course

796
00:39:50,559 --> 00:39:53,880
or speed without any visible sales or engine wake, you

797
00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:55,320
know something else is going on.

798
00:39:55,400 --> 00:39:59,719
Speaker 2: Wow, okay, mistering centimeters per second deviations? Yeah, that's incredible

799
00:39:59,719 --> 00:40:03,599
percent decision. What's the third test? This one sounds like sci.

800
00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:06,199
Speaker 1: Fi, it kind of does. The third crucial test is

801
00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:07,400
the radar echo.

802
00:40:07,239 --> 00:40:08,559
Speaker 2: Bouncing radio waves office.

803
00:40:08,679 --> 00:40:12,519
Speaker 1: Exactly. Our sources indicate that the deep space network dishes

804
00:40:12,559 --> 00:40:15,840
those giant radio antennas we use to talk to spacecraft.

805
00:40:16,199 --> 00:40:18,760
They're scheduled to bounce a signal off the surface next.

806
00:40:18,559 --> 00:40:21,559
Speaker 2: Month, a direct physical probe essentially using.

807
00:40:21,400 --> 00:40:23,239
Speaker 1: Radio waves to get a sense of what it's made

808
00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:25,760
of or at least its surface properties. And again the

809
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:29,159
expected results are distinctly different for the two main hypotheses.

810
00:40:29,559 --> 00:40:30,039
Speaker 2: Oh sir.

811
00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:33,920
Speaker 1: If three I atlas has a solid metallic hull, like

812
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:37,239
you might expect from an artificial probe built for interstellar travel,

813
00:40:37,719 --> 00:40:41,960
then the radar signal would return a sharp ping, a clear,

814
00:40:42,119 --> 00:40:46,719
crisp echo bouncing cleanly off a dense, uniform conductive.

815
00:40:46,239 --> 00:40:49,360
Speaker 2: Surface, like bouncing a signal off a metal sheet pretty much.

816
00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:53,559
Speaker 1: Conversely, if it's a porous, icy nucleus like a natural

817
00:40:54,039 --> 00:40:57,360
a jumble of ice and dustin voids the dirty snowball right,

818
00:40:57,719 --> 00:41:01,079
then the radar signal would smear the echo across several

819
00:41:01,079 --> 00:41:05,119
milliseconds mirriad. Yeah, the signal would scatter, maybe penetrate a

820
00:41:05,119 --> 00:41:09,199
bit diffuse within that less dense, more irregular structure. It

821
00:41:09,199 --> 00:41:12,599
would create a prolonged, fuzzy return signal instead of a

822
00:41:12,679 --> 00:41:13,199
sharp ping.

823
00:41:13,679 --> 00:41:17,159
Speaker 2: So sharp ping means maybe artificial hull. Fuzzy echo means

824
00:41:17,199 --> 00:41:18,920
probably natural comet nucleus.

825
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:21,519
Speaker 1: That's the basic idea. A very direct way to probe

826
00:41:21,519 --> 00:41:22,760
its physical composition.

827
00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:27,679
Speaker 2: Imagine the anticipation waiting for that echo intense. So regardless

828
00:41:27,679 --> 00:41:30,360
of the outcome of these three tests, the infrared spectrum,

829
00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:32,000
the acceleration check, the.

830
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:35,639
Speaker 1: Radar echo, we are guaranteed headlines. Either way, the results

831
00:41:35,639 --> 00:41:39,400
will be momentous, fundamentally impacting our understanding of this object

832
00:41:39,639 --> 00:41:41,159
and maybe the universe.

833
00:41:40,960 --> 00:41:43,960
Speaker 2: The stakes, the future, and the final mystery, and.

834
00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:48,119
Speaker 1: That window forgetting these answers. It's closing faster than almost

835
00:41:48,119 --> 00:41:50,840
any astronomical mystery we've ever chased, isn't It.

836
00:41:50,719 --> 00:41:53,280
Speaker 2: Really is a limited time engagement with the Cosmos.

837
00:41:53,360 --> 00:41:56,440
Speaker 1: Every single day, this object pulls farther from the Sun.

838
00:41:56,519 --> 00:41:58,519
It's cooling down, it's dimming.

839
00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:00,679
Speaker 2: Receding back into the inner stellar void.

840
00:42:00,840 --> 00:42:04,400
Speaker 1: Our sources indicate that by January twenty twenty six, it'll

841
00:42:04,440 --> 00:42:06,960
be beyond Jupiter and fainter than Pluto.

842
00:42:07,159 --> 00:42:10,199
Speaker 2: That far that's faint. Yeah, it's effectively.

843
00:42:09,679 --> 00:42:13,440
Speaker 1: Gone for us after that point. It's immense distance, it's faintness.

844
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:17,239
It'll render it virtually invisible to our current technology. No

845
00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:19,360
human telescope will ever catch it again.

846
00:42:19,599 --> 00:42:21,119
Speaker 2: Wow, that's final.

847
00:42:21,239 --> 00:42:24,159
Speaker 1: It feels very final. It means these next few months

848
00:42:24,239 --> 00:42:27,599
leading up to and including these decisive tests represent our

849
00:42:27,679 --> 00:42:31,079
only chance, our single opportunity to gather the data needed

850
00:42:31,119 --> 00:42:32,760
to understand this incredible visitor.

851
00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:36,599
Speaker 2: Adds an almost unprecedented level of urgency to these observations,

852
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:39,960
a frantic race against the cosmic clock. And this race

853
00:42:40,000 --> 00:42:43,039
speaks to the core of scientific curiosity, doesn't it, Maybe

854
00:42:43,039 --> 00:42:45,559
even a deeper human yearning to know what's out there?

855
00:42:45,800 --> 00:42:50,440
Speaker 1: Absolutely, the stakes feel incredibly high, not just for the

856
00:42:50,519 --> 00:42:54,800
scientists involved, but for well for humanity's understanding of its

857
00:42:54,800 --> 00:42:55,719
place in the universe.

858
00:42:55,800 --> 00:43:00,519
Speaker 2: Totally, and interestingly, our sources note that even Lobe's harshest critics,

859
00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:03,840
the ones who are publicly very skeptical, yeah, admit quietly

860
00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:06,800
they're kind of rooting for him to be right. Really why,

861
00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:11,960
because a confirmed alien craft rewrites textbooks overnight.

862
00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:15,239
Speaker 1: It would be the biggest discovery ever period.

863
00:43:14,840 --> 00:43:18,920
Speaker 2: Without hyperbole, Yes, the most profound discovery in human history.

864
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:22,039
It would fundamentally alter our understanding of life in the universe,

865
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:27,199
its prevalence, its capabilities, our own potential isolation or lack thereof.

866
00:43:26,880 --> 00:43:31,960
Speaker 1: The implications philosophical, religious, technological, our whole self perception. It

867
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:32,519
would all.

868
00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:37,960
Speaker 2: Shift immeasurable impact, sparking global conversations unlike anything we've ever seen. But,

869
00:43:38,719 --> 00:43:40,960
and this is important, even if the test confirm it's

870
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:43,519
just a natural object, the payoff is still immense. It

871
00:43:43,599 --> 00:43:44,960
really is a win win for science.

872
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:47,039
Speaker 1: How So if it's not aliens.

873
00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:51,400
Speaker 2: Because a confirmed natural comet still fills a giant hole

874
00:43:51,519 --> 00:43:54,840
in our understanding of how planetary systems spit material into

875
00:43:54,880 --> 00:43:55,599
the void.

876
00:43:55,519 --> 00:43:59,119
Speaker 1: Ah understanding the stuff between the stars exactly.

877
00:43:59,159 --> 00:44:02,960
Speaker 2: We'd gain valuable first hand insights into the composition of

878
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:06,679
material from other star systems. What are their building blocks, like,

879
00:44:06,679 --> 00:44:07,840
how do they compare to ours?

880
00:44:07,960 --> 00:44:12,360
Speaker 1: We learn more about how planets form and get ejected elsewhere, right, and.

881
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:16,199
Speaker 2: The sheer diversity of objects drifting through interstellar space, carrying

882
00:44:16,239 --> 00:44:20,880
the cosmic history of distant suns. Both outcomes, advanced tech

883
00:44:21,039 --> 00:44:24,960
or spectacular natural phenomenon are incredibly valuable.

884
00:44:25,039 --> 00:44:28,079
Speaker 1: Either answer propels our knowledge forward in profound ways.

885
00:44:28,119 --> 00:44:31,360
Speaker 2: Precisely, it's not a zero sum game. It's a monumental

886
00:44:31,400 --> 00:44:33,920
win for science regardless of the ultimate answer.

887
00:44:34,039 --> 00:44:36,280
Speaker 1: So what does this all mean for us right now

888
00:44:36,360 --> 00:44:40,360
standing here on the cusp of this cosmic revelation? Yeah,

889
00:44:40,480 --> 00:44:43,440
it means we're living through a truly historic moment in astronomy,

890
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:46,119
on the edge of a revelation that could shape how

891
00:44:46,159 --> 00:44:47,960
we see the universe for generations.

892
00:44:48,159 --> 00:44:48,840
Speaker 2: It feels like it.

893
00:44:49,119 --> 00:44:52,840
Speaker 1: Our sources present us with these two possible tomorrows right

894
00:44:53,119 --> 00:44:56,079
starkly different. In one future, we wake up to headlines

895
00:44:56,119 --> 00:45:02,519
screaming NASA confirms alien reactor that morning. Just try imagine

896
00:45:02,519 --> 00:45:06,280
the global reaction, the reevaluation of everything, the sudden shift

897
00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:08,280
in our cosmic perspective.

898
00:45:07,800 --> 00:45:09,960
Speaker 2: A completely new chapter for humanity.

899
00:45:10,280 --> 00:45:13,920
Speaker 1: In the other future, astronomers quietly add another dot to

900
00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:17,880
the catalog of interstellar commets. They learn incredibly valuable things

901
00:45:17,960 --> 00:45:21,800
about natural processes, update their models, but without.

902
00:45:21,519 --> 00:45:24,519
Speaker 2: The paradigm shattering implications of finding et right.

903
00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:28,079
Speaker 1: Whichever future arrives, it hinges on measurements taken in the

904
00:45:28,119 --> 00:45:29,320
next one hundred nights or so.

905
00:45:29,559 --> 00:45:32,280
Speaker 2: This intense period of observation and analysis.

906
00:45:32,440 --> 00:45:35,800
Speaker 1: It will define our understanding of this extraordinary visitor, a

907
00:45:35,920 --> 00:45:38,239
race against time that will bring us closer to the truth,

908
00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:39,719
whatever that truth turns out to be.

909
00:45:40,440 --> 00:45:43,599
Speaker 2: So we've explored the incredible details of this enigmatic visitor

910
00:45:43,679 --> 00:45:47,639
three I atlas from its peculiar blastphoreness glow.

911
00:45:47,599 --> 00:45:49,840
Speaker 1: The weird leading edge brightness.

912
00:45:49,360 --> 00:45:53,000
Speaker 2: Right to its almost impossibly convenient orbital plane, and those

913
00:45:53,039 --> 00:45:54,519
close planetary flybys.

914
00:45:54,719 --> 00:45:59,360
Speaker 1: We've weighed the radical hypothesis artificial nuclear powered probe.

915
00:45:59,039 --> 00:46:02,760
Speaker 2: Against the more conventional, though still very perplexing idea of

916
00:46:02,800 --> 00:46:05,800
a natural, albeit enormous, dirty snowball.

917
00:46:06,000 --> 00:46:09,119
Speaker 1: We looked at the history umah moa Boris and asked

918
00:46:09,159 --> 00:46:12,119
if it's a pattern or just better telescope seeing weirder

919
00:46:12,239 --> 00:46:13,400
natural stuff.

920
00:46:13,119 --> 00:46:16,480
Speaker 2: Exactly The next few months really do hold the key

921
00:46:16,559 --> 00:46:20,480
to understanding its true identity, and the implications, as we've said,

922
00:46:20,519 --> 00:46:23,320
are just enormous, regardless of the outcome.

923
00:46:23,039 --> 00:46:25,800
Speaker 1: Whether it's a testament to the raw, untamed power of

924
00:46:25,920 --> 00:46:27,679
natural cosmic processes or.

925
00:46:27,639 --> 00:46:31,719
Speaker 2: Something far more deliberately engineered. The universe feels like it's

926
00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:33,719
about to show us one of its deeper secrets.

927
00:46:34,039 --> 00:46:35,920
Speaker 1: So as you go about your day, maybe you look

928
00:46:35,960 --> 00:46:39,320
up at the night sky tonight consider this. The universe

929
00:46:39,360 --> 00:46:42,480
is under no obligation to stay quiet, and sometimes the

930
00:46:42,480 --> 00:46:46,079
most profound discoveries aren't just about finding something entirely new,

931
00:46:46,320 --> 00:46:49,519
but maybe about having the courage to recognize the extraordinary

932
00:46:49,519 --> 00:46:52,079
in what we previously dismissed as ordinary.

933
00:46:51,800 --> 00:46:56,159
Speaker 2: Or conversely, having the rigor to robustly test those radical

934
00:46:56,159 --> 00:46:58,840
new explanations when the old ones just don't seem to

935
00:46:58,840 --> 00:46:59,840
fit the data anymore.

936
00:47:00,119 --> 00:47:02,880
Speaker 1: What if this object is some kind of silent sentinel

937
00:47:03,199 --> 00:47:06,000
watching us, or what if it's more like a cosmic

938
00:47:06,079 --> 00:47:09,519
seed carrying the potential for life across the vastness of space?

939
00:47:09,639 --> 00:47:11,079
Speaker 2: He questions, Keep watching these

940
00:47:11,119 --> 00:47:15,039
Speaker 1: Guys, definitely, but more importantly, maybe keep questioning what you

941
00:47:15,119 --> 00:47:17,239
think you know, what stands out to you about this

942
00:47:17,320 --> 00:47:18,440
incredible deep dive