COMMENTARY: 'Klaatu Barada Nikto' - No, Seriously, It Could Come in Handy
Donnie's a bit excited about a massive interstellar object headed to earth. In addition to being a great Thanksgiving discussion topic, it may prove a useful phrase just in case the aliens are inside.
By Donnie Johnston
COLUMNIST
Are we on the verge of encountering beings from outer space?
In case you haven’t heard, there is a strange object moving through our solar system that some scientists say does not fit the description of any asteroid, comet or rogue space rock that has thus far been observed and studied.
It has been named 3I/Atlas and is whizzing through the dark matter of space at some 135,000 mph. It is roughly three and a half miles in diameter and part of its surface appears to contain some kind of reflective material.
Now, don’t get too excited. Chances are that this is nothing but a comet, but whatever it is, scientists are almost certain that it came from another solar system somewhere out in the Milky Way. That makes it beyond rare.
But all scientists are not convinced that 3I/Atlas is really a comet. Some skeptics speculate that it just might be an alien spaceship or some other object made by intelligent beings that is, like us, searching for other life in the vastness of the universe.
This object will pass closest to the sun at the end of October and come closest to the Earth about a month later. We might just have beings from another world looking down on our Thanksgiving dinners.
If there is even the remotest possibility that this object is more than a comet, you can be sure that NASA and other members of the scientific world will be sending out radio or other signals in an attempt to make contact. And we will use whatever it takes to get a closer look at 3I/Atlas.
It is, of course, just a matter of time before we contact some other alien world, or more likely, they contact us. You don’t believe there are other beings out there? With billions of stars and billions of planets, the chances against us being alone in the universe are astronomical. As Jodi Foster’s character said in the movie Contact, if we are alone, it would be a big waste of space.
Yes, there will likely come a day in our future when a spaceship lands and someone (or some “thing”) gets out and says, “Take me to your leader!” Given the current leaders of the United States, China and Russia, the three greatest nations on Earth, this would not be a good time for that first visit.
Some argue that aliens have already been here and things like the Great Pyramids, the Nazca Lines and Stonehenge would seem to lend credence to that theory. Still, there is no direct proof.
But if there are other intelligent beings out there, they are almost certainly wondering about what is in the heavens above their planet just as we are. And if they are further advanced than us, they could well have visited Earth and returned home.
Or, they could have colonized Earth.
This, of course, would contradict the beliefs of most religions on our planet, but isn’t it possible that God created life on another planet and then used it to seed Earth? Just a thought to get me in trouble.
Some even speculate that humans originated on Mars and made their way to Earth when they realized that their changing planet was about to become uninhabitable.
I’m not sure about that, but I do not discount the possibility that beings from other worlds have visited Earth over the course of time. Given the restraints of time that is involved in space travel (wormholes may not always be open to traffic), they may only be able to return every 1,000 years or so.
Or maybe politics on other planets are much the same as on Earth and their congress halted funding for space exploration after the aliens’ last trip here.
Well, maybe the wormhole needed to get to Earth is now open, funding has been restored and 3I/Atlas is really a mothership bringing more alien scientists to study Earth. And it may be disguised as a comet (aliens may not trust earthlings – and for good reason) much as we hide our stealth bombers from radar.)
Or maybe these aliens are part of the group that landed at Roswell in the 1940s and they are returning to retrieve one of their own that was left behind.
Maybe these were not the “grays” but another race whose skin turns more and more orange with age. If so, I hope they find their man.
Is 3I/Atlas a comet or a spaceship? I guess we will find out in about a month. I’m hoping it is a spaceship, and it lands on the Mall in Washington (or maybe at Devils Tower).
I always did want to meet a space alien.
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Mr. Johnston has a lot of bandwith--aliens to canning tomatoes.