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Harvard physicist says mysterious interstellar object could be nuclear-powered spaceship (FOX News) - Fact Check - Detail Page - C'est Vrai

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Context : A Harvard physicist has made an outrageous claim that a celestial object is, instead, a spaceship.

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    Harvard physicist says mysterious interstellar object could be nuclear-powered spaceship (FOX News)
    Greg Wehner / Aug. 21, 2025
    Claim :

    Dr. Abraham Loeb has made a remarkable conclusion about a celestial object entering our solar system from outer space, according to FOX News : "3I/ATLAS could be a spacecraft powered by nuclear energy, and the dust emitted from its frontal surface might be from dirt that accumulated on its surface during its interstellar travel."


    Disposition : False
    Findings :

    David Jewitt, an astronomer, has based his findings on basic observations, noting that 3I/ATLAS "has ice in the nucleus, and the ice gets warmed by the sun, and it turns into a gas. The gas streams away from the nucleus, and it blows out bits of dust, and then the bits of dust reflect sunlight and we see it as kind of a cloud or a coma surrounding the object. So it's an ice-containing body. It looks like a comet, so we think it is a comet. But it's a comet that doesn't come from our solar system. It comes from somebody else's planetary system somewhere else in the Milky Way, some probably very long time ago."

    (Source)

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Key : Claim and Findings are direct quotes from their respective sources. Any additional language, meant to provide clarity, if any, is indicated with brackets.