3I/Atlas could release tiny probes that may 'self-replicate' - 'Technological mothership' could reveal itself

Interstellar object 3I/Atlas will reveal itself in the coming weeks. Just as it reaches perihelion, that is, its closest point to the Sun, it might disintegrate into several pieces. This happens to a comet because of several reasons, such as outgassing or the gravitational force. If 3I/Atlas is a comet, the same thing is expected to happen. However, if it is not a natural object, as suspected by one scientist, it will skip this process. But in that case, he expects it to launch several mini probes that could go on to study our solar system. Harvard scientist Avi Loeb has once again raised the question of whether or not 3I/Atlas is a comet. He wrote in his blog, "If 3I/ATLAS is a comet of natural origin, it could disintegrate into fragments as it comes closer to the Sun."

"We should keep our eyes on this fuzzy ball of light and check whether it breaks up into independent, smaller dots of light," he added. This happens because of the heating by the sun. Some other reasons comets break up include gravitational tides and rotational stress from outgassing. However, this breaking up depends on the composition and material strength of the comets. Sometimes comets are weaker, such as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which was formed from smaller pieces that joined. Such comets can break up easily. Smaller comets are also vulnerable to falling apart because of thermal stress. Some comets, like 332P/Ikeya-Murakami, break apart because of rapid spin.

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3I/Atlas could release tiny probes that might replicate themselves

Which category 3I/Atlas falls into could be known after October 29. However, Loeb once again raised the possibility that it is an alien spaceship. He had earlier claimed that if the interstellar object is a "mothership", it could release tiny probes to plant them on the planets. "A fleet of smaller objects could also appear as a result of a technological mothership which releases min-probes to study multiple targets simultaneously," he wrote. However, this time, he made a fresh claim that these tiny probes meant for exploration could even "self-replicate", meaning create copies of themselves to cover several locations at once.

After 3I/Atlas comes out of the glare of the Sun, things could change dramatically. Loeb has earlier said that it could use the gravitational force of the Sun to fling itself towards Earth. That is quite a fat-fetched claim, but Loeb cites several anomalies he has noted since its discovery on July 1.