3I/Atlas origin and trajectory: Interstellar object could have come from a 'conical disk'

Interstellar object 3I/ATLAS has several anomalies and strange patterns, as flagged by several scientists. Its trajectory is one of them. In fact, this is what revealed that it was travelling from outside the solar system. 3I/Atlas is travelling on a straight path, which brings it near some planet. Harvard scientist Avi Loeb has repeatedly called this highly unusual. In a blog post, he has again talked about the trajectory of 3I/ATLAS and why it is a hint that it has been sent by an intelligent alien civilisation. 3I/ATLAS passed within 29 million kilometres from Mars on October 3, and will encounter Jupiter on March 16, 2026, when it will be 54 million kilometres from the gas giant. He says that this shows a "near alignment by 4.89 degrees of the retrograde orbital plane of 3I/ATLAS with the ecliptic plane of the Earth around the Sun," and the chances of this happening are only 0.002. He also calculated the chances of it arriving right at the planets’ orbital radii, which stand at a mere 0.0002. When both components are combined, the chances of this happening together fall to less than a millionth.

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Loeb deduced location of these ‘extraterrestrial observers’

For a natural object to take such a perfect path through our solar system seems unfathomable, a reason why Loeb thinks 3I/Atlas is not a natural space rock. He further deduced the location of these extraterrestrials who could have sent this object. The professor says that for a civilisation to make such sharp observations about our solar system, with the asteroid belt around us, they need to have advanced telescopes, besides being located at a point from where they can peer through the stars and note the position of the planets. "If the planetary system around the Sun was discovered through a transit survey of stars, then the extraterrestrial observers who could have discovered it are located within a conical disk aligned with the ecliptic plane, from where the solar system planets appear to cross the face of the Sun," he wrote.

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How is 3I/ATLAS traversing while dodging hundreds of thousands of space debris?

He added that the observers could also observe the debris in the asteroid belt with advanced extraterrestrial telescopes, and their transits would show a characteristic orbital period of 3–6 Earth years. He has previously claimed that 3I/Atlas has a mass of 33 billion tonnes, while the biggest rocket built by humans, the Starship, weighs 6 million times less, only 5.5 thousand tons. So not only did they build such a huge rocket, but they also managed to put it on a path that brings it into our solar system without crashing into any of these objects in the asteroid belt.
This, he says, shows that the "telescopes used by the senders of 3I/ATLAS are capable of noticing transits by rocky objects that are smaller than Earth."

3I/Atlas anomalies

Loeb has, this time, detailed the problems and anomalies with the trajectory of 3I/Atlas, adding more calculations and insights. Its speed, light and size are some of the other anomalies the scientist has noted. Data from the observations made by Mars orbiters - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Express, TGO, MAVEN, Tianwen-1 and Hope is yet to be revealed. Meanwhile, Juice and Juno will also look at it in March. These are the only observations that will help reveal the true nature of 3I/Atlas.