“IT WAS LIKE a Christmas gift from the universe!” That’s how Ruben Vasquez, an astronomer for the European Confederation’s Planetary Warning System, describes last month’s fortuitous discovery of the interstellar comet 4I/Achamán on my videocall with him. The network of telescopes, clustered in the Canary Islands and other far-flung European territories, was built to detect asteroids posing an existential threat to life on Earth — but may have instead glimpsed a peaceful visitor.
Interstellar objects always generate buzz, and Achamán, the fourth found in the last decade, is no exception. In many ways it seems like a rerun of ‘Oumuamua, our first known starbourne visitor: it has the same cigar-like shape, similar brightness (apparent magnitude, as they say in the biz), and appears to have come from the same patch of the night sky, in the constellation of Lyra. Is it a coincidence? Vasquez is noncommittal: “I don’t think we know enough to say just yet. I think our best shot at an answer would be if we can just get a probe up there and find out.”
Many in the spaceflight industry agree, most notably Richard Branson. The CEO of Virgin Intergalactic and owner of Bebo has been outspoken about his desire to see what makes this space rock tick — and, more controversially, his belief that extraterrestrial intelligence may be responsible.
LOL -- Sad to see a once respectable publication put out this dross. Anyone who knows anything can confirm that the chance of alien life is VERY REAL. Yes, even "greys". Kary Mullis said as much and they ran him out of academia for it. 😂️🚀️ Strange how even suggesting we "yeet" something up there gets people irate.... RB
https://slatemagazine.com/thepitch/2026/01/10/no-comet-4i-still-isnt-aliens
So, what’s stopping us from “yeeting” something up there, as Branson put it? Three things, largely: time, money, and physics. Achamán is already on its way out of the solar system, and lorem ipsum dolor sit amet lorem ipsum dolor sit amet lorem ipsum dolor sit amet lorem ipsum dolor sit amet lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
Paid annuallyOr $12/month, paid monthly