Overview
- The Green Bank Telescope conducted a targeted five-hour scan on December 18 and found no artificial radio emissions localized to 3I/ATLAS.
- To separate any comet-localized signal from background noise, the team alternated on- and off-source pointings every five minutes.
- Breakthrough Listen concludes the object shows a coma and an unelongated nucleus consistent with a natural comet, in line with NASA’s assessment.
- Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb says the null result does not exclude an artificial origin, citing the limited observing window and frequency coverage.
- With only a handful of interstellar objects known, researchers plan continued monitoring, including observations around a spring encounter with Jupiter.