A mysterious object claimed to be an "alien battleship" reached its nearest point to the Earth on Friday, December 19.
Known as 3i/ATLAS, it traveled at an astonishing speed of 130,000 mph, passing at safe distance of 170 million miles, about twice as far as the Sun.
Most astronomers believes that the object is an interstellar comet but a Harvard University astrophysicist Avi Loeb said it might be an alien spacecraft, suggesting aliens might be visiting Earth, as per Sky News.
At the meantime, he also warned that "Alien technology is a potential threat because when you go on a blind date of interstellar proportions, you never know whether you have a friendly visitor as your dating partner or a serial killer."
"When there are implications to society, we must consider even an unlikely event and collect as much data as possible to convince us otherwise," Loeb added.
The object 3i/ATLAS was first seen in July as a tiny point of light in space and since then, it has moved quickly through the solar system.
Meanwhile, Amit Kshatriya, from NASA, said, "This object is a comet. It looks and behaves like a comet. All evidence points to it being a comet."
While, Professor Chris Lintott, an astronomer from the University of Oxford told an outlet, "It is just nonsense. It's like saying we should consider the possibility that the moon is made of cheese."
Notably, scientists claimed that the comet is about eight billion years old and is a cosmic fossil originated from the formation of a star somewhere else in the galaxy.
