| When Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb learned that the Central Intelligence Company had invoked its commonplace “neither affirm nor deny” response to a Freedom of Info Act request about 3I/ATLAS—an interstellar object at present hurtling by our photo voltaic system—he posed a query that has reverberated by UFO |
analysis circles: Why would America’s premier intelligence company classify the very existence of information a couple of cosmic object that NASA insists is merely a pure comet?© The UFO Chronicles. All rights reserved.
The contradiction sits on the coronary heart of an rising debate that challenges the snug consensus the scientific institution provided the general public simply weeks in the past. In November 2025, NASA held a press convention declaring definitively that 3I/ATLAS—solely the third interstellar object ever found coming into our photo voltaic system—was unambiguously a comet of pure origin, nothing extra. Administrator Nicky Fox said investigators had discovered nothing “that may lead us to consider it was something apart from a comet.” Case closed. Or so we had been instructed.
Then, on December 31, 2025, researcher John Greenewald Jr. of The Black Vault—an archive of tens of millions of presidency paperwork recovered by FOIA requests—obtained his reply from the CIA. The company would neither affirm nor deny holding any information, assessments, reviews, or communications about 3I/ATLAS. This response, identified in intelligence circles as a “Glomar response,” technically means nothing. It proves nothing. But its very invocation in response to what NASA portrayed as an completely mundane object has grow to be essentially the most compelling argument that one thing extraordinary might warrant authorities consideration.
The timing and nature of this response would barely warrant discover if not for the mounting physique of scientific anomalies Loeb has meticulously documented. The item displays a minimum of a dozen uncommon traits that standard cometary science struggles to clarify. It arrived at an orbital aircraft practically perpendicular to the solar—a trajectory so inconceivable that Loeb calculated the chances at roughly one in 500. Its rotation axis aligns nearly completely with the solar’s North Pole. Most intriguingly, spectroscopic evaluation suggests an outer shell composed partially of nickel, a steel chosen (by people) for spacecraft particularly for its superior heat-deflection properties.
NASA’s revealed photographs, captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter from a distance of roughly 20 million miles through the object’s October closest strategy, remained closely pixelated and underwhelming. In the meantime, beginner astronomers utilizing commonplace telescopes from Earth—observing from distances exceeding 200 million miles—produced dramatically clearer imagery. The disparity prompted accusations that the house company was obscuring extra detailed observations, significantly given the federal government shutdown that briefly restricted picture releases.
None of this proves the item is synthetic. But the constellation of anomalies, mixed with the CIA’s silence, creates house for reputable scientific inquiry. If the item is certainly a comet, what categorized evaluation may the CIA presumably conduct that nationwide safety exemptions would justify concealing?
Loeb proposes a reputable clarification rooted in institutional warning slightly than conspiracy: Maybe the CIA investigated whether or not 3I/ATLAS may symbolize a “black swan occasion”—an anomalous phenomenon with extraordinary implications. Maybe discussions about potential extraterrestrial expertise prompted categorized risk assessments meant to forestall public panic over a state of affairs authorities deemed inconceivable however not unimaginable. If the intelligence group took the distant risk of an alien probe severely sufficient to generate inside communications, these communications would qualify as categorized below FOIA exemptions defending intelligence strategies.
This interpretation differs from assuming intentional deception. It suggests as an alternative that the federal government compartmentalized severe consideration of a unprecedented risk whereas NASA delivered essentially the most scientifically snug public messaging. Scientists usually function inside institutional hierarchies that reward cautious statements aligned with peer consensus. Intelligence companies function in another way, tasked with assessing low-probability, high-consequence eventualities exactly as a result of their penalties can be catastrophic.
The item will make its closest strategy to Jupiter on March 16, 2026—a chance for unprecedented commentary by superior telescopes. Loeb has advocated for complete examination at that second. The basic query stays unresolved: whether or not 3I/ATLAS is certainly a “white swan” occasion—a pure cosmic object touring by house—or one thing decidedly darker and extra complicated than the official narrative acknowledges.
What appears more and more clear is that the total story stays categorized. Whether or not that classification serves reputable safety pursuits or merely bureaucratic inertia, the American public deserves transparency about phenomena that would reshape our understanding of life within the universe.
