Damn. It seems to be official now: the mysterious object 3I/ATLAS isn´t an alien probe (pun unintended) but an entirely natural object. A kind of comet, in fact, made of "heavy water" and other mundane substances. Blasted!
On the positive side, the comet could be 12 billion years old (!) and give us clues to how solar systems were formed in the early universe ("early" if you believe in the Big Bang). Clue: probably not as ours. It struck me that this could have some kind of consequences, too. For instance, does it make it more likely or less likely that alien star systems might harbor intelligent life (or any life)?
