Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb is known for his bold ideas. Recently, he’s been exploring the notion that the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, which most scientists think is a comet, could actually be a message from an advanced alien civilization. He even suggested that this object might be related to the famous “Wow! Signal,” a strange radio signal detected back in 1977 that still puzzles many experts.
In a recent blog post, Loeb also discussed a newly discovered object called 2025 PN7. He claims this could potentially be a remnant from a Soviet mission, the Zond 1, which launched in 1964. This “quasi-satellite” was captured by Earth’s gravity and has sparked intriguing theories about its origins.
Zond 1 was the second Soviet spacecraft sent to Venus but faced technical difficulties before it could reach its destination. Loeb, along with software engineer Adam Hibberd, retraced Zond 1’s path through space and found it could have orbited the Sun for decades. Their theory suggests that 2025 PN7 might be a fragment of Zond 1, or perhaps even the upper stage of the rocket that launched it.
Moreover, they propose that studying the spectrum of 2025 PN7 could provide insights into its surface composition, potentially confirming whether it has a technological origin.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time we’ve encountered a piece of human-made technology from the 1960s. In 2020, the Pan-STARRS telescope spotted an object named 2020 SO. It turned out to be the Centaur upper stage of NASA’s Surveyor 2 mission, which had been lost in space for over fifty years after a failed landing attempt.
Loeb’s theories raise fascinating questions about space exploration and our history. As we reevaluate our past missions, it’s clear that even the remnants of old technologies can lead to exciting discoveries and new understandings of our universe.
For more on this topic, you can read an expert analysis on Space.com.
