Overview
- SETI published a peer-reviewed study on June 3 reporting no radio technosignatures from 3I/ATLAS after more than seven hours of observations with the Allen Telescope Array.
- The team detected nearly 74 million narrowband candidates and narrowed them to about 200 signals that all traced back to Earth-based transmitters or Earth-orbiting satellites.
- Analysis places upper limits on any transmitter on or near 3I/ATLAS at roughly 10 to 110 watts across the 1–9 GHz band, comparable to the power of a household appliance.
- Independent astronomical data on composition and trajectory continue to support a natural cometary origin for 3I/ATLAS, which is now receding toward interstellar space about 1 billion miles from Earth.
- Researchers say the null result is scientifically useful because it validates rapid-response methods and sets practical benchmarks for future technosignature searches while alternative hypotheses remain unproven.