Take a deep breath. Reports that interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is breaking apart have been greatly exaggerated – and radio signals received don't mean the object is an alien probe .

In fact, quite the opposite is true: Every piece of evidence collected about 3I/ATLAS to date is consistent with a natural, cometary origin – a highly weird comet , to be sure, but a comet nevertheless. And, actually, that's really interesting and cool, without needing the assistance of imaginary aliens to make it so.

What is unusual about 3I/ATLAS is what it's made of. Observations with large telescopes reveal that it has a lot of nickel , a larger-than-usual proportion of carbon dioxide , and not a lot of common carbon-chain molecules .

Related: 4 Powerful Telescopes Agree: Interstellar Comet

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