Politics of 31/atlas

One of the loudest political voices in the 3I/ATLAS controversy is U.S. Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida). Few days back, she has formally pressed NASA to release high-resolution images and data gathered during the comet’s close pass by Mars in early October. Luna argues that this data is crucial for understanding the comet’s nature and behavior, especially given its unusual color shifts and suspected “non-gravitational acceleration”. This push for openness is being framed by some as not just science advocacy, but a demand for accountability — in an era when big space agencies can seem opaque, especially on controversial or “fringe” topics. There are couple of theories on what 31/ATLAS really is, first it seems that NASA’s position had always been, 31/ATLAS is not an alien technology, it’s a natural space phenomenon. End of discussion, period. Another theory believes that 31/ATLAS is a chunk from other mini dwarf planets that orbits another star and for some unexplained phenomena it drifted towards our galaxy like Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov that continued to drift towards us, until the chunk or fragments of its structure gets close to our Sun. The clue to this theory is the fact that 31/ATLAS has a visible coma like any comet should have, the hyperbolic orbit movements technically fits its interstellar origin, and as for the weird look of 31/Atlas, it’s kinda expected because it has an interstellar origin, this is quite frankly normal. But regardless whether this theory stands its ground one thing’s for sure, the structure can still contain alien dust, ices and galactic chemistry that will always fascinate any space enthusiast. Another theory points to the possibility that this structure may be billions of years in origin, with its outer layers formed by cosmic radiation as it drifts between stars, what supports this theory is that it seems there’s an unusual CO₂ dominance vs. water, polarization of dust grains that are scattered on its surface which it seems also has a “chemically cooked” look. However another theory points to the observation that there’s a metallic hints on the structure, which means this mix of materials doesn’t typically match a comet as it points to the theory that 31/ATLAS is a debris from a planetary or intergalactic collisions. The faster than usual observable changes on its brightness level points to the notion that there could be lots of loose surface materials, which means the structure is very fragile and probably due to its cosmic collision origins. However at the heart of the mystery is still the politics of 31/ATLAS this raise further questions about transparency, national priorities, and how we fund and frame space exploration.