A journalist from Tyumen asked Putin about the approaching comet 3I/ATLAS

On December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin answered a question from Kristina Smirnova, a Sibinformburo journalist from Tyumen, about comet 3I/ATLAS. Putin also replied to the statement about the possible artificial origin of the object that it was a comet, and it did not pose a danger to the Earth.

"Seriously, it's a comet. Our scientists know what's going on there. And this is a comet from another galaxy. Therefore, it does not behave like comets of our galactic origin. There is a different shell there," the head of state noted.

According to the Russian leader, the size of the object is estimated at several kilometers, and the distance to it is hundreds of millions of kilometers. In addition, Putin jokingly replied that if an object approached, it would be "sent to Jupiter."

"I don't think he poses any threat to us. We will send him to Jupiter," the president concluded.

He also expressed the hope that the comet will leave the Solar System early next year.

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On the same day, Putin jokingly called the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS a "Russian secret weapon," while emphasizing that Russia opposes the deployment of weapons in space. He explained that 3I/ATLAS is a comet of extragalactic origin, from another galaxy, so it behaves differently than comets originating from the Solar System.

At the same time, Avi Loeb, an astrophysicist and professor at Harvard University, suggested that 3I/ATLAS could be of artificial origin. The astrophysicist pointed out several strange features: the object's orbit lies almost in the same plane as the orbits of the planets (probability of chance 1 in 500), its axis of rotation points to the Sun (probability 0.5%), and there is also an anomalous "anti—tail" - a jet of matter about 1 million km long, directed not from the Sun. Like comets, but straight towards him.

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