Harvard scientists believe an alien spacecraft could be approaching Earth soon, here's why

A mystery object moving towards Earth at high speed has Harvard scientists believing that aliens are finally on their way here. Let's find out.The entity that astronomers are calling 31/Atlas could be an ET craft set to launch probes on Earth.

Estimated at more than 12 miles wide, the object is speeding through the solar system on a path that will bring it within about 17 million miles of us on December 19, 2025.Now, a trio of scientists from Harvard University in America led by astrophysicist Avi Loeb have published a paper speculating whether it could be a "hostile" extra-terrestrial technology.“It’s an unusual size, unusual acceleration, unusual course and unusual behaviour — those things combined very closely match a sort of mapping or survey mission.

Of course, this could turn out to be just a comet or an asteroid — albeit an interstellar one, so interesting and incredibly rare.“The good thing is this is a testable hypothesis. The clock is ticking down. We will know soon enough whether we’re dealing with first contact . . . or just a big rock," said Nick Pope, retired Ministry of Defence UFO investigator.

He even set out 6 key theories proposed by Harvard experts about the mysterious object. Here's what they are:It's too large to be an asteroid, larger than the average.

Its rate of acceleration seems unusual for a natural object. According to the European Space Agency and Hubble Space Telescope calculate it's travelling at a speed of about 130,000mph and NASA says that at that speed, it's the fastest solar system visitor.The humans spotted it relatively late since it was coming in from the centre of the galaxy where there are a lot of obstacles. If someone wanted to covertly send a probe into our solar system, this is the exact course to choose.Its course makes it difficult to intercept as at critical points where it might perform technological operations, it is blocked by the sun.It's passing close to Venus, Mars and Jupiter which makes its trajectory seem like a mapping mission. There's a very low probability of it happening naturally.Humans won't be able to see it as at its closest approach, the sun will be between the Earth and Atlas.Thus, scientists fear it could be an alien ship sent to perform technological manoeuvres, or deploy some probes that would come to Earth.