'It's Our Secret Weapon': Putin's Interstellar Joke On 3I/Atlas Comet As It Passes Earth

Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin playfully joked about the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS during his annual question-and-answer session held at Moscow's Gostiny Dvor on Friday. He jokingly described the comet, which passed the Earth, as Russia's secret weapon. The Kremlin chief was asked for his views by a journalist on conspiracy theories claiming that the interstellar body is actually a spacecraft or an object of artificial origin.

The journalist had asked, "I have a question about the unusual object 3I/ATLAS, which is currently approaching us. If the predictions are to be believed, today, December 19, either a spacecraft with an engine or just a comet will approach Earth. My question is this: what do intelligence services and Roscosmos report to you? Are there really signs of artificial origin? As funny as it may sound, there are indeed many theories and speculations. We…are ready to welcome any guests. But if they are from space, we would like to prepare. Secondly, is the date of our meeting today related to this forecast, since it's the first time we are summing up on a Friday?"

Putin responded, “Is your name Christina? I'll tell you, but it must remain exclusively between us. This is classified information. It's our secret weapon, but we will only use it in the most extreme case, because we are against deploying weapons in space."

He added, "Seriously though, it's a comet. Our scientists are aware of what is happening. Moreover, this is a comet from another galaxy, so it behaves differently from comets of our galactic origin. It has a different shell, and as it approaches closer to the Sun, slightly different processes occur on its surface, including in the field tail of this rocket. Things look different there. But it's quite large, I think somewhere between 2 to 6 km.”

Putin further said, “Look, the Moon is 400,000 km away from us, and the object you are talking about is hundreds of millions of km away. I don't think it poses any threat to us. We'll send it to Jupiter, and at the beginning of next year, the comet will leave the solar system."

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