According to controversial new research by a tiny group of scientists, a strange intergalactic object might be a “hostile” alien spacecraft that is scheduled to assault our planet in November.

“The consequences, should the hypothesis turn out to be correct, could potentially be dire for humanity,” the researchers wrote in the inflammatory paper, which was published July 16 to the preprint server arXiv, South West News Service reported.

The interstellar object, known as 3I/ATLAS, was found on July 1 hurtling at over 130,000 mph towards the sun, according to Live Science. It was verified as an interstellar object less than twenty-four hours later, although first observations indicated that it might be a comet, larger than Manhattan, with a diameter of up to fifteen miles.

The three researchers, however, hypothesised in the new report that it might be a disguised piece of alien spy gear.

Avi Loeb, a well-known Harvard astrophysicist who has made connections between extraterrestrial objects and extraterrestrial life, was one of the researchers who made headlines earlier when he proposed that the 2017 interstellar object ʻOumuamua might be an artificial recon probe sent by an alien civilisation due to its peculiar shape and acceleration.

Working with Adam Hibberd and Adam Crowl of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies in London, Loeb made the hypothesis that the track of 3I/ATLAS points to a similarly extraterrestrial origin.

According to Loeb’s blog post, the three believed that the object’s speed, which was far faster than that of ʻOumuamua and other items, as well as the fact that it reached our solar system at a different angle than its predecessors, offered “various benefits to an extraterrestrial intelligence.”

One advantage, according to Loeb, is that 3I/ATLAS will fly close to Jupiter, Mars, and Venus, which may enable extraterrestrials to covertly place spy “gadgets” there.

When the so-called undercover UFO reaches its closest to the Sun (perihelion) in late November, it will be concealed from Earth’s view. “This could be intentional to avoid detailed observations from Earth-based telescopes when the object is brightest or when gadgets are sent to Earth from that hidden vantage point,” Loeb declared.

The dark forest hypothesis, which contends that we haven’t discovered evidence of alien beings because they are hiding to protect themselves from predators or prey, may be supported if this anomaly is a “technological artefact.”

Loeb warns that this could suggest that an attack is likely and would “possibly require defensive measures to be undertaken.”