Object Spotted From Outside Solar System The Same Day As In The Documentary Film ‘Independence Day’

As was forewarned in the entirely scientifically accurate 1996 documentary “Independence Day,” this July 2 astronomers have detected an unknown object headed for Earth(ish) from beyond our solar system. Exactly like in the film on the same date, an interstellar visitor is heading towards us at tremendous speed and with no tail apparently visible, like on an ordinary comet. In a press conference, President Thomas Whitmore has declared, “The question of whether or not we’re alone in the universe has been answered.” He has urged us all to remain calm. Wait, sorry, our actual President hasn’t said anything about this yet.

Officially, this real-life object has been named A11pl3Z, per New Scientist, which I can only assume will also be the name of Elon Musk’s next child. It was first spotted by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) that NASA built to look for any asteroids that might, you know, impact terrestrially. While there’s no risk of that happening in this case, our interstellar friend (it is friendly, right?) is projected to pass between the Earth and Mars.

What is it? According to EarthSky, it is likely a 12-mile wide asteroid or comet from way, way out of town that just happens to be passing through our neighborhood. But according to the 1996 documentary, it’s — hang on, let me skip ahead here — oh no. Oh NO.

In news that surely isn’t ominous, interstellar visits have been getting more frequent lately. In fact, scientists only first detected an extrasolar object in 2017. Per EarthSky, this object, called ‘Oumuamua, was… well, nobody knows what it was, actually. That is comforting and I will sleep well tonight. The second object, named Borisov, was spotted in 2019 and was a comet. Sure. Definitely a comet. This third object should get closest to Earth in October and is projected to be the fastest of the three so far at around 90 km/s.

Objects hurtling through space are hard to detect, so the thinking is that interstellar visits like this happen with some regularity, and we’re only just now getting better at noticing them. That, or something started intentionally sending stuff our way a few years ago, and it’s ramping up now. Maybe because we’re getting so easy for aliens to find. Nah, it’s probably the former. We’re fine.

So if you happen to live in a high-population city anywhere on Earth, you should just stay put and not pay any attention to this at all. After all, Independence Day is coming up! Should be an explosive time. You should definitely, definitely not believe in any UFOs.