Stephen Hawking’s terrifying UFO warning resurfaces as ‘hostile alien threat’ identified by Harvard scientist

A serious warning from the late physicist Stephen Hawking has come back into the spotlight after some Harvard scientists published a new paper suggesting that a comet flying through space might not be what it seems. Instead, they raised the possibility that it could be an alien spacecraft—specifically, a probe sent by an intelligent civilization to observe Earth.

The scientists behind this theory—Avi Loeb, Adam Hibberd, and Adam Crowl—wrote that the object, known as comet 3l/ATLAS, might not be just a regular piece of space rock. They speculated that it could be something built by aliens and possibly controlled by a form of intelligence. They also made it clear that if this idea is true, there are two likely options: either the aliens mean no harm, or they could be dangerous. In the case of the second option, humanity would need to prepare some form of defense.

That said, both the Harvard researchers and experts at NASA have emphasized that the most probable explanation is still the simplest one—that 3l/ATLAS is just a natural comet and not an alien probe. But just in case it’s something more, people have started talking again about UFOs and what it might mean if Earth really were being watched by extraterrestrials.

This situation brings back something Stephen Hawking said several times before he died in 2018. He warned the world not to be so quick to make contact with advanced alien civilizations. His concern was that if these aliens are much more powerful than us, they might not come in peace.

Hawking once explained that if aliens ever did visit Earth, it could be a disaster for humanity, similar to what happened when Europeans first arrived in the Americas. That meeting didn’t end well for the Native Americans—and Hawking feared something similar could happen if humans met aliens who saw Earth as a place to take over or strip for resources.

He believed that if a civilization had the technology to travel between stars, it likely would have used up most of the resources on its home planet and might be searching for another place to settle or conquer. So, instead of trying to reach out or send signals into space, Hawking thought we should remain quiet and keep a low profile.

This idea is closely linked to something called the “Dark Forest Hypothesis.” It’s a theory that says the universe could be full of alien civilizations, but none of them are making contact because they’re afraid. In this theory, every civilization is like a hunter creeping through a dark forest, trying not to make a sound—because they don’t know what kind of dangerous beings might be listening.

So, if aliens really are starting to show signs of their presence, the theory—and Hawking’s warning—suggest we should be very careful. Instead of welcoming them with open arms, we might want to think twice. Otherwise, we could find ourselves in a real-life version of War of the Worlds.