With the recent discovery of the mysterious space object 3I/ATLAS, the third-known interstellar object directly observed by astronomers, debate over its origins—and even the possibility that it might be of technological origin—has captured the public imagination. Equally, they argue that a range of different types of technosignatures could essentially “hitchhike” across interstellar distances and arrive with an interstellar object. “Technology could either be active throughout an object’s interstellar journey, or wake from a dormant state upon arrival in the Solar System,” the authors write. As it continues its journey through our solar system, 3I/ATLAS has already been targeted by the Allen Telescope Array and observed by multiple observatories, including NASA’s Webb and Hubble telescopes. The team’s paper, “Technosignature Searches of Interstellar Objects,” by James R.A. Davenport, et al, appeared on the preprint arXiv.org server on August 22, 2025.