The "mystery alien spaceship" dubbed 3I/ATLAS has done something very odd on its approach towards the sun - and it really could mean alien life is real. While initially referred to as a comet, the space lump actually took on a slightly different appearance and behaviour compared to others, leaving one scientist particularly baffled.

Harvard theoretical physicist Avi Loeb has warned for months that the object could be an "extraterrestrial artefact" which may be about to make first contact - and it appears that there could be some truth to that.

According to astronomers at Auburn University in Alabama, who used NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to watch the object this week, the rock (or alien craft, for the purposes of fun) was seen spouting out hydroxyl gas.

What's hydroxyl gas? I hear you ask . . .

Well, this is the chemical fingerprint of water, and it could prove that there is life in other solar systems of some kind, as it released the gas during its approach to the sun.

What makes it more unusual, is that the approach of other comets is usually silent, so the spouting of gas is something very rare - the experts claimed.

It was also found that the comet/craft was losing water at around 40kg per second as the ice on its surface turned to gas on approach.

The beast is expected to be most active today as it has now reached what is known as "perihelion," or its closest point to the sun.

Dennis Bodewits, professor of physics at Auburn said: "When we detect water - or even its faint ultraviolet echo, OH - from an interstellar comet, we're reading a note from another planetary system. It tells us that the ingredients for life's chemistry are not unique to our own."

And Zexi Xing, postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study, added: "Every interstellar comet so far has been a surprise. Previous interstellar comets Oumuamua was dry, Borisov was rich in carbon monoxide, and now ATLAS is giving up water at a distance where we didn't expect it. Each one is rewriting what we thought we knew about how planets and comets form around stars."

Now that it has reached its key point, the mystery thing won't be viewable again until mid-November - so the truth really will remain out there for just a little bit longer.