When the news broke, the world didn’t know whether to panic or marvel.An object, the size of a small city, was entering the solar system—fast. Too fast.They called it 31/Atlas.It had no tail like a comet, no debris cloud like an asteroid, and no detectable gases. But it shimmered faintly, pulsing like a heartbeat. Some said it was a trick of reflected sunlight. Others knew better.In a remote observatory atop Cerro Paranal in Chile, Dr. Amara El-Khatib stood before a wall of monitors, her eyes fixed on the streaking enigma."Twenty kilometers wide," she whispered, brushing a lock of hair from