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Distinctive aspects of a visual display can grab our attention. This “attention capture” is particularly strong for new objects. Whether new objects per se, or the transient signals that often accompany them provide the basis for capture has been debated, however. We examined whether new objects capture attention in natural scenes, and focused on the importance of a transient signal. While viewing a scene, a new object appeared during a fixation such that it was a transient, or during a saccade, which because of saccadic suppression, eliminated the transient signal. Capture was measured by the eyes' propensity to be directed to the new object. In the fixation condition, 63% of the eye movements immediately following the onset were directed to the new object which accounted for 70% of first looks to the new object. The fixation during which the onset occurred was, on average, 95 ms shorter than all other fixations …