The Harvard astronomer dubbed Trump’s chief alien hunter starts by assuming UFOs human-made

Avi Loeb poses for a portrait at his home on 28 October 2023, in Lexington, Massachusetts. Photograph: Kayana Szymczak/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Avi Loeb poses for a portrait at his home on 28 October 2023, in Lexington, Massachusetts. Photograph: Kayana Szymczak/The Guardian The Harvard astronomer dubbed Trump’s chief alien hunter starts by assuming UFOs human-made Avi Loeb’s White House panel has asked the Pentagon for videos and files on unexplained aerial sightings A controversial Harvard University cosmologist who has suggested alien lifeforms could be sailing into the solar system disguised as meteors is leading the Trump administration’s secretive new scientific advisory panel on security risks posed by UFOs. Avi Loeb and his hand-picked committee have already begun looking into the origins of mysterious flying craft, now known as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and last month asked the Pentagon for dozens of videos, images and documents of reported encounters and incidents, the Associated Press reports . The panel, which meets in private, will report its findings to the White House, which has already begun opening the government’s UFO files with three public releases so far of previously classified material. Loeb, an Israeli-American astrophysicist who previously led Harvard’s astronomy department, told the Associated Press that he saw his appointment as a chance to educate a notoriously science-averse administration into what could be perfectly logical explanations for UAP. “My impression is the government is baffled by not being able to infer the nature of some of these objects,” he said. “At a time when science is not so much celebrated, this is an opportunity to actually do good for all sides involved.” He did, however, tell the AP that he was starting his work as Donald Trump’s chief alien hunter with the assumption that UAP was the work of humans, and approaching the task from a national security perspective. Some analysts say Loeb’s unconventional thinking about alien life, and fringe theories including a hypothesis last year that a comet passing close to Mars was a relic from a civilization in another celestial neighborhood, make his leadership of such an important and influential committee questionable at best. “I don’t know what’s going to come of this, but we’re not going to get any closer to answering these questions with him in charge,” said Steve Desch, professor of astrophysics in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, and a long-time Loeb critic. In a 2023 interview with the Guardian, Loeb, who also used to lead Harvard’s Black Hole Initiative studying one of the least understood astronomical objects, said his critics were merely jealous. “Childlike bullying is more prevalent than childlike curiosity in academia,” he said. “People just try to step on every flower that rises above the grass level. This negativity is very damaging because it suppresses innovation.” Even so, it