{"id":3966,"date":"2026-06-30T20:11:47","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3966"},"modified":"2026-06-30T20:11:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:11:47","slug":"harvard-professor-with-polarizing-alien-theories-is-picked-to-lead-new-white-house-ufo-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3966","title":{"rendered":"Harvard professor with polarizing alien theories is picked to lead new White House UFO council"},"content":{"rendered":"<article>\n<div>\n<p><span>WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A polarizing Harvard astronomer known for splashy theories about alien visits has been tapped by the White House to lead a team of outside scientists to study the national security risks posed by UFOs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3964\">Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, rejecting Trump\u2019s proposed limits<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>Avi Loeb, a cosmologist who studied black holes and served as head of Harvard\u2019s astronomy department until 2020, was recently appointed to helm a new scientific advisory council tasked with investigating the origins of mysterious orbs and other objects reported by military personnel in recent years. It\u2019s part of President Trump\u2019s push to declassify more information about the issue.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Loeb\u2019s team will report to a new White House panel focused on UFOs, now often referred to as unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><span>\u201cIt\u2019s like a detective story,\u201d Loeb said in an interview. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of fun, as long as you don\u2019t pay too much attention to the critics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>For the last decade, Loeb has been scanning the skies and seas for evidence of intelligent alien life. He began the quest in 2017 as scientists puzzled over an interstellar object soaring by Earth. While others proposed it was a comet or ice chunk, Loeb said it could be a thin \u201clight sail\u201d detached from an alien spacecraft.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<div><span>Get Starting Point<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span>A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.<\/span><\/div>\n<div>\n<div><label>Enter Email<\/label><\/p>\n<div><button>Sign Up<\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>His theories have won praise in UFO circles but often put him in conflict with academic peers. Other astronomers accuse him of making exotic claims with little evidence. Some chafe at his habit of skipping the peer review process and bringing claims directly to the public.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Steve Desch, an Arizona State University astrophysicist who has challenged some of Loeb\u2019s theories, said Loeb uses flawed methods to reach wild conclusions about alien life \u2014 all while shunning a more established branch of science searching for life beyond Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Loeb\u2019s role on the White House panel casts doubt on the entire endeavor, Desch said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to come of this, but we\u2019re not going to get any closer to answering these questions with him in charge,\u201d Desch said.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h2>The team includes scientists, UFO activists and a billionaire<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>Loeb brushes his critics aside, saying they lack the imagination to consider new ideas. He\u2019s promising a grounded approach to his work for the White House. As he analyzes UAP, he\u2019s starting with the assumption that they\u2019re the work of humans, he said, approaching it from a national security perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Nonetheless, he envisions an outcome where his work could lead to something bigger. If the government invests in better data collection on UAPs, Loeb said, it could settle the alien debate once and for all.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>His hand-picked team includes more than a dozen scientists and UFO activists. Among them is Timothy Gallaudet, a retired rear admiral who has warned about UAP controlled by \u201cnonhuman intelligence,\u201d claiming the United States has recovered crashed aircraft. Also on the team is Ben Lamm, a billionaire working to revive extinct species.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>After its first meeting last month, the team sent a request to the Pentagon asking for more than 50 videos, images and other documents related to known UAP incidents. Loeb\u2019s group meets behind closed doors, but he has vowed to brief the public and create a website to share findings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3962\">Defending champion Jannik Sinner survives massive five-set scare in Wimbledon opening round<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAt a time when science is not so much celebrated, this is an opportunity to actually do good for all sides involved,\u201d Loeb said.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h2>New UAP board created in response to Trump\u2019s order for transparency<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>Earlier this year, Trump directed his administration to provide more transparency on questions of UFOs and alien life. So far, the Pentagon has released three batches of files ranging from decades-old FBI reports to more recent military videos showing orbs darting or soaring through the sky.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Trump\u2019s directive led to the creation of a UAP Governance Board overseen by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The board met for the first time in June, and is supported by Loeb\u2019s team and several other advisory groups, the office said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It comes as a bipartisan group in Congress pushes the White House to go further, with some Republicans amplifying claims the US is hiding evidence of alien encounters. The White House has encouraged anyone with information to come forward. A Pentagon office that investigates UAP says it has seen no evidence of alien life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Loeb said he doesn\u2019t buy into cover-up theories. \u201cMy impression is the government is baffled by not being able to infer the nature of some of these objects,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<h2>Before looking for aliens, Loeb studied black holes and galaxies<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>Before he became known for his alien theories, Loeb was a respected cosmologist who authored hundreds of papers, specializing in black holes and the birth of galaxies. He served as chair of Harvard\u2019s astronomy department for nearly a decade.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Loeb\u2019s career took a turn with his \u201clight sail\u201d theory in 2017, which he presented in a paper and later a book. He went on to found the Galileo Project at Harvard, with a stated mission to search for artifacts from alien civilizations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>His team drew attention in 2023 when they used magnets to retrieve hundreds of small spheres from the floor of the Pacific Ocean, near the possible site of a 2014 meteor crash. After analyzing the metallic \u201cspherules,\u201d Loeb suggested they came from a distant planet or, alternately, from alien technology.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Other scholars challenged the claim, saying it was probably volcanic rock or coal ash.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Sean Kirkpatrick, a physicist who previously investigated UAP at the Pentagon\u2019s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, said Loeb is \u201cnot viewed favorably\u201d in the scientific community and lacks national security experience. He said the makeup of Loeb\u2019s team suggests the White House is more interested in fringe theories than hard science.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The White House did not respond to a request for comment about the criticism.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Loeb, meanwhile, said he aims to follow the science without distraction. \u201cLet\u2019s keep our eyes on the orbs,\u201d he said, \u201cnot the social media.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=3960\">LeBron James not returning to Lakers, plans to play 24th season elsewhere, AP source says<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s part of President Trump\u2019s push to declassify more information about the issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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