Harvard professor launches new project to uncover unidentified aerial phenomena

national

“If there’s anything there, we’ll find it.”

Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, or UAPs, also known as Unidentified Flying Objects, or UFOs, have long been a mystery. In addition to images captured by remote cameras on fighter jets and reports of UFO sightings, these flight phenomena have yet to be confirmed.

A Harvard professor takes further steps to explore and solve this mystery. On Monday, Avi Loeb, a professor in the university’s astronomy department, announced the launch of Project Galileo, which is dedicated to systematic scientific research to investigate these alien claims.

The initial inspiration for the Galileo project came to Loeb in two parts: both were objects identified near Earth that had appeared unusual. The first was “Oumuamua”, discovered by a telescope in Hawaii in 2017 and later known as the first interstellar object to visit this solar system. The second was the Office of the Director of National Intelligence report delivered to Congress on June 25, 2021. However, there were only unclear photographs of UFOs taken from fighter jets and testimonials from pilots.

“For me, it was very intriguing, the existence of two types of objects, and that’s what led to the Galileo Project, trying to understand the nature of these objects,” Loeb told Boston.com.

After the report was delivered to Congress, NASA Director Bill Nelson told CNN in an interview that he wanted NASA scientists to investigate UFOs from a scientific perspective. Loeb first contacted these scientists, but received no response, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

Loeb believed that the best way to identify these NAPs would be to stop relying on politicians or military personnel and, instead, use research and scientific instruments.

“It’s a win-win proposition,” Loeb said. “Getting more data, rather than relying on our biases, is a way for us to learn more about reality and learn something new. And this is how science progresses.

The team, made up of 16 researchers, is currently funded by $ 1.8 million from several donors, and the project will invest in a number of small aperture telescopes that will be placed in various geographic locations. The data from these telescopes will be transmitted to a camera, which will relay them to a computer system filtering objects likely to be of interest to the team.

The project has three distinct objectives that it aims to achieve. The first is to obtain high-resolution images of the PSU using the telescopes and data using algorithmic approaches and in-depth artificial intelligence / deep learning (AI / DL). The second is to search for and identify interstellar objects, similar to that of Oumuamua. The project will also research potential extraterrestrial technological civilizations, or ETCs, that could be orbiting Earth.

Although UAP investigations are already underway by the Department of Defense Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Working Group, or UAPTF, much of its information is classified data. Instead, the Galileo project will make its data transparently accessible to the public.

“Science is an extension of our childhood curiosity. I don’t want to believe past stories, reports and so on. I just want to replicate it with new data that we collect with our telescopes, ”Loeb said. “If there is anything there, we will find it. And we will find it transparently with open data, and nothing will be hidden. “

Just days after the announcement, the Galileo project aroused the interest of many. Loeb has received thousands of emails from young people interested in getting involved in the project. In the last six months that Loeb has been giving interviews, he has also attracted the interest of donors who have provided him with the funding that has laid the foundation for the project.

“I am excited by the thrill of finding something new,” Loeb said. “I think every time you look at the sky in a different way you will probably discover something new.”