Avi Loeb, the Harvard astronomer chosen last month by the White House to lead a UFO advisory board, believes he was appointed because federal officials are "baffled" by the numerous unidentified objects captured by the U.S. military over the past few decades.
Loeb, known for his claims that alien spacecraft may have already reached Earth, said his newly formed team of more than a dozen scientists is reviewing four sets of publicly available UFO sighting reports released by the Trump administration in recent months.
His mission began in early June, when a representative from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) visited his home and asked him to form a team of experts to study UFOs, which the US government now calls unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs). This is a general term that covers objects observed moving underwater and in space.
«"The U.S. government captivated me from the start," Loeb told Fox News Digital on Saturday. "The fact that they're reaching out to scientists like me tells me they're puzzled by what they're seeing and think maybe this isn't human-made.".
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The Loeb Council will present its findings to the UAP Governing Council, a newly created body under the leadership of ODNI.
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According to the council's website, Loeb and his colleagues will only study declassified UFO materials.
However, Loeb told Fox News Digital that he had requested 50 videos, images, and other documents related to known UFO incidents from the Pentagon and other agencies. These materials have not yet been provided to him, as the responsible agencies cited national security concerns.
«"The problem isn't so much the targets themselves. The point is that the sensors used were intended for national security. The US government doesn't want to reveal to hostile countries exactly which sensors were used. That's the main problem right now," Loeb said.
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Loeb's goal is to determine whether UFOs captured by the US military originate from other countries or are not related to humans at all.
«"In the second case, if it is not man-made, then it will be the greatest discovery in the history of science, and the US government will have the privilege of announcing that we have a neighbor," Loeb said.
Loeb tried to temper expectations, stating that many of the phenomena they study could turn out to be mundane. Often, he said, the strange-looking objects people see in the sky are simply space junk or failed satellites.
«"If they don't perform maneuvers that can't be explained by gravity, they should be considered space junk," Loeb said.
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Nevertheless, he praised the White House for its commitment to transparency on the issue. In February, President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon and other agencies to declassify files related to aliens and UFOs due to "enormous interest.".
One of the Loeb Council's key goals is to develop recommendations for improving sensors so that the government can more confidently detect UFOs in the future.
«"If we're dealing with drones with unusual characteristics, like those used by China, it would be good for the US to have more sophisticated sensors to help identify them. They're currently being described as spherical objects. They may not be drones, but I'm saying it would at least help national security," Loeb said.
Loeb made these comments after the Department of Defense released its fourth and final batch of UFO materials on Friday. Loeb was commenting on one of the most sensational publications from the first batch, photographs from the Apollo 12 moon landing in 1969.
One of the photos shows five "unidentified phenomena," but Loeb said federal authorities have officially concluded that the blue flashes are most likely cosmic rays.
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Until 2020, Loeb chaired the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University, where he studied black holes, the formation of the first stars in the Universe, and extraterrestrial life.
In 2017, when scientists discovered the remnant of a Pluto-like planet in the solar system, Loeb challenged those findings, arguing that the object could be a lightsail from an alien civilization.
After this claim earned him widespread respect in the UFO research community, Loeb founded the Galileo Project at Harvard to search for artifacts from extraterrestrial civilizations.
Original article: A Harvard astronomer has been appointed to lead the White House UFO council, saying the US government is "baffled by what they see.".