The federal government can't secure the southern border, can't pass a budget, and can't keep fentanyl out of your kids' schools — but it found the time and money to stand up a White House UFO panel led by a Harvard astronomer who thinks an interstellar rock might be an alien light sail.
Avi Loeb, a cosmologist who headed Harvard's astronomy department until 2020, was recently appointed to helm a new scientific advisory council investigating the origins of mysterious objects reported by military personnel. The council reports to a new White House panel on unidentified anomalous phenomena — UFOs, rebranded. It's part of President Trump's push to declassify more information on the issue.
Loeb has spent a decade scanning skies and seas for evidence of intelligent alien life. He started in 2017 when an interstellar object flew past Earth. Most scientists figured it was a comet. Loeb said it could be a thin "light sail" detached from an alien spacecraft. His theories have won fans in UFO circles but put him at odds with academic peers who accuse him of making exotic claims with skimpy evidence and skipping peer review to take his case straight to the public.
Steve Desch, an Arizona State University astrophysicist who has challenged Loeb's theories, said Loeb uses flawed methods to reach wild conclusions while shunning established science. Loeb's role on the White House panel casts doubt on the whole thing, Desch said: "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."
Loeb brushes critics aside, saying they lack imagination. He promises a grounded approach for the White House, starting from the assumption that UAP are human-made and approaching it from a national security angle. Still, he envisions a bigger outcome: if the government invests in better data collection, he said, it could settle the alien debate once and for all.
His hand-picked team of more than a dozen includes scientists, UFO activists, and a billionaire. Among them is Timothy Gallaudet, a retired rear admiral who has warned about UAP controlled by "nonhuman intelligence" and claimed the United States has recovered crashed aircraft. Also on board: Ben Lamm, a billionaire working to revive extinct species.
After its first meeting last month, the team asked the Pentagon for more than 50 videos, images, and documents tied to known UAP incidents. The group meets behind closed doors, but Loeb has vowed to brief the public and create a website to share findings.
"It's like a detective story," Loeb said. "It's a lot of fun, as long as you don't pay too much attention to the critics."
Fun. That's one word for it. Both outlets ran the same Associated Press wire, so there's no framing gap to speak of — just the same copy, presented without scrutiny of what this costs or who pays. The real question isn't whether something is out there. It's why your government, $34 trillion in debt, is staffing up alien advisory councils while the basics go unattended.
