Avi Loeb
Harvard astrophysicist (b. 1962), former chair of Harvard's astronomy department, who founded the Galileo Project to search for alien technology.
2021 CE · 42.38, -71.13 · status: disputed
The account
Loeb is a distinguished theorist (Black Hole Initiative founder, Breakthrough Initiatives science director). Since 2017 he has argued that the interstellar object 'Oumuamua might be an alien light sail, in 2021 launched the Galileo Project, in 2023 recovered ocean spherules he linked to a possible alien probe, and in 2025 speculated that interstellar object 3I/ATLAS could be artificial.
The sceptical view
Most astronomers regard 'Oumuamua and 3I/ATLAS as natural; the spherule search site was chosen from a seismic signal later traced to a truck, and the spherules were argued to be coal ash.
Connections in the atlas
- Kevin Knuth
- ? If the galaxy is old and vast, where is everybody?
- Harvard's Galileo Project
- Eric Weinstein
- Tim Gallaudet
- ODNI Preliminary Assessment