This Harvard Astrophysicist Wants to Believe in UFOs

“Very, very soon,” President Donald Trump teasingly said last week about the promised release of secret government documents related to UFOs. “This process is well underway, and we found many very interesting documents, I must say.”

The president’s announcement, at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix, pushed the conversation about UFOs yet another step closer to the mainstream and further away from the swirl of conspiracy culture, even though Trump also sounded like he hasn’t made up his own mind about what to believe. “I figured this was a good crowd because I know you people, you’re really into that,” he said with a chuckle. “I don’t know if I am.”

Why did the president treat the UFO announcement so lightheartedly? Was he trying to lower expectations? Or send a signal that he isn’t alarmed by what the government has found? What should we be looking for when the documents are released?

One person with a lot to say about the last question is physicist Avi Loeb. In the second part of this four-part series, the longtime Harvard University professor explains why he keeps an open mind about extraterrestrial visitation and what Americans should make of this phenomenon.

Loeb became a scientific celebrity in 2017 after the discovery of ‘Oumuamua, the first confirmed object from another star to visit our solar system. Most of Loeb’s colleagues were thrilled about the discovery but content to reason that it was likely a comet or meteor. Loeb, intrigued by ‘Oumamua’s unusually flat shape, proposed that it might be an alien artifact. While the scientific establishment criticized Loeb’s reasoning, he was undeterred, and has since suggested that another interstellar object, 3I/ATLAS, could be some sort of alien craft.