Alien hunters are two years away from images of objects that are ‘not human-made’, expert says

Alien hunters could be two years away from capturing high-resolution images of non-human phenomena, according to a professor of science at Harvard University.

In an interview with The Guardian, Avi Loeb, head of the Galileo Project which seeks out extraterrestrial life, said that the telescope system that would be built on the top of the Harvard college observatory could get a high resolution image of “something unusual”.

The system would use infra-red cameras to take a constant video of the sky, as well as radio, audio, and magnetic sensors that could detect invisible objects. Sifting through this data will be an artificially intelligent algorithm that would ignore objects such as drones, planes, and meteors, in favour of objects “that are not human made”.

Professor Loeb said that research into unidentified flying objects may become destigmatised over time, but currently it is still looked down on by astrophysicists and other academics.

“I really want the next generation to be free to discuss it, and for it to become part of the mainstream,” he said. “My hope is that by getting a high resolution image of something unusual, or finding evidence for it, which is quite possible in the coming year or two, we will change it.”

The data captured by the Galileo Project, as it becomes operational over the summer, will become publicly available. Professor Loeb stressed the importance of collaboration because the search for extra-terrestrial life is a difficult project – but that should not discourage researchers nor suggest that there is no form of life other than that on Earth in the universe.

“It’s just like a fisherman on the beach, looking at the ocean, saying: ‘Where are all the fish? I don’t see anything?’” Professor Loeb said. “And obviously if you don’t use a fishing net you will not find anything.”

Professor Loeb has, however, made a number of controversial claims in the past. In 2018 he said that Oumuamua, which flew past the Earth the year prior, could have been a probe sent by aliens.

The scientific consensus, meanwhile, is that Oumuamua has a natural origin, despite it having a few characteristics as yet unexplainable by scientists, such as a lack of tail.

“In all cases the observations are consistent with a purely natural origin for Oumuamua”, a report published the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) said.

Photos and videos of unidentified flying objects have also recently been confirmed by the Pentagon, one of which shows a pyramid-shaped object hovering above a Navy destroyer.