Loeb Plans Telescope to Analyze Light From Objects in the Sky
At a planned observatory in Ithaca, a passive radar system will steer a one-meter telescope toward objects of interest, photographing them and analyzing their light.
Harvard’s Avi Loeb said he had spoken with pilots whose reports seemed credible to him, but presented no data. He plans to build an observatory in Ithaca that will use radar and a telescope to gather information about unidentified objects.
Avi Loeb, a Harvard researcher who studies unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), told NewsNation, “Yes, I’ve spoken with a few pilots. And these reports are quite credible and raise questions.” According to AOL, Loeb spoke with the pilots himself and was impressed by their skill and advanced equipment, making it unlikely they had mistaken what they saw. The pilots told him they had seen no visible signs of propulsion. No data or footage from the reports has been released. That is Loeb’s assessment alone.
The remarks came after Donald Trump told journalist Ross Douthat, following the congressional elections, that he had met with Air Force pilots in the Oval Office during his first term and part of his second. “They’re the real thing,” he said, “and there’s something out there.” He added that he was not a big believer in the subject and offered no documentation to support his remarks.
A New Observatory in Ithaca
A new observatory is planned in Ithaca, New York, on the site of Carl Sagan’s former home. Loeb said a passive radar system is expected to be installed within a year. Such a system does not transmit its own signals; it picks up signals already present in the sky. It will scan the sky and steer a one-meter telescope toward objects of interest to researchers. The telescope is designed to photograph each object at high resolution and analyze its light spectrum to learn about its composition. “This has never been done before,” he said.
Loeb said that if the system works as planned, similar systems could be set up elsewhere with help from the Pentagon. According to the article, details of the collaboration with the Pentagon have not yet been released, and the project is in its early stages.
Questions & answers
What did Trump claim about the Air Force pilots?
Trump told Ross Douthat that the pilots “are the real thing” and had told him about very strange things. He said he was not a big believer in the subject and offered no documentation.
What does the new observatory plan to do?
The observatory plans to install a radar system to scan the sky and steer a telescope toward objects of interest so they can be photographed and their composition analyzed.