Space
Announcing a New Plan for Solving the Mystery of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena
The newly organized Galileo Project will use a three-pronged approach to replace unreliable eyewitness reports with reproducible scientific observations
Stories by Avi Loeb
Space
How to Tell if Extraterrestrial Visitors Are Friend or Foe
They’ll most likely be robotic and guided by AI—so we’ll need our own AI to figure them out
Space
How Humanity Can Earn the Respect of Extraterrestrials
Favoring science over war would demonstrate our suitability to join a galactic club of civilizations
Space
What We Can Learn from Studying UFOs
If they’re really aliens—and they’re benevolent—studying them could potentially transform the prospects for human knowledge and progress
Space
A Possible Link between ‘Oumuamua and Unidentified Aerial Phenomena
If some UAP turn out to be extraterrestrial technology, they could be dropping sensors for a subsequent craft to tune into. What if ‘Oumuamua is such a craft?
Space
How to Detect Heat from Extraterrestrial Probes in Our Solar System
We could do it with the James Webb Space Telescope—but we'd also need to return to the unfiltered curiosity we had as teenagers
Space
Searching for City Lights on Other Planets
There’s a detectable difference between a planet shining with reflected light and a planet glowing with its own artificial illumination
Behavior & Society
Creative Thinking in both Science and the Arts Is Not for the Faint of Heart
As Oscar Wilde famously observed: Be yourself; everyone else is already taken
Space
Death by Primordial Black Hole
If such an object a mere 1,000 times bigger than an atom passed through your body, the result would not be pretty
Policy & Ethics
Creative Thinking in both Science and the Arts Is Not for the Faint of Heart
To put it another way, be yourself; everyone else is already taken
Space
Maybe Dark Matter Is More Than One Thing
If so, it could explain some inconsistencies in our observations
Space
How to Avoid a Cosmic Catastrophe
An interstellar treaty with other advanced civilizations could stave off death by domain wall
Policy & Ethics
When Scientific Orthodoxy Resembles Religious Dogma
Those who refuse to consider an unconventional idea in science are disturbingly similar to those who refused to look through Galileo’s telescope
Space
How Much Time Does Humanity Have Left?
Statistics tell us that individuals are most likely to be somewhere around the middle part of their life. The same could be true of the human race...
Space
Watching the Universe Expand in Real Time
Within a decade or two, we could observe the cosmic expansion, not as a series of snapshots but as a very slow-motion film
Space
Stars That Race through Space at Nearly the Speed of Light
Some are blasted out of galaxies by interactions with black holes; others, which orbit supermassive black holes, can smash together in titanic explosions
Behavior & Society
Scientists Should Never Stop Being Students
Being too comfortable with the universe as it’s “supposed to be” is harmful to creative thinking
Space
What Should We Do if Extraterrestrials Show Up?
It’s hard to say at this point, but a crucial first step is to establish whether they exist so any future arrival won’t come as a complete surprise
Space
When Did Life First Emerge in the Universe?
We don’t know, but we could try to find out by searching for it on planets orbiting the very oldest stars
Space
How to Photograph a (Possible) Alien Artifact
We don’t know if the interstellar object ‘Oumuamua was natural or artificial—but a new telescope coming online in a few years could help us identify the next one
