Galileo Project: Will It Search for Evidence of Life From the Technology It Leaves Behind?

An out-of-this-world research project is taking off to see if extraterrestrial societies exist and, if so, if they can develop space travel technology.

A multi-institutional team led by Avi Loeb, a Harvard University professor of science in the department of astronomy, created the Galileo Project. Project organizers told Live Science in a statement that they will look for and study evidence of live or defunct "extraterrestrial technological civilizations," or ETCs.

Using data from astronomical surveys and telescope observations, the project will develop new algorithms to identify prospective interstellar visitors, alien-built satellites, and mysterious aerial occurrences.

The New York Post said "Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth," written by Loeb and published in January 2021, made a persuasive case for why an object that just drifted into our solar system was not just another rock, but a piece of technology.

He highlighted 'Oumuamua (Hawaiian for "scout"), a weird cosmic object that passed by Earth in 2017 and was most likely a comet or asteroid, as an example of strange creation. It could have been a light sail, an antenna, or perhaps a starship from another planet. 'Oumuamua was only visible for roughly two months, and many specialists were perplexed by its flattened cigar shape.

"We can only speculate whether 'Oumuamua may be explained by never-seen-before natural explanations, or by stretching our imagination to 'Oumuamua perhaps being an extraterrestrial technological object, similar to a very thin lightsail or communications dish, which would fit the astronomical data rather well," Loeb said in a statement released by Harvard.

Galileo Project to Search For Mysterious Objects in Space

Galileo Project will hunt for mysterious artifacts such as interstellar objects, satellites hidden in Earth orbit, and unexplained objects in Earth's atmosphere, Space.com said. Experts will use new and existing telescopes, notably the 8-meter Vera C. Rubin Observatory under construction in Chile.

Despite some opposition, Loeb organized a study team of numerous well-known astronomers and researchers from other fields after obtaining a $1.75 million gift for the project. Loeb wants to create a launch-ready space mission to analyze arriving objects up close.

One of the Galileo Project's research branches will concentrate on developing ways for detecting and tracking such interstellar visits using space and telescopes. The research could also focus on identifying and analyzing small ETC satellites and UAP sightings.

Retrieving high-quality photographs of these UAP sightings is an important part of evaluating them. Loeb told Science Magazine that researchers might discern features as little as 1 millimeter on an object 1 kilometer away if they used a 1-meter telescope with a current sensor. These telescopes, however, are expensive, costing around $500,000 each. If money allows, Loeb plans to deploy dozens of telescopes worldwide to search for these UAPs.

Between 2004 and 2021, the Pentagon logged 144 UAP sightings, with only one being recognized with "high confidence." The majority were most likely actual items rather than atmospheric events. However, the evidence was equivocal.

Loeb believes that scientists should not dismiss the research's legitimacy or practicality because open-mindedness is what leads to advancement, and possibly, the finding of extraterrestrial life.

NASA said Project Galileo is named after Galileo Galilei, a pioneering Italian astronomer who used telescopes he made to examine celestial phenomena such as Jupiter's moons, lunar craters, and Saturn's rings.

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