Harvard professor with polarizing alien theories is picked to lead new White House UFO council

Theory Briefing

• Avi Loeb argued a detected interstellar object was a thin "light sail" shed by an alien spacecraft, while mainstream scientists favored a comet or ice chunk.
• His appointment to lead a White House UFO council marks a rare moment when a heterodox scientific claim earns official institutional backing.
• Loeb's theories have been polarizing — celebrated by some as bold and dismissed by others as speculation dressed as science.
• The council's creation signals the U.S. government is willing to fund and formalize inquiry into hypotheses most of academia still treats as fringe.