A renowned astrophysicist is calling foul on reports of alien sightings in Earth's atmosphere, arguing that biological creatures would be unable to survive a journey to our planet.
"It would take about a billion years to cross from one side of the Milky Way galaxy to the other," Avi Loeb, a Harvard astrophysicist, said during an appearance on GB News this week. "Given that, I don’t think any spacecraft that would arrive to us from another star would carry biological creatures."
Loeb's comments come amid increased reports of UFO sightings in recent years, with videos and pictures of supposed alien craft going viral across the internet.
It also comes after NASA created a new position aimed at overseeing research on UFOs after a 2022 study by the agency determined that such sightings were unlikely to be caused by extraterrestrial life.
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"The NASA independent study team did not find any evidence that UAP have an extraterrestrial origin, but we don't know what these UAP are," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said of the results of the study.
Loeb said such a result makes sense, noting that an extraterrestrial being would have to survive the extremely harsh conditions of space to make it to Earth. Instead, Loeb said that any craft of alien origin would more likely be the result of artificial intelligence.
"They wouldn’t survive the journey being bombarded by very energetic particles in interstellar space for so long," Loeb said of biological creatures. "It’s more likely, if they are autonomous, they have an artificial brain, artificial intelligence. … We have already developed that on Earth, we haven’t launched it to space, but that would be the next step."
Ziven Havens, the policy director of the Bull Moose Project, told Fox News Digital that AI would open up new ideas about potential space travel that originates from our own planet.
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"There is a possibility that AI will open up space travel both for manned and unmanned vehicles by reducing costs and increasing safety," Havens said. "The possibilities are truly endless, and that makes the future of AI more exciting."
Samuel Mangold-Lenett, a staff editor at The Federalist, said AI could be used to help spacecraft survive the harsh conditions of space.
"AI can be used to [run] complex complications in short periods of time. So, on the surface, AI could be used to chart courses, figure out ideal weight loads and anything else related to space travel that requires complex math," Mangold-Lenett told Fox News Digital. "It could also be used, as we're seeing with medical science and agriculture, to install and operate systems that preserve and maintain life in harsh or even unnatural environments."
Meanwhile, Loeb said the U.S. government should be more transparent about what it knows about UFOs in order to help scientists.
"The government monitors the sky for national security purposes," Loeb said, "whereas scientists [and] astronomers, for example, look at small regions of the sky at very distant sources of light. … If something flies overhead, astronomers ignore it. If there is something over there, it’s the government that would be the first to notice it."
Because they're the first to notice it, Loeb said the government should disclose such evidence to researchers who can help make more sense of oftentimes unexplained phenomena.
"As a scientist, I respond to evidence," Loeb said. "That’s what we are waiting for: the government to disclose what it knows. … It’s really important for me because I’m trying to find the evidence myself, but the government can save me a lot of time."
"Why should I spend decades of my life looking for something when the government already has it?"
