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Galileo Project

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Galileo Project

The Galileo Project is a scientific research initiative focused on the systematic search for evidence of extraterrestrial technological artifacts and unidentified aerial phenomena using rigorous scientific methodology. It is related to but distinct from seti, which focuses on electromagnetic signals rather than physical artifacts.

The project was co-founded in July 2021 by Harvard astrophysicist avi-loeb and Dr. frank-laukien.

Commissioning Dataset (November 2024)

The project’s first public dataset — led by postdoc laura-domine as first author — covers January–May 2024 from the Harvard observatory. Key facts (src-galileo-commissioning-data-2026-06):

  • ~500,000 aerial-object trajectories reconstructed via a two-stage ML pipeline: YOLO (per-frame detection) + SORT (trajectory reconstruction), calibrated against ADS-B transponder data (see machine-learning-uap-detection).
  • Dalek sensor array: 8 uncooled infrared cameras on a hemispherical mount; inspired by the Doctor Who villain but physically resembling R2-D2; supplemented by optical, radio, magnetic, and audio sensors.
  • Performance: 41% acceptance rate for ADS-B-equipped aircraft; 36% mean frame-by-frame detection efficiency.
  • Outlier review: ~80,000 trajectories (~16%) flagged by an automated algorithm and manually reviewed; 144 remained ambiguous after review.
  • Main limitation: No range (distance) data from a single station — prevents velocity and size measurement needed to discriminate UAP from known objects.
  • Solution path: Multi-station stereoscopic Dalek units separated by “a few miles” to enable 3D position measurement — the precursor plan to the March 2026 10-km-baseline triangulation capability.

Two additional observatories were already being established as of November 2024, with a goal of tripling data collection within six months.

Capabilities (March 2026)

Per src-galileo-project-uap-capability-2026-03:

  • Three operational observatories: Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Nevada; a fourth is planned in Indiana.
  • Multi-band coverage: infrared, visible, radio, and audio.
  • ML outlier detection runs on millions of object recordings.
  • Multi-station triangulation (uap-triangulation) achieves sub-10% distance precision via ~10-km baselines with synchronized timestamps, enabling 3D velocity and acceleration measurement and direct comparison against human-tech performance envelopes.
  • Five new postdocs joined the research team in spring 2026.

Loeb frames these capabilities as a scientific alternative to government uap-disclosure — civilian instruments can independently verify visitation regardless of classified-file releases.

Methodology

Verify, don’t dismiss. Loeb cites a 2026 case (src-loeb-wh-uap-videos-skeptic-2026-04) in which a postdoc’s triangulation analysis of an apparent zig-zag object 5.6 km away was traced to a software-malfunction artifact during periods of missing camera data — the kind of careful follow-through the project wants to make standard.

Public skepticism on Maussan-era artifacts

UAP researcher julia-mossbridge (University of San Diego) publicly urged that the buga-sphere be submitted to Galileo-Project-grade controlled, reproducible analysis rather than press-conference unveilings — citing the project as the appropriate scientific bar for recovered-artifact claims (src-buga-sphere-ibtimes-ball-from-nowhere-2026-03).

Engagements

The Galileo Project participated in aaro’s August 2025 UAP narrative-data workshop organized by aui (src-aaro-uap-data-collection-whitepaper-2026-03), alongside nuforc, scu, and uapx. Loeb has offered to share Galileo’s hardware/software lessons with the Pentagon and to sit on any review board analyzing classified UAP satellite imagery.

PURSUE Release 01 review (May 2026)

After the May 8, 2026 PURSUE Release 01, Loeb’s Galileo Project team reviewed all 161 records and found nothing requiring an exotic origin — images resolve as optics/reflections or human-made objects, video details are heavily redacted, and the Apollo lunar lights are most plausibly asteroid-impact flashes or optical artifacts (lunar-uap-historical-claims). Loeb reiterated his “million-times-smaller budget” framing — that civilian instruments could pursue the same questions independently if appropriately funded (src-loeb-pentagon-uap-release-best-yet-2026-05).

Active communication with AARO (confirmed May 2026)

Per Loeb’s May 11, 2026 The Hill’s Rising interview (src-loeb-two-ufo-interpretations-2026-05), the Galileo Project is in active communication with aaro — first explicit confirmation in the vault. The same interview reiterates that Galileo uses three observatories to derive distance / velocity / acceleration of each tracked object and test against human-tech performance envelopes — pairing the uap-triangulation methodology with the AARO interagency channel.

Pacific Ocean spherules (2023, per June 2026 AP profile)

In 2023, the project used magnetic sleds to retrieve hundreds of small metallic “spherules” from the Pacific Ocean floor near the presumed crash site of a 2014 bolide/meteor. Loeb suggested the spherules could be of extrasolar-planet or alien-technology origin; other scientists countered the material is more likely volcanic rock or industrial coal/fly ash — unresolved as of this source. See interstellar-meteor-spherules and src-loeb-council-profile-ap-2026-06.

Panspermia line of work (2026)

Per src-loeb-panspermia-impact-survival-2026-03, Loeb’s research group has produced peer-reviewed papers on panspermia feasibility across trappist-1, the Milky Way, and the Galactic center. The March 2026 essay extends this into directed-panspermia — proposing a microbe-nutrient-power capsule attached to an interstellar object like 3i-atlas as a deliberate exoplanet-seeding mechanism. Loeb pairs this with the speculative “Trojan Horse” framing that some interstellar objects could carry technological payloads.

See Also

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