The Harvard astronomer dubbed Trump’s chief alien hunter starts by assuming UFOs human-made

A controversial Harvard University cosmologist who has suggested alien lifeforms could be sailing into the solar system disguised as meteors is leading the Trump administration’s secretive new scientific advisory panel on security risks posed by UFOs. Avi Loeb and his hand-picked committee have already begun looking into the origins of mysterious flying craft, now known as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and last month asked the Pentagon for dozens of videos, images and documents of reported encounters and incidents, the Associated Press reports . The panel, which meets in private, will report its findings to the White House, which has already begun opening the government’s UFO files with three public releases so far of previously classified material. Loeb, an Israeli-American astrophysicist who previously led Harvard’s astronomy department, told the Associated Press that he saw his appointment as a chance to educate a notoriously science-averse administration into what could be perfectly logical explanations for UAP. “My impression is the government is baffled by not being able to infer the nature of some of these objects,” he said. “At a time when science is not so much celebrated, this is an opportunity to actually do good for all sides involved.” He did, however, tell the AP that he was starting his work as Donald Trump’s chief alien hunter with the assumption that UAP was the work of humans, and approaching the task from a national security perspective. …