A UAP Science Advisory Council to the U.S. Government: keeping our eyes on the orbs, not the audience!

On June 12, 2026, Steven Spielberg publicly released his film Disclosure Day while on the same day the U.S. Government disclosed the third batch of declassified files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAPs) here.

Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor in ‘Disclosure Day.’ (Image credit: Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment)Emily Blunt and Josh O’Connor in ‘Disclosure Day.’ (Image credit: Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment)

(Image credit: DoW)(Image credit: DoW)

I was fortunate to witness Disclosure Day on the movie screen merely a few hours after analyzing an actual UAP disclosure by the U.S. government. My conclusion is that reality is far more exciting than Hollywood scripts. Personally, I have a hard time enjoying the artistic freedom displayed in science fiction movies because their creators violate the known laws of physics. Yes, our understanding of science is incomplete, but this does not give us the freedom to abandon what we already learned. We can get pleasure by imagining a trillion dollars in our bank account but a reality check would restrain our imagination as long as we are not Elon Musk after the initial public offering (IPO) of SpaceX.

Research at the frontiers of science is often mired in uncertainty because of insufficient data. But a good detective resolves mysteries by collecting new evidence and analyzing it, rather than by discussing the unknown on social media or asking AI for help. This should also be the approach of a good scientist. Figuring out the nature of UAP deserves to be a mainstream scientific research program.

Reality is under no obligation to bring us pleasure. The most down-to-earth interpretation of technological UAPs is that they are human-made. The inability of the intelligence agencies and the Pentagon to figure out their nature is a serious concern for national security. As I explained on Fox & Friends this morning (partly displayed here), President Trump’s directive to declassify UAP files is a blessing because it provides a reality check on whether there are holes in protecting strategic sites in the U.S. against espionage by drones, balloons and other gadgets developed by adversarial nations. Scientists and engineers need to develop better sensors and AI analysis tools to help the Pentagon in its mission. If, after analyzing new data on millions of objects, we will find beyond a reasonable doubt that one of them has a non-human technological origin, that would constitute the biggest scientific discovery ever made by humanity.

The latest UAP file release includes a new report (accessible here) dated June 5, 2026, signed by Dr. Jon Kosloski, the director of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) in the Pentagon, which mentions that during two days in October 2023 law enforcement officials notices anomalous phenomena including an orange “mother” orb launching smaller red orbs. The report explains that 40% of the reported phenomena lack a reasonable explanation and remain unresolved.

The three UAP file releases thus far attracted more than a billion views and a lot of chatter on social media. However, to paraphrase the wisdom of basketball players: “we must keep our eyes on the orbs, not the audience!”

What could be a better way of doing that than the establishment of a new “UAP Science Advisory Council” by the White House, AARO, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI, and all Intelligence Community members. This is not wishful thinking but a reality now. Over the past week, I was tasked by the above organizations to create a research team of young scientists who will serve on this council. The Council under my leadership includes the following members: Dr. Richard Cloete and Dr. Regina Sarmiento with expertise in data analysis and data management with AI tools, Prof. Matthew Szydagis with expertise in instrumentation and data collection, Dr. Devesh Nandal with expertise in numerical analysis and astrophysics and Dr. Omer Eldadi with expertise in data management, AI and human psychology. This constitutes an amazing A-team of exceptional scientists.

All Council members look forward to assisting the U.S. government agencies in figuring out the nature of UAPs. Our time will not be wasted because at the very least — we will promote national security.

Unlike Spielberg’s movie, the U.S. government is cooperating with scientists and not smashing their car against a moving train. Reality is more inspiring than script writers in Hollywood.

The best way to resolve the nature of UAPs is by getting higher-quality scientific data. Either we are dealing with a serious breach of national security or with the biggest scientific discovery in history. Identifying the unidentified deserves a high priority within the U.S. government and the scientific community.

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As with any unresolved detective story, the best is yet to come.

***

Below is a transcript of what I said during my interview on Fox & Friends this morning (which is also available in video form here):

“In the latest UAP release there is a letter from the director of the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office in the Pentagon, talking about an event during two days in October 2023, when law-enforcement officials that are very trustworthy noticed orbs in the sky that behave in very strange ways. For example, a mother orb gave birth to smaller baby orbs that came out of it. AARO officials say that they looked carefully at all the data, and they cannot explain 40% of the phenomena that were witnessed.

There are two possible interpretations. If you are down to Earth and you say I’m a realist, which is pretty much the approach that the intelligence agencies take, you must admit that there are objects that are potentially produced by adversarial nations and that we are not aware of. And they are found near sensitive sites of strategic assets, so that’s a major national security concern.

There needs to be more research and more funding going to figuring out whether we are being spied upon by adversarial nations like the Chinese. We shut down a Chinese spy balloon. The question is, are there drones with very special technologies that we are not aware of? That is at the minimum, and that’s why President Trump’s directive is very important, because it’s a reality check, an honesty check on what we are capable of identifying. UAPs represent a hole in our defense system, if they represent human made technologies.

But, of course, the icing on the cake is, after looking into that, if we end up concluding that some UAPs are not human made, and instead have an extraterrestrial origin. That will be the biggest discovery ever made by humanity.”

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By Avi Loeb

Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. The paperback edition of his new book, titled “Interstellar”, was published in August 2024.

(Source: avi-loeb.medium.com; June 14, 2026; https://tinyurl.com/25fn8f54)
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