| Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University and a bestselling author (in lists of the New York Times,Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, L'Express and more).
He received a PhD in Physics from
the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem in Israel at age 24 (1980-1986),
led the first international project supported by
the Strategic
Defense Initiative (1983-1988), and was subsequently a
long-term member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton
(1988-1993). Loeb has written 8 books, including most recently, Extraterrestrial (HarperCollins, 2022) and Interstellar (HarperCollins, 2023) and over a thousand papers (with
h-index
of 133 and i10-index of 631) on a wide range of topics, including
black holes, the first stars, the search for extraterrestrial life and
the future of the Universe.
Loeb is the Director of
the Institute for Theory and Computation (2007-present)
within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
, and also serves as the Head of
the Galileo Project (2021-present).
He had been the
longest serving Chair of Harvard's
Department of Astronomy (2011-2020) and the Founding Director of
Harvard's Black
Hole Initiative (2016-2021).
He is
an elected fellow of
the American
Academy of Arts & Sciences,
the American
Physical Society, and
the International Academy of
Astronautics. Loeb is a former member of the
President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) at the White House, a former chair of
the Board
on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies (2018-2021) and
a current member of the Advisory Board for "Einstein: Visualize
the Impossible" of the Hebrew University.
He chaired the Advisory Committee for
the Breakthrough
Starshot Initiative (2015-2024) and served as the Science Theory Director
for
all Initiatives
of the Breakthrough Prize
Foundation. In
2012, TIME
magazine selected Loeb as one of the 25 most influential people in
space and in 2020
Loeb was
selected among the 14 most inspiring Israelis of the last
decade.
In 2025, Loeb was ranked number 3 in publication record and impact of research among all astronomers worldwide over the past 5 years by ScholarGPS.
Loeb's latest TED talk was among the top five most popular TED talks in 2024.
Click here
for Loeb's commentaries.
Staff Assistant:
ITC Administrator:
BHI Administrator:
Theory Div. Admin.:
*Extraterrestrial: 28 editions in 25 languages worldwide (2021).
*Extraterrestrial summary, HMH (2021).
IN THE NEWS:
*"Why is the Anti-Tail Sunward-Jet of 3I/ATLAS Tightly Collimated?" (December 17, 2025).
*"A 14th Anomaly of 3I/ATLAS: Alignment of Its Rotation Axis with the Sunward Direction at Large Distances" (December 16, 2025).
*"The Anti-Tail of 3I/ATLAS Wobbled Before Perihelion" (December 16, 2025).
*"The Anti-Tail of 3I/ATLAS is Larger Than the Distance to the Moon" (December 15, 2025).
*"3I/ATLAS Still Shows an Anti-Tail, as it Gets Closer to Earth" (December 14, 2025).
*"3I/ATLAS is Green After Perihelion" (December 13, 2025).
*"Babies that AI Cannot Create (as Yet)" (December 12, 2025).
*"Q and A Before Closest Approach of 3I/ATLAS to Earth" (December 10, 2025).
*"The Tale of 3I/ATLAS and Sterile Neutrinos" (December 9, 2025).
*"First X-Ray Detection of 3I/ATLAS" (December 9, 2025).
*"Fake AI-Generated Channel of Videos About 3I/ATLAS Was Removed by YouTube" (December 8, 2025).
*"Is 3I/ATLAS a Friendly Gardener or a Serial Killer?" (December 6, 2025).
*"End of November Images of 3I/ATLAS" (December 6, 2025).
*"A New Hubble Space Telescope Image of 3I/ATLAS" (December 5, 2025).
*"Image of 3I/ATLAS from the Juice Navigation Camera" (December 4, 2025).
*"Intelligence Without Ambition is a Bird Without Wings" (December 4, 2025).
*"Is the Sunward Anti-Tail of 3I/ATLAS Composed of a Swarm of Objects?" (December 1, 2025).
*"Are the Jets from 3I/ATLAS Pulsed Like a Heartbeat?" (November 30, 2025).
*"Science of the People and 3I/ATLAS" (November 28, 2025).
*"Surveys on the Existence of Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life and Effects of Revealing Expert Consensus" (November 28, 2025).
*"Updates on the Non-gravitational Acceleration of 3I/ATLAS" (November 27, 2025).
*"Images of 3I/ATLAS on November 22 to 24, 2025" (November 25, 2025).
*"Letters of Gratitude About 3I/ATLAS" (November 24, 2025).
*"Anomalies of 3I/ATLAS, Organized by Likelihhod" (November 23, 2025).
*"A Remarkable New Anomaly of 3I/ATLAS" (November 22, 2025).
*"Transcript of a Q and A About 3I/ATLAS" (November 21, 2025).
*"Breaking News: Newly-Discovered Sideways Lines Might Trace the Release of Smaller Objects by 3I/ATLAS" (November 20, 2025).
*"Orientation of the Plume Around 3I/ATLAS in the HiRISE Image" (November 20, 2025).
*"There is Nothing More Deceptive than an Obvious Fact: NASA Press Conference on 3I/ATLAS" (November 19, 2025).
*"First Limit on Technological Radio Transmission from 3I/ATLAS" (November 19, 2025).
*"Do the Anomalies of 3I/ATLAS Flag Alien Technology or an Unfamiliar Interstellar Iceberg?" (November 17, 2025).
*"Magnificent Images of Jets Around 3I/ATLAS" (November 17, 2025).
*"The Continuing Saga of Anti-Tails and Tails around 3I/ATLAS" (November 16, 2025).
*"The 12th Anomaly of 3I/ATLAS: Orientation of the Jets is Not Smeared by Rotation" (November 15, 2025).
*"HiRISE Images of 3I/ATLAS Are Expected to be Released in a Few Days" (November 14, 2025).
*"Did the Passage of the Star HD7977 Trigger a Major Comet Shower on Earth 2.5-Million Years Ago?" (November 14, 2025).
*"" (November 12, 2025).
*"Q and A About 3I/ATLAS and Beyond" (November 12, 2025).
*"As the Government Shutdown Ends, Can NASA Please Release the 40-Day-Old HiRISE Images of 3I/ATLAS?" (November 11, 2025).
*"Did 3I/ATLAS Just Break-Up Near the Sun?" (November 10, 2025).
*"The Remarkable Large-Scale Structure of Anti-Tail and Tail Jets from 3I/ATLAS" (November 9, 2025).
*"Is the New Nearly Interstellar Object C/2025 V1 Related to 3I/ATLAS?" (November 8, 2025).
*"A Complex Jet Structure Emanates from 3I/ATLAS After Perihelion" (November 8, 2025).
*"First Radio Signal from 3I/ATLAS: Absorption by Hydroxyl Radicals (OH Molecules)" (November 8, 2025).
*"The Latest Image of 3I/ATLAS" (November 7, 2025).
*"The Inspiration Delivered by 3I/ATLAS to Our Doorstep" (November 6, 2025).
*"Fuzzy Images of 3I/ATLAS at Closest Approach to Mars from the High-Resolution Imaging Camera (HiRIC) Onboard the Tianwen-1 Mars Orbiter" (November 6, 2025).
*"No Clear Cometary tail in Post-Perihelion Images of 3I/ATLAS" (November 5, 2025).
*"Post Perihelion Data on 3I/ATLAS" (November 5, 2025).
*"Kim Kardashian is Welcome to Join my Research Team on 3I/ATLAS" (November 3, 2025).
*"The Scientific Revolution of Interstellar Objects" (November 2, 2025).
*"Gravitational Lensing of 3I/ATLAS by the Sun" (November 2, 2025).
*"Afterthoughts on the Non-Gravitational Acceleration of 3I/ATLAS at Perihelion" (October 31, 2025).
*"First Evidence for a Non-Gravitational Acceleration of 3I/ATLAS at Perihelion" (October 30, 2025).
*"3I/ATLAS Rapidly Brightens and Gets Bluer than the Sun Near Perihelion" (October 30, 2025).
*"A Q and A on 3I/ATLAS at Perihelion" (October 29, 2025).
*"The Acid Test of 3I/ATLAS at Perihelion" (October 28, 2025).
*"Is the Newly Discovered 2025 PN7 a Natural Quasi-Moon or the Zond 1 Mission?" (October 27, 2025).
*"The First Interstellar Car in NASCAR's History" (October 25, 2025).
*"A New Galileo Project Observatory is Celebrated on the Joe Rogan Experience and NASCAR" (October 24, 2025).
*"The Anti-tail of 3I/ATLAS Turned to a Tail!" (October 22, 2025).
*"The Scientific Revolution of Interstellar Objects" (October 21, 2025).
*"The Imminent Solar Conjunction of 3I/ATLAS" (October 19, 2025).
*"A Sunward Jet from 3I/ATLAS, Imaged by the Two-meter Twin Telescope" (October 17, 2025).
*"Images of Nickel and Cyanide Around 3I/ATLAS from the Keck Telescope" (October 15, 2025).
*"Cosmic Generosity in Stippled Watercolors" (October 14, 2025).
*"Extraterrestrial Life Forms Were Not Created Equal" (October 13, 2025).
*"The Gravity of 3I/ATLAS" (October 11, 2025).
IN THE NEWS:
*"Will 3I/ATLAS Break Up?" (October 10, 2025).
*"Q and A on the Long-Term Lessons from the Interstellar Visit of 3I/ATLAS" (October 8, 2025).
*"First Images of 3I/ATLAS from ExoMars TGO" (October 7, 2025).
*"New Questions and Answers About 3I/ATLAS" (October 7, 2025).
*"Interpretation of the Stripe in the New Image of 3I/ATLAS from the Perseverance Rover Camera" (October 5, 2025).
*"Why is the Orbital Plane of 3I/ATLAS Inclined by 5 degrees Relative to the Ecliptic Plane?" (October 5, 2025).
*"A Preliminary View of 3I/ATLAS from Mars" (October 4, 2025).
*"A Recap of the Anomalies of 3I/ATLAS on the Day of Its Closest Approach to Mars" (October 3, 2025).
*"New Data on the Extreme Nickel Production of 3I/ATLAS" (October 1, 2025).
*"New Data on the Extreme Nickel Production of 3I/ATLAS" (October 1, 2025).
*"Advancing Interstellar Science: A Global Framework for Comprehensive Study of Interstellar Objects" (September 30, 2025).
*"Was the Wow! Signal Emitted from 3I/ATLAS?" (September 28, 2025).
*"What is the Nature of 3I/ATLAS?" (September 26, 2025).
*"Works of Love" (September 25, 2025).
*"News on 3I/ATLAS: Lack of Non-Gravitational Acceleration Implies an Anomalously Massive Object" (September 24, 2025).
*"The Interstellar Path to Prosperity" (September 22, 2025).
*"Finding a Meaning to Our Existence from Extraterrestrial Siblings" (September 20, 2025).
*"Political Violence Makes No Sense" (September 17, 2025).
*"The New Comet SWAN (C/2025 R2) Originated from a Different Direction Than 3I/ATLAS" (September 15, 2025).
*"Is the Nucleus of 3I/ATLAS 15 kilometers in diameter?" (September 14, 2025).
*"BeLaU Spherules from an Interstellar Meteor Site in the Pacific Ocean are Not Common Terrestrial Materials" (September 13, 2025).
*"The Sunward Glow in the Hubble Image of 3I/ATLAS is Ten Times Longer Than It is Wide" (September 12, 2025).
*"Did a Hellfire Missile Hit a Samad Drone Launched by the Houthis on October 30, 2024?" (September 11, 2025).
*"Extreme Negative Polarization of 3I/ATLAS" (September 10, 2025).
*"Explaining the Anomalous Anti-Tail of 3I/ATLAS" (September 9, 2025).
*"3I/ATLAS is Turning Green" (September 9, 2025).
*"How to Distinguish a Population of Interstellar Rocks from a Fleet of Spacecraft?" (September 8, 2025).
*"Quantitative Mapping of the Loeb Scale" (September 7, 2025).
*"What is the Nucleus Size of 3I/ATLAS?" (September 6, 2025).
*"The Racing Speed of 3I/ATLAS" (September 4, 2025).
*"Bigger is Better for Interstellar Spacecraft" (September 3, 2025).
*"Q and A About Extraterrestrial Architecture" (September 2, 2025).
*"The Blind Date of Mars with 3I/ATLAS in a Month" (September 1, 2025).
*"The Challenge of Measuring the Mass of 3I/ATLAS" (August 31, 2025).
*"Detection of an Anti-Solar Tail for 3I/ATLAS" (August 30, 2025).
*"A Steeply-Rising Production of Cyanide and Nickel Without Iron in the Gas Plume Around 3I/ATLAS" (August 28, 2025).
*"The First Webb Telescope Observations of 3I/ATLAS" (August 26, 2025).
*"What Do We Know So Far About 3I/ATLAS?" (August 25, 2025).
*"3I/ATLAS is Large and Releases Carbon Dioxide (CO2)" (August 24, 2025).
*"Should We Be Happier if 3I/ATLAS is a Comet?" (August 23, 2025).
*"Is 3I/ATLAS Made of Antimatter?" (August 21, 2025).
*"Because of You!: 3I/ATLAS Inspires Kids to Be Scientists" (August 20, 2025).
*"The Adaptive Communication Framework (ACF) for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Discovery" (August 20, 2025).
*"New Insights in Today's Research Notes on 3I/ATLAS" (August 20, 2025).
*"The Challenge of Obtaining Resolved Images of Interstellar Objects" (August 19, 2025).
*"Does 3I/ATLAS Generate Its Own Light?" (August 17, 2025).
*"Dark Comets or Alien Tech?" (August 16, 2025).
*"What Should Humanity Do on the Day After an Interstellar Object is Recognized as Technological?" (August 15, 2025).
*"Science is Nourishing" (August 14, 2025).
*"Is 3I/ATLAS Our Turing Test by a Superior Alien Intelligence?" (August 13, 2025).
*"Will Humans Worship an Advanced Alien Intelligence?" (August 12, 2025).
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