You have investigated alien issues for NASA.
In 2019 I became the principal investigator of the first NASA project aimed at the study of technosignatures, which are signs of the presence of advanced civilizations on other worlds.
What have you discovered?
My work is not based on looking for other potential civilizations, but on what type of traces ancient or current alien civilizations can leave behind.
For example?
Pollution of your planet’s atmosphere with chloroform, carbon or industrial chemicals. Another factor that would confirm their existence would be to capture the lights that these planets emit.
What distance are we talking about?
They are 40 light years away. Light acts as a messenger.
Do you believe aliens exist?
I hope that other planets have the same processes that have given rise to life on Earth. The only way we can confirm this is by looking, and for the first time in the history of science we have that opportunity to look.
What happened?
The scientific search for life in the universe, a field called astrobiology, has taken giant steps. We’ve discovered planets almost everywhere in our galaxy, and we know how and where to look for signs of alien life in their atmospheres.
We have sent robotic emissaries.
Yes, to all the planets in our solar system to search for current or past life, and we have built incredibly powerful state-of-the-art telescopes that we have launched into space.
All very recent.
In 1990 no one knew that other planets existed beyond our solar system. It was in the year 2000 when things changed radically.
When we find exoplanets.
Yes, thanks to them we have discovered where extraterrestrial life could arise, and where it could thrive.
Do we know what those planets are like?
Some. Knowing that there are planets where snow accumulates in their valleys and waves reach their coasts is more than enough to open our minds.
And what kind of emissaries do we send into the universe and where?
The space equipment that we send is the only messenger we have, like the one we have sent to Mars; but we are very limited, they can only reach our solar system, two houses down.
The SETI projects emit signals to the universe.
Every day we send emissions in an unintentional and weak way, from television and telephone signals to many military radars. We have intentionally sent intense messages to stars outside our solar system very rarely, it is something very controversial.
Because?
Because first we should ask ourselves if we want other civilizations to know that we exist and where we are.
Why not?
If they exist, we do not know if they are peaceful. All humanity should participate in that decision because the consequences would affect us all.
Since the 1950s we have been hearing stories of pilots who have seen FANI (unidentified aerial phenomena).
Yes, but every time a scientific study has been done and this type of FANI footage and photographs are analyzed, the vast majority can be easily explained and have nothing to do with alien life.
Are there no mysteries left?
The small fraction that cannot be explained is because we do not have enough information to do a serious study.
In 2017 The New York Times announced that UFOs were real.
Strange objects were sighted over the ocean that US Navy pilots could not identify, but we have since been able to identify them.
Astrophysicist Avi Loeb told me they’ve probably already visited us.
It is possible that within the vast history of our solar system they have done so, but there is no evidence; and really the best place to look for them is not in our sky, but on their planets.
There are thousands of stories of encounters with extraterrestrials, do you believe any of them?
None has the rigor or scientific standard to be believed.
There are people who say they have been abducted.
I base it on science, we are looking for answers, and we are close to obtaining some of them, tomorrow or in 30 years.
