Dalek is an infrared camera designed to scrutinize the sky in search of possible traces of extraterrestrial space vehicles (UAP).
In recent years, the interest in unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP, Uncentified Aerial Phenomenon) has grown significantly, pushing institutions and researchers to look for new tools to study them. In 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (Odni) published a report with declassified information on the UAPs, followed by annual reports of the Department of Defense through the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (Aaro). Despite these steps forward, the scientific data available to the public remain limited. To fill this gap, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CFA) and the Galileo project have developed an innovative observatory: Dalekan infrared camera designed to scrutinize the sky in search of possible traces of extraterrestrial space vehicles. The project, led by Laura Domine of the University of Harvard is part of the Galileo project, and was presented to the Lunar and planetary science conference 2025 (LPSC 2025)with the details published in the magazine Sense.
An electronic eye. Dalek, whose name is inspired by the iconic antagonists of the series Doctor Whois based on NASA’s recommendations in one of his 2023 study. This document underlines the importance of highly reactive sensors, capable of collecting data on Uap in milliseconds, registering movement, shape, color and even sound. The Observatory is the first of an expanding network, with two other plants under construction in Pennsylvania and Nevada. These tools operate on multiple gangs of the spectrum, including infrared, optics, radio and audio, allowing multisensory monitoring of objects in the sky.
Unprecedented database. According to Professor Avi Loeb, director of Institute for Theory and Computation and head of the Galileo projectalready operational observers collect about 100,000 objects per month, contributing to the largest database ever created on air phenomena. The analysis of these data takes place through sophisticated automatic learning algorithms, including You Only Look Once (Yolo) for the detection of objects e Simple Online and Realtime Tracking (Sort) for the reconstruction of the trajectories. In the first five months of activity, The team studied half a million objectsidentifying anomalies in about 16% of the trajectories observed. Among these, 144 remain inexplicablebut could derive from common objects whose nature cannot be determined without further data.
Looking for advanced technologies. The final purpose of the project is to isolate any tests of technologies that go beyond those known by man, the so -called technophyme. Loeb says that too One anomalous object on a million could represent a revolutionary discoverysuggesting the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations with advanced scientific knowledge.
If the Dalek initiative manages to bring to light inexplicable phenomena, it could change the way we understand the cosmos and our position inside.
