1916-)

Wayne Aho, one of the 1950s flying saucer contactees, was the founder of a small New Age religion, the Cathedral of the Stars. Born on August 24, 1916 in Woodland, Washington, he dated the beginning of his religious career to a childhood experience. When he was only 12 he had heard a voice telling him that he would be able to do something great for humanity in his later life. He joined the Army as a young man and eventually rose to the rank of major during World War II (1939-45).

Several additional experiences similar to the one he had had in childhood occurred in the years after the war. Among the more vivid was a vision of a crack in the Earth as a result of an impending atomic war. Then in 1957, while attending the Giant Rock Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention, then the largest annual gathering of flying saucer buffs, he claimed he was lured away, and at a distance of some two miles from the convention site, a saucer landed. Once on the ground, the saucer, an object of another dimension, vanished, but Aho received telepathic messages presenting him with a mission in life. That evening he had an intense visionary experience that he described as a cosmic initiation. He founded Washington Saucer Intelligence and began to tell anyone who would listen of his knowledge of the flying saucer inhabitants. Numerous articles of his lectures appeared in newspapers and UFO periodicals.

In 1958 Aho became associated with Otis T. Carr, a man involved in selling shares in a free energy company. Aho believed that Carr could create a saucer that could fly to the moon, and joined him on the lecture circuit. The association proved disastrous when Carr was indicted and convicted of fraud. Charges were dropped against Aho when it was determined that he had also been hoaxed in by Carr. In 1961 Aho was committed to a mental hospital, an event he later attributed to Communist agents opposed to his flying saucer message.

After his brief hospitalization, Aho returned to the state of Washington and established the New Age Foundation, the precursor to the Cathedral of the Stars that opened in 1975. He published an account of his contacts with the space beings and remained the leader of his small group through subsequent years. By the 1980s he had faded into obscurity.

Sources:

Aho, Wayne S. Mojave Desert Experience. Eatonville, Wash.: The New Age Foundation, 1972.

Sachs, Margaret. The UFO Encyclopedia. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1980.

in advance of landing

 

Nembers of the New Age Foundation join hands to create a “cosmic brain battery” to summon UFOs to land at the twentieth annual New Age Convention, Mount Rainier, Washington.

On June 24, 1947, Kenneth Arnold, an Idaho businessman, was flying his light plane when he glimpsed nine gleaming disk-shaped objects whipping around the summit of Mount Rainier, Washington. He described them as looking like saucers skipping across water, and thus was born the term “flying saucers.” This first well-publicized case of unexplained aerial phenomena in the United States heralded a deluge of UFO sightings and alien visitations that has yet to cease.

Every year since Arnold’s sighting, UFO devotees have gathered at the foot of Mount Rainier to commemorate the event and anticipate the return of the saucers. The New Age Foundation has been holding its annual convention near the site since 1960. Wayne Aho, the founder, was affiliated with UFOs as far back as the early 1950s, when he worked on Otis T. Carr’s ill-fated OTC-X1 spaceship (see page 89).

In his testimonial, Mojave Desert Experience, Aho writes of a visitation he experienced while attending the 1957 Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention at Giant Rock, California. He tells of sensing a strange “energy” and being drawn out alone into the desert at night. Suddenly there appeared a pulsing, glowing craft from another dimension. A telepathic voice spoke from the saucer: “Millions of souls upon the earth are awakening. I believe this civilization can be saved.” Aho was directed by the extraterrestrials to buy land and create a refuge on high ground near Mount Rainier. He purchased the Cedar Park Lodge, a collection of mossy cedar-shake tourist cabins near the entrance to Mount Rainier National Park. For several days each year, before and after the anniversary of Arnold’s sighting, the lodge and cabins and camp grounds are taken over by diverse saucer believers, holistic health advocates, and psychic practitioners.

The focal point of the convention is the SPLAASH site, a clearing in a druidic copse a few minutes’ walk from the cabins. The Spacecraft Protective Landing Area for Advancement of Science and Humanities has, in a letter sent by Aho to state and federal authorities and the president, been declared a “free Landing Zone,” to be maintained free of arms and open to all, alien or earthling. Several psychics and an Indian medicine chief have declared the spot to be the center of seven circles of energy. Venerable dowsers in the area report that their wands dip deeply when crossing the circle. The site functions as a year-round contact point for communication between New Agers and the Space Brothers. Members invoke the wisdom of the Brothers in deciding important questions, and a sign from the Space Brothers can be perceived in a gust of wind or a sudden parting of the clouds.

Group members converge on the SPLAASH site and, joining hands, form as large a circle as possible. Two main convergences are held each day of the convention, at early afternoon and the stroke of midnight. The more devout often maintain a vigil throughout the night, leaning against logs placed around the site and gazing into the firmament.

The ritual beings with a prayer, usually led by Harold Price, a fire-and-damnation lay preacher proclaimed Spaceport Mayor for the occasion. With eyes closed and the circle of energy completed through their clasped hands, members begin to concentrate their thoughts. Focusing their brain waves, they create a “cosmic brain battery” to summon UFOs to land. Spontaneously, one member breaks into a low incantation: “Omm, Ommmmm...” rises slowly from the back of his throat, the consonant lengthening with each contraction of his diaphragm. One by one, people on either side pick up the mantra until the clearing is filled with deeply resonating m’s. Silence. Heads are slowly lifted, necks arch back until all eyes stare directly upward. No one speaks for several moments. All wait in hushed expectation for the cosmic connection or the whoosh of a saucer’s drive system.

Aho or Price breaks out in song. One of the favorites, the rhythm led by an autoharp, is sung to the tune of the old camp spiritual, “Kum-Ba-Ya”:

Flying saucer, Lord, kum-ba-ya
Flying saucer, Lord, kum-ba-ya
Flying saucer, Lord, kum-ba-ya
Oohhhh, Lord, kum-ba-ya

An innovation at the 1980 gathering was the inclusion of a “booster” to help harness energy. An open six-foot cube framework made from two-by-twos stood at the heart of the SPLAASH site, capped by a pyramid whose proportions duplicated those of the great pyramid of Cheops. Brushed with copper paint to increase its conductivity, the cube served as a vessel to contain the power funneled into it by the pyramid. Group members pointed out that flowers in a vase on a pedestal below the apex remained open all night and had not wilted after several days. After the invocation, several people, in a delicate mime with fingers outstretched, ran their hands over the invisible facets of the cube, by then filled with energy.

The New Age Foundation is amorphous, flexible enough in its tenets to allow believers from a broad range of other groups to attend and enjoy its functions. During the proceedings, I talked with people ranging from a successful middle-aged Seattle lawyer and his wife to Gore-Tex-clad back-to-the-landers to a group of upbeat singles in a Mercedes coupe. Participants at the convention often present lectures or lead seminars in their field of interest. Doc Johnson practices psychic chiropractic: using neural pressure points, he locate areas of weakness or ill health caused by psychic inhibitions. With his “corrections” he can multiply or reduce the power in all parts of the patient’s body. Following the chiropractic workshop, he makes a pitch for a line of motor oil additives he carries as a sideline.

Jon Beckjord is well known in UFOlogy circles for his work as a Bigfoot investigator. A big blond Swede with a Dutch-boy haircut, he walks around wearing a crumpled leather hat and L. L. Bean duckboots, indoors and out; a 16mm Bolex, held in the “present arms” position, is lashed to his left hand. He shows some films of Bigfoot, whom he holds to be a three-and-one-half dimensional creature.

Dolly, a pleasant and chubby psychic, gives demonstrations of how to sense the color and depth configurations of the human aura, while a balding fellow who lives out of his Rambler sells health pills. There are lectures and slides on Kirlian photography, displays of martial arts, people selling massage benches, health foods, Amway products, special air cleaners for automobiles, and, of course, books.

Late into the night, Aho himself gives a talk to the general assembly, sitting cross-legged in the tiered bunks around the walls of the ski house. New Agers believe that Earth is undergoing a major cyclical change, for which mankind is at present profoundly unprepared. A letter to the president of the United States urges that a summit conference of “aware individuals” be called to help “identify and make recommendations for new direction.” The projected disasters include the eruption of Mount St. Helens (which did happen) and the collapse of the West Coast into the sea along the San Andreas Fault and subsequent tidal wave inundating Japan and Washington State up to Mount Rainier (which hasn’t happened yet). Fossil fuels and internal combustion engines represent wrong thinking. Holistic healing and the use of free energy by flying saucers represent right thinking.

“All the psychiatrists and counselors in the world cannot solve all the anxiety problems. Could it be that man is being forced into new directions?” asks Aho. “With the threatened oil economy and inflation, perhaps the plug holding back human progress can be withdrawn. Because of a number of wrong choices, mankind is now faced with the threat of bare survival as the planet enters a recurring change... a ‘major cycle’ as described by UFO occupants.”

The first time I met Wayne Aho, I had driven up the coast from California in late November and arrived at his door on a dark and snowy night. He invited me in: “Come in and be at peace. Know that you’ve been examined before you came and you must be okay or you would not have been allowed to come. The Space Brothers are watching out for us, seeing that none of us comes to harm and that only the right people come here.”

I left early the next morning with a copy of Mojave Desert Experience that Aho had given me. It was inscribed, “Best wishes for the New Age.”

 

 

METHODS USED TO CALL IN ALIENS FOR CONTACT

If you aren't already being contacted or want it to be easier  (some don't wish contact for various reasons)  here are some ways.

 

WAWRNING:  YOU MIGHT THINK TWICE AFTER YOU DO.  JUST BE AWARE OF WHAT YOU COULD BE MADE TO DO AFTER YOU CAN ON BOARD THE SHIP.

 

The Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) has been studied over the decades by people who wish to communicate with the other side using electronic equipment such as recorders, television and radio. EVP researchers claim to capture voices of deceased people using these electronic devices which have been used by ghost hunters all over the world.

What is Instrumental Transcommunication

Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC) is a technique that allows EVP researchers to improve the contact with the spiritual world assuming that it's necessary to provide some kind of material that can be manipulated by spirits in order to facilitate the manifestation of the phenomenon. It's like adding colour to a laser to make it visible to the human eye – the laser is there, but without the colour it's not possible to see it.

Brazilian awarded researcher Sonia Rinaldi, who founded the Instrumental Transcommunication Advanced Research Institute (IPATI), has proved that it´s possible to use an empty TV channel and a CD with random recorded phonemes to obtain clear voices and images of deceased people. The spirits willing to communicate manipulate the photons provided by the empty TV channel to create images in the TV screen that can be identified when the pictures are frozen and divided in 30 frames per second by video editing software. The random phonemes in the audio CD are slowly transformed into full sentences by the spirits and communication is finally established.

How do Aliens Communicate? – Extraterrestrial Communication Through ITC

A few years ago, a curious phenomenon started to appear during ITC recordings in many laboratories of ITC. Some of the communications seemed to have a different content from the usual patterns. Not only did the communicators claim to come from other planets, they also said that they were working on the contact with humans through electronic equipment. The images captured in the TV screen during the recordings also did not look human at all. Architect Silvia Rossoni who voluntarely works for IPATI analyzed 30 samples of recorded images and realized that they followed a pattern of proportion: 1,618, the PHI number. Since then, Rinaldi´s team has been studying this possibility in her laboratory, located in São Paulo, Brazil.

Astronomy professor Carl Sagan suggested in his book Murmurs of Earth that it was possible that extraterrestrial communication could come through electromagnetic waves in radio range and such signals could be understandable when identified and interpreted correctly.

Carl Sagan´s theory is quite accurate, however, according to the recordings gathered in the laboratories, extraterrestrials don´t necessarily emit signals that need to be interpreted afterwards, because they can communicate using language – any language at all, depending on what part of the world they are trying to contact – as alien stations located in strategical places in the Earth orb provide the channel through which communication can reach humans and each one of them operates with a language. There have been contacts recorded in Portuguese, English and Italian so far, as researchers say.

According to Rinaldi, in the future it will be possible for anyone to contact not only the spiritual world, but also other planets. Extraterrestrials will even use internet to communicate, as researchers predict, and there are serious people already working for it to happen.

American UFO Magazine published (May, 2008) an interesting report about Aliens and ITC in Sonia Rinaldi´s laboratory. To know more about Extraterrestrial Communication via Instrumental Transcommunication visit IPATI´s website ( www.ipati.org ) and download bulletins for free.nd Instrumental Transcommunication

Read Scientific Paranormal Investigations along with How to Detect Paranormal Activity, and Paranormal Phenomena Research: How to Use Background Noise in EVP Investigations to find out more about the paranormal

Read more at Suite101: How to Contact Aliens – ITC: Can Extraterrestrials Communicate Through Electronic Equipment? | Suite101.com http://suite101.com/article/instrumental-transcommunication-a155736#ixzz1w6NOP7G9

here is a skeptical viewpoint:

 

Extraterrestrial life (from the Latin words: extra ["beyond", or "not of"] and‎ terrestris ["of or belonging to Earth"]) is defined as life that does not originate from Earth. None has ever been documented. Referred to as alien life, or simply aliens (or space aliens, to differentiate from other definitions of alien or aliens) these hypothetical forms of life range from simple bacteria-like organisms to beings far more complex than humans.

The development and testing of hypotheses on extraterrestrial life is known as exobiology or astrobiology; the term astrobiology, however, includes the study of life on Earth viewed in its astronomical context. Many scientists consider extraterrestrial life to be plausible, but little evidence has yet been found.

NOTE:  THE WORD EVIDENCE IS A TRAP.  IF YOU WANT EVIDENCE, DON'T BOTHER LOOKING.  ALIENS OF ALL TYPES DO NOT GIVE EVIDENCE FOR VARIOUS REASONS.  THEY DON'T WANT HUMANS COMING TO VISIT WITHOUT CALLING FIRST. 

EVEN HUMANS DON'T LIKE IT WHEN YOU DON'T CALL FIRST.  DO YOU?  ALIENS LIKE PRIVACY JUST LIKE YOU DO.

Suggested locations at which life might have developed include the planets Venus^[6] and Mars, Jupiter's moon Europa,^[7] and Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus.^[8] In May 2011, NASA scientists reported that Enceladus "is emerging as the most habitable spot beyond Earth in the Solar System for life as we know it".^[9][10] Life may appear on extrasolar planets, such as Gliese 581 c, g and d, recently discovered to be near Earth mass and apparently located in their star's habitable zone, with the potential to have liquid water.^[11] In December 2011, scientists working with NASA’s Kepler space telescope announced the discovery of Kepler-22b, an exoplanet that appears to be orbiting a sun-like star within the habitable zone. ^[12]

No evidence of extraterrestrial life has been found; however, various controversial claims have been made.^[13] Beliefs that some unidentified flying objects are of extraterrestrial origin (see Extraterrestrial hypothesis),^[14] along with claims of alien abduction,^[15] are dismissed by most scientists. Most UFO sightings are explained either as sightings of Earth-based aircraft or known astronomical objects, or as hoaxes.^[16]

In November 2011, the White House released an official response to two petitions asking the U.S. government to acknowledge formally that aliens have visited Earth and to disclose any intentional withholding of government interactions with extraterrestrial beings. According to the response, "The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race."^[17][18] Also, according to the response, there is "no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public's eye."^[17][18] The response further noted that efforts, like SETI, the Kepler space telescope and the NASA Mars rover, continue looking for signs of life. The response noted "odds are pretty high" that there may be life on other planets but "the odds of us making contact with any of them—especially any intelligent ones—are extremely small, given the distances involved."^[17][18]

 

note:  WHAT HUMANA DETERMINE IS HABITABLE IS NOT NECESSARILY WHAT AIENS NEED.  SOME ALIENS ARE NOT EVEN PHYSICAL LIKE HUMANS.  SOME ALIENS ARE NOT EVEN FROM OUR TIME FRAME NOR EVEN FROM OUR SOLAR SYSTEM.  MANY ALIENS YOU MAY KNOW BY TYPE CAN'T BREATHE EARTH AIR - AND IT WON'T BE LONG AND WE WON'T BE ABLE TO EITHER.  THEY MAY NOT BE ABLE TO EAT OUR FOOD EITHER -  AND MOST FOODS WE HAVE, WE SHOULDN'T EAT EITHER.  ESPECIALLY NOTHING MADE BY MONSANTO OR WITH TERMINATOR SEEDS.  READ YOUR LABELS - DON'T EAT ANYTHING YOU CAN'T PRONOUNCE OR SPELL WITHOUT A DICTIONARY.  KEEP IT SIMPLE AND EAT ONLY FRESH FOODS YOU KNOW WHERE THEY CAME FROM.

Life on Earth requires water as the solvent in which biochemical reactions take place. Sufficient quantities of carbon and the other elements along with water, may enable the formation of living organisms on other planets with a chemical make-up and temperature range similar to that of Earth.^[20] Terrestrial planets, such as Earth, are formed in a process that allows for the possibility of having compositions similar to Earth's.^[21] The combination of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in the chemical form of carbohydrates (e.g. sugar) can be a source of chemical energy on which life depends, and can provide structural elements for life (such as ribose, in the molecules DNA and RNA, and cellulose in plants). Plants derive energy through the conversion of light energy into chemical energy via photosynthesis. Life, as currently recognized, requires carbon in both reduced (methane derivatives) and partially oxidized (carbon oxides) states. Nitrogen is needed as a reduced ammonia derivative in all proteins, sulfur as a derivative of hydrogen sulfide in some necessary proteins, and phosphorus oxidized to phosphates in genetic material and in energy transfer.

Pure water is useful because it has a neutral pH due to its continued dissociation between hydroxide and hydronium ions. As a result, it can dissolve both positive metallic ions and negative non-metallic ions with equal ability. Furthermore, the fact that organic molecules can be either hydrophobic (repelled by water) or hydrophilic (soluble in water) creates the ability of organic compounds to orient themselves to form water-enclosing membranes. Additionally, the hydrogen bonds between water molecules give it an ability to store energy with evaporation, which upon condensation is released. This helps to moderate the climate, cooling the tropics and warming the poles, helping to maintain the thermodynamic stability needed for life.

Carbon is fundamental to terrestrial life for its immense flexibility in creating covalent chemical bonds with a variety of non-metallic elements, principally nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen. Carbon dioxide and water together enable the storage of solar energy in sugars, such as glucose. The oxidation of glucose releases biochemical energy needed to fuel all other biochemical reactions.

NOTE:  MAKE SURE YOUR WATER IS NOT LACED WITH CHEMICALS - ESPECIALLY FLUORIDE.  GET PURE WATER - STORE BOUGHT IS BEST BUT MAKE SURE AGAIN THAT IT DOESN'T CONTAIN FLUORIDE.  KNOW WHERE YOUR WATER COMES FROM OR MAKE IT YOURSELF WITH A WATER DISTILLER.   BUT IF YOU DRINK DISTILLED WATER, MAKE SURE YOU ALSO TAKE YOUR VITAMINS AND MINERALS DAILY OR THE DISTILLED WATER WILL DEPLETE YOUR BODY OF WHAT IT NEEDS TO FUNCTION.

The ability to form organic acids (–COOH) and amine bases (–NH₂) gives rise to the possibility of neutralization dehydrating reactions to build long polymer peptides and catalytic proteins from monomer amino acids. When combined with phosphates, these acids can build the information-storing molecule of inheritance, DNA, and the principal energy transfer molecule of cellular life, ATP.

Due to their relative abundance and usefulness in sustaining life, many have hypothesized that life forms elsewhere in the universe would utilize these basic materials. However, other elements and solvents could provide a basis for life. Silicon is most often deemed to be the probable alternative to carbon.^{[citation needed]} Silicon life forms are proposed to have a crystalline morphology, and are hypothesized to be able to exist in high temperatures, such as on planets which are very close to their star.^{[citation needed]} Life forms based in ammonia (rather than water) have been suggested, though this solution appears less optimal than water.^[22]

From a chemical perspective, life is fundamentally a self-replicating reaction, but one which could arise under a great many conditions and with various possible ingredients, though carbon-oxygen within the liquid temperature range of water seems most conducive. Suggestions have even been made that self-replicating reactions of some sort could occur within the plasma of a star, though it would be highly unconventional.^[23]

Several pre-conceived ideas about the characteristics of life outside of Earth have been questioned. For example, a NASA scientist suggested that the color of photosynthesizing pigments of hypothetical life on extrasolar planets might not be green.^[24]

[edit] Evolution and morphology

In addition to the biochemical basis of extraterrestrial life, many have considered evolution and morphology. Science fiction has often depicted extraterrestrial life with humanoid and/or reptilian forms. Aliens have often been depicted as having light green or grey skin, with a large head, as well as four limbs—i.e. fundamentally humanoid. Other subjects, such as felines, insects, blobs, etc., have occurred in fictional representations of aliens.

A division has been suggested between universal and parochial (narrowly restricted) characteristics. Universals are features which are thought to have evolved independently more than once on Earth (and thus, presumably, are not too difficult to develop) and are so intrinsically useful that species will inevitably tend towards them. The most fundamental of these is probably bilateral symmetry, but more complex (though still basic) characteristics include flight, sight, photosynthesis and limbs, all of which are thought to have evolved several times here on Earth. There is a huge variety of eyes, for example, and many of these have radically different working schematics and different visual foci: the visual spectrum, infrared, polarity and echolocation. Parochials, however, are essentially arbitrary evolutionary forms. These often have little inherent utility (or at least have a function which can be equally served by dissimilar morphology) and probably will not be replicated. Intelligent aliens could communicate through gestures, as deaf humans do, by sounds created from structures unrelated to breathing, which happens on Earth when, for instance, cicadas vibrate their wings or crickets stridulate their wings, or visually through bioluminescence or chromatophore-like structures.

Attempting to define parochial features challenges many taken-for-granted notions about morphological necessity. Skeletons, which are essential to large terrestrial organisms according to the experts of the field of gravitational biology, are almost assured to be replicated elsewhere in one form or another. The assumption of radical diversity amongst putative extraterrestrials is by no means settled. While many exobiologists do stress that the enormously heterogeneous nature of life on Earth foregrounds an even greater variety in outer space, others point out that convergent evolution may dictate substantial similarities between Earth and extraterrestrial life. These two schools of thought are called "divergionism" and "convergionism" respectively.^[23]

[edit] Planetary habitability in the Solar System

Some bodies in the Solar System have been suggested as having the potential for an environment that could host extraterrestrial life, particularly those with possible subsurface oceans. Though due to the lack of habitable environments beyond Earth, should life be discovered elsewhere in the Solar System, astrobiologists suggest that it more likely will be in the form of extremophile microorganisms.

The planets Venus and Mars, along with several natural satellites orbiting Jupiter and Saturn, and even comets, are suspected to possess niche environments in which life might exist. A subsurface marine environment on Jupiter's moon Europa might be the most suitable habitat in the Solar System, outside of Earth, for multicellular organisms.

Panspermia suggests that life elsewhere in the Solar System may have a common origin. If extraterrestrial life was found on another body in the Solar System, it could have originated from Earth just as life on Earth may have been seeded from elsewhere (exogenesis). The Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment, developed by the Planetary Society launched in 2011 was designed to test some aspect of these hypotheses, but it was destroyed along with the carrier Fobos-Grunt mission.^[25

 

^{NOTE:  AS STATED PREVIOUSLY, NOT ALL ALIENS BREATHE AIR OR DRINK WATER.  DON'T EVER JUDGE A PLANT (OR STAR) BY WHAT IT IS MADE OUT OF WHEN YOU ARE LOOKING FOR ALIENS YOU CAN COMMUNICATE WITH. ACCORDING TO OTHER CONTACTEES, THERE IS ALIEN LIFE ON ALL PLANETS AND THE SUN IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, AND DON'T FORGET THE MOON.}

Carl Sagan, David Grinspoon and Dirk Schulze-Makuch have put forward a hypothesis that microbes could exist in the stable cloud layers 50 km above the surface of Venus; the hypothesis is based on the premises of hospitable climates and chemical disequilibrium.^[26]

[edit] Mars

Life on Mars has been long speculated. Liquid water is widely thought to have existed on Mars in the past, and there may still be liquid water beneath the surface. The origin of the potential biosignature of methane in Mars atmosphere is unexplained, although abiotic hypotheses have also been proposed.^[27] By July 2008, laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander had identified water in a soil sample. The lander's robotic arm delivered the sample to an instrument which identifies vapours produced by the heating of samples. Photographs from the Mars Global Surveyor from 2006 showed evidence of recent (i.e. within 10 years) flows of a liquid on Mars's frigid surface.^[28] There is evidence that Mars had a warmer and wetter past: dried-up river beds, polar ice caps, volcanoes and minerals that form in the presence of water have all been found. Nonetheless, present conditions on Mars may support life since lichens were found to successfully survive Martian conditions in the Mars Simulation Laboratory (MSL) maintained by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).^[29][30]

[edit] Jupiter

Jupiter

Carl Sagan and others^[31] in the 1960s and 70s computed conditions for hypothetical amino acid-based macroscopic life in the atmosphere of Jupiter, based on observed conditions of this atmosphere. However, the conditions do not appear to permit the type of encapsulation thought necessary for molecular biochemistry, so life is thought to be unlikely.^[32]

However, some of Jupiter's moons may have habitats to sustain life. Scientists have suggested that heated subsurface oceans of water may exist deep under the crusts of the three outer Galilean moons—Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. The EJSM/Laplace is planned to determine the habitability of these environments. However, Europa is seen as the main target for the discovery of life.

[edit] Europa

Jupiter's moon Europa has been subject to speculation of life due to the strong possibility of liquid water beneath an ice layer. Hydrothermal vents on the bottom of the ocean, if they exist, may warm the ice and could be capable of supporting multicellular microorganisms.^[7] It is also possible that Europa could support aerobic macrofauna using oxygen created by cosmic rays impacting its surface ice.^[34]

The case for life on Europa was greatly enhanced in 2011 when it was discovered that vast lakes exist within Europa’s thick, icy shell. Scientists found that ice shelves surrounding the lakes appear to be collapsing into them, thereby providing a mechanism through which life-forming chemicals created in sunlit areas on Europa’s surface can be transferred to its interior.^[35][36]

[edit] Saturn

While Saturn is itself considered inhospitable to life, the planet's natural satellites, Titan and Enceladus have been speculated to possess possible habitats for life.

[edit] Titan

Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is the only known moon with a significant atmosphere. Data from the Cassini–Huygens mission refuted the hypothesis of a global hydrocarbon ocean, but later demonstrated the existence of liquid hydrocarbon lakes in the polar regions—the first stable bodies of liquid discovered outside of Earth.^[37][38][39] Analysis of data from the mission has uncovered aspects of atmospheric chemistry near the surface which are consistent with—but do not prove—the hypothesis that organisms there are consuming hydrogen, acetylene and ethane, and producing methane.^[40][41][42]

An alternate explanation for the hypothetical existence of microbial life on Titan has already been formally proposed^[43][44]—hypothesizing that microorganisms could have left Earth when it suffered a massive asteroid or comet impact (such as the impact that created Chicxulub crater only 65 mya), and survived a journey through space to land on Titan.

[edit] Enceladus

Enceladus (moon of Saturn) has some of the conditions for life including geothermal activity and water vapor as well as possible under-ice oceans heated by tidal effects. The Cassini probe detected carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen—all key elements for supporting living organisms—during a fly-by through one of Enceladus's geysers spewing ice and gas in 2005. The temperature and density of the plumes indicate a warmer, watery source beneath the surface. However, no life has been confirmed.^[27]

[edit] Small Solar System bodies

Small Solar System bodies have also been suggested as habitats for extremophiles. Fred Hoyle has proposed that microbial life life might exist on comets.^[45] Live bacteria were found on the camera of the Surveyor 3 probe that had stayed on the surface of the Moon for two and a half years. This finding was later considered doubtful as sterile procedures may not have been fully followed.

[edit] Scientific search

The scientific search for extraterrestrial life is being carried out both directly and indirectly.

[edit] Direct search

Scientists are directly searching for evidence of unicellular life within the Solar System, carrying out studies on the surface of Mars and examining meteors which have fallen to Earth. At the moment, no concrete plan exists for exploration of Europa for life. In 2008, a joint mission by NASA and the European Space Agency was announced that would have included studies of Europa. ^[46] However, in 2011 NASA was forced to deprioritize the mission due to a lack of funding, and it is possible that the ESA will take on the mission by itself. ^[47]

There is some limited evidence that microbial life might possibly exist (or have existed) on Mars.^[48] An experiment on the Viking Mars lander reported gas emissions from heated Martian soil that some argue are consistent with the presence of microbes. However, the lack of corroborating evidence from other experiments on the Viking lander indicates that a non-biological reaction is a more likely hypothesis. Independently, in 1996, structures resembling nanobacteria were reportedly discovered in a meteorite, ALH84001, thought to be formed of rock ejected from Mars. This report is controversial.

In February 2005, NASA scientists reported that they may have found some evidence of present life on Mars.^[49] The two scientists, Carol Stoker and Larry Lemke of NASA's Ames Research Center, based their claim on methane signatures found in Mars' atmosphere resembling the methane production of some forms of primitive life on Earth, as well as on their own study of primitive life near the Rio Tinto river in Spain. NASA officials soon distanced NASA from the scientists' claims, and Stoker herself backed off from her initial assertions.^[50]

Though such methane findings are still very much in debate, support among some scientists for the existence of life on Mars seems to be growing: an informal survey conducted at the conference at which the European Space Agency presented its findings on methane in Mars' atmosphere, indicated that 75% of the people present agreed that bacteria once lived on Mars. Roughly 25% agreed that bacteria inhabit the planet today.^[51]

In November 2011, NASA launched the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover which is designed to search for past or present habitability on Mars using a variety of scientific instruments. The MSL is scheduled to land on Mars at Gale Crater in August 2012.^[52][53][54]

The Gaia hypothesis stipulates that any planet with a robust population of life will have an atmosphere in chemical disequilibrium, which is relatively easy to determine from a distance by spectroscopy. However, significant advances in the ability to find and resolve light from smaller rocky worlds near their star are necessary before such spectroscopic methods can be used to analyze extrasolar planets.

On March 5, 2011, Richard B. Hoover, an astrobiologist with the Marshall Space Flight Center, speculated on the finding of alleged microfossils similar to cyanobacteria in CI1 carbonaceous meteorites.^[55][56] However, NASA formally distanced itself from Hoover's claim.^[57][58][59] See Hoover paper controversy for more details.

In August 2011, findings by NASA, based on studies of meteorites found on Earth, suggests DNA and RNA components (adenine, guanine and related organic molecules), building blocks for life as we know it, may be formed extraterrestrially in outer space.^[60][61][62] In October 2011, scientists reported that cosmic dust contains complex organic matter ("amorphous organic solids with a mixed aromatic-aliphatic structure") that could be created naturally, and rapidly, by stars.^[63][64][65] One of the scientists suggested that these compounds may have been related to the development of life on Earth and said that, "If this is the case, life on Earth may have had an easier time getting started as these organics can serve as basic ingredients for life."^[63]

[edit] Indirect search

It is hypothesized that any technological society in space will be transmitting information.^{[citation needed]} However, if there is an advanced extraterrestrial society, there is no guarantee that they are transmitting information in the direction of Earth or that this information could be interpreted as such by humans.^{[citation needed]} The length of time required for a signal to travel across the vastness of space means that any signal detected, or not detected, would come from the distant past.

Projects such as SETI are conducting an astronomical search for radio activity which would confirm the presence of intelligent life. A related suggestion is that aliens might broadcast pulsed and continuous laser signals in the optical, as well as infrared, spectrum;^[66] laser signals have the advantage of not "smearing" in the interstellar medium, and may prove more conducive to communication between the stars. While other communication techniques, including laser transmission and interstellar spaceflight, have been discussed seriously and may well be feasible, the measure of effectiveness is the amount of information communicated per unit cost. This results in radio transmission as the method of choice.

Some have hypothesized that very advanced civilizations may create artificial black holes as an energy source or method of waste disposal. Thus, they suggest that the observation of a black hole with a mass of less than 3.5 solar masses, the theoretical lower mass limit for a naturally occurring black hole, would be evidence of an alien civilization.^[67]

[edit] Extrasolar planets

Astronomers search for extrasolar planets that may be conducive to life, such as Gliese 581 c, Gliese 581 g, Gliese 581 d and OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb, which have been found to have few Earth-like qualities.^[68][69] Current radiodetection methods have been inadequate for such a search, since the resolution afforded by recent technology is inadequate for a detailed study of extrasolar planetary objects. Future telescopes should be able to image planets around nearby stars, which may reveal the presence of life – either directly or through spectrography – and would reveal key information, such as the presence of free oxygen in a planet's atmosphere:

• Darwin was a proposed ESA mission designed to find Earth-like planets and analyze their atmosphere.
• The COROT mission, initiated by the French Space Agency, was launched in 2006, and is currently looking for extrasolar planets; it is the first of its kind.
• The Terrestrial Planet Finder was supposed to have been launched by NASA, but as of 2011, budget cuts have caused it to be delayed indefinitely.
• The Kepler Mission, largely replacing the Terrestrial Planet Finder, was launched in March 2009.

It has been argued that Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to Earth, may contain planets which could be capable of sustaining life.^[70]

On April 24, 2007, scientists at the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile said they had found the first Earth-like planet. The planet, known as Gliese 581 c, orbits within the habitable zone of its star Gliese 581, a red dwarf star which is 20.5 light years (194 trillion km) from the Earth. It was initially thought that this planet could contain liquid water, but recent computer simulations of the climate on Gliese 581 c by Werner von Bloh and his team at Germany's Institute for Climate Impact Research suggest that carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere would create a runaway greenhouse effect. This would warm the planet well above the boiling point of water (100 degrees Celsius/212 degrees Fahrenheit), thus dimming the hopes of finding life. As a result of greenhouse models, scientists are now turning their attention to Gliese 581 d, which lies just outside of the star's traditional habitable zone.^[71]

On May 29, 2007, the Associated Press released a report stating that scientists identified twenty-eight new extra-solar planetary bodies. One of these newly discovered planets is said to have many similarities to Neptune.^[72]

In May 2011, a planet in the Gliese system was found capable of sustaining life. Researchers predict Gliese 581 d, which orbits a red dwarf 20 light years away, not only exists in the "Goldilocks zone" where water can be present in liquid form, but is big enough to have a stable carbon dioxide atmosphere and "warm enough to have oceans, clouds, and rainfall," according to France's National Centre for Scientific Research.^[73]

In December 2011, NASA confirmed that 600-light-year distant Kepler-22b, at 2.4 times the radius of Earth, is potentially the closest match to Earth in terms of both size and temperature.^[74][75]

Since 1992, hundreds of planets around other stars ("extrasolar planets" or "exoplanets") in the Milky Way Galaxy have been discovered. As of May 25, 2012, the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia identified 770 extrasolar planets (in 616 planetary systems and 102 multiple planetary systems); the extrasolar planets range in size from that of terrestrial planets similar to Earth to that of gas giants larger than Jupiter.^[76] The number of observed exoplanets is expected to increase greatly in the coming years. Because the Kepler spacecraft must view three stellar transits by exoplanets before it identifies them as candidate planets, it has so far only been able to identify planets that orbit their star at a relatively quick rate. The mission is expected to continue until at least 2016, in which time many more exoplanet candidates are expected to be found.^[77]

Despite these successes, the transit method employed by the Kepler spacecraft requires that planetary orbits be at a small inclination to the line of sight of the observer. Due to this constraint, the probability of detecting a planet of Earth’s size and orbital radius around a distant star is just 0.47%. Thus, the number of planets we are currently able to detect is only a small fraction of the total amount of planets present within the galaxy. ^[78]

[edit] The Drake equation

In 1961, University of California, Santa Cruz astronomer and astrophysicist Dr. Frank Drake devised the Drake equation. This controversial equation multiplied estimates of the following terms together:

• The rate of formation of suitable stars.
• The fraction of those stars which are orbited by planets.
• The number of Earth-like worlds per planetary system.
• The fraction of planets where intelligent life develops.
• The fraction of possible communicative planets.
• The "lifetime" of possible communicative civilizations.

Criticism of the Drake equation follows mostly from the observation that the terms in the equation are entirely based on conjecture. Thus the equation cannot be used to draw firm conclusions of any kind.^[79] Although the Drake equation currently involves speculation about unmeasured parameters, it was not meant to be science, but intended as a way to stimulate dialogue on these topics. Then the focus becomes how to proceed experimentally. Indeed, Drake originally formulated the equation merely as an agenda for discussion at the Green Bank conference.^[80]

Drake used the equation to estimate that there are approximately 10,000 planets in the Milky Way galaxy containing intelligent life with the possible capability of communicating with Earth.^[81]

Based on observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, there are at least 125 billion galaxies in the observable Universe. It is estimated that at least ten percent of all sun-like stars have a system of planets,^[82] i.e. there are 6.25×10¹⁸ stars with planets orbiting them in the observable Universe. Even if we assume that only one out of a billion of these stars have planets supporting life, there would be some 6.25×10⁹ (billion) life-supporting planetary systems in the observable Universe.

The apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence for, or contact with, such civilizations is known as the Fermi paradox.

[edit] Beliefs

[edit] Ancient and medieval ideas

In antiquity, it was common to assume a cosmos consisting of "many worlds" inhabited by intelligent, non-human life-forms, but these "worlds" were mythological and not informed by the heliocentric understanding of the solar system, or the understanding of the Sun as one among countless stars.^[83] An example would be the fourteen loka of Hindu cosmology, or the Nine Worlds of Old Norse mythology, etc. The Sun and the Moon often appear as inhabited worlds in such contexts, or as vehicles (chariots or boats, etc.) driven by gods. The Japanese folk tale of The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (10th century) is an example of a princess of the Moon people visiting Earth.

Such conceptions of a universe consisting of "many worlds" are found in classical Greek philosophy, and later in Christian and Jewish theology. (See exotheology.) The atomists of Greece like Epicurus took up the idea, arguing that an infinite universe ought to have an infinity of populated worlds. Ancient Greek cosmology worked against the idea of extraterrestrial life in one critical respect, however: the geocentric Universe. Championed by Aristotle and codified by Ptolemy, it favored the Earth and Earth-life (Aristotle denied that there could be a plurality of worlds) and seemingly rendered extraterrestrial life philosophically untenable.^{[citation needed]}

The Jewish Talmud states that there are at least 18,000 other worlds, but provides little elaboration on the nature of those worlds, or on whether they are physical or spiritual. Based on this, however, the 18th century exposition "Sefer HaB'rit" posits that extraterrestrial creatures exist, and that some may well possess intelligence. It adds that humans should not expect creatures from another world to resemble earthly life any more than sea creatures resemble land animals.^[84][85]

Hindu beliefs of endlessly repeated cycles of life have led to descriptions of multiple worlds in existence and their mutual contacts (Sanskrit word sampark (सम्पर्क) means "contact" as in Mahasamparka (महासम्पर्क) = "the great contact"). According to Hindu scriptures, there are innumerable universes to facilitate the fulfillment of the separated desires of innumerable living entities. However, the purpose of such creations is to bring back the deluded souls to correct understanding about the purpose of life. Aside from the innumerable universes which are material, there is the unlimited spiritual world, where the purified living entities live with perfect conception about life and ultimate reality. The spiritually aspiring saints and devotees, as well as thoughtful men of the material world, have been getting guidance and help from these purified living entities of the spiritual world from time immemorial.^{[citation needed]}

According to Ahmadiyya a more direct reference from the Quran is presented by Mirza Tahir Ahmad as a proof that life on other planets may exist according to the Quran. In his book, Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth, he quotes verse 42:29 "And among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and of whatever living creatures (da'bbah) He has spread forth in both..."; according to this verse there is life in heavens. According to the same verse "And He has the power to gather them together (jam-'i-him) when He will so please"; indicates the bringing together the life on Earth and the life elsewhere in the Universe. The verse does not specify the time or the place of this meeting but rather states that this event will most certainly come to pass whenever God so desires. It should be pointed out that the Arabic term Jam-i-him used to express the gathering event can imply either a physical encounter or a contact through communication.^[86]

In Shia Islam the 6th Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq has been quoted as saying that there are living beings on other planets.^{[citation needed]}

When Christianity spread throughout the West, the Ptolemaic system became very widely accepted, and although the Church never issued any formal pronouncement on the question of alien life,^[87] at least tacitly, the idea was aberrant. In 1277, the Bishop of Paris, Étienne Tempier, did overturn Aristotle on one point: God could have created more than one world (given His omnipotence). Taking a further step, and arguing that aliens actually existed, remained rare. Notably, Cardinal Nicholas of Kues speculated about aliens on the Moon and Sun.^[88]

[edit] Early modern period

There was a dramatic shift in thinking initiated by the invention of the telescope and the Copernican assault on geocentric cosmology. Once it became clear that the Earth was merely one planet amongst countless bodies in the universe, the extraterrestrial idea moved towards the scientific mainstream. The best known early-modern proponent of such ideas was the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, who argued in the 16th century for an infinite Universe in which every star is surrounded by its own planetary system. Bruno wrote that other worlds "have no less virtue nor a nature different to that of our earth" and, like Earth, "contain animals and inhabitants".^[89]

In the early 17th century, the Czech astronomer Anton Maria Schyrleus of Rheita mused that "if Jupiter has (...) inhabitants (...) they must be larger and more beautiful than the inhabitants of the Earth, in proportion to the [characteristics] of the two spheres".^[90]

In Baroque literature such as The Other World: The Societies and Governments of the Moon by Cyrano de Bergerac, extraterrestrial societies are presented as humoristic or ironic parodies of earthly society. The didactic poet Henry More took up the classical theme of the Greek Democritus in "Democritus Platonissans, or an Essay Upon the Infinity of Worlds" (1647). In "The Creation: a Philosophical Poem in Seven Books" (1712), Sir Richard Blackmore observed: "We may pronounce each orb sustains a race / Of living things adapted to the place". With the new relative viewpoint that the Copernican revolution had wrought, he suggested "our world's sunne / Becomes a starre elsewhere". Fontanelle's "Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds" (translated into English in 1686) offered similar excursions on the possibility of extraterrestrial life, expanding, rather than denying, the creative sphere of a Maker.

The possibility of extraterrestrials remained a widespread speculation as scientific discovery accelerated. William Herschel, the discoverer of Uranus, was one of many 18th–19th century astronomers convinced that the Solar System, and perhaps others, would be well-populated by alien life. Other luminaries of the period who championed "cosmic pluralism" included Immanuel Kant and Benjamin Franklin. At the height of the Enlightenment, even the Sun and Moon were considered candidates for extraterrestrial inhabitants.

[edit] 19th century

In 1854, William Whewell, a fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, who popularized the word scientist, speculated that Mars had seas, land and possibly life forms.^{[citation needed]} Speculation about life on Mars increased in the late 19th century, following telescopic observation by some observers of apparent Martian canals — which were however soon found to be optical illusions. Despite this, in 1895, American astronomer Percival Lowell published his book Mars, followed by Mars and its Canals in 1906, proposing that the canals were the work of a long-gone civilization.^[91] This idea led British writer H. G. Wells to write The War of the Worlds in 1897, telling of an invasion by aliens from Mars who were fleeing the planet’s desiccation.

Spectroscopic analysis of Mars' atmosphere began in earnest in 1894, when U.S. astronomer William Wallace Campbell showed that neither water nor oxygen were present in the Martian atmosphere.^[92] By 1909 better telescopes and the best perihelic opposition of Mars since 1877 conclusively put an end to the canal hypothesis.

The science fiction genre, although not so named during the time, develops during the late 19th century. Jules Verne's Around the Moon (1870) features a discussion of the possibility of life on the Moon, but with the conclusion that it is barren. Stories involving extraterrestrials are found in e.g. Garrett P. Serviss's Edison's Conquest of Mars (1897). The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells was published in 1898 and stands at the beginning of the popular idea of the "Martian invasion" of Earth prominent in 20th century pop culture.

[edit] 20th century

A radio drama version of Wells' novel broadcast in 1938 over the CBS Radio Network led to outrage because it supposedly suggested to many listeners that an actual alien invasion by Martians was in progress. In the wake of the Roswell Incident, conspiracy theories on the presence of extraterrestrials became a widespread phenomenon in the United States during the 1940s and the beginning Space Age during the 1950s, accompanied by a surge of UFO reports. The term UFO itself was coined in 1952 in the context of the enormous popularity of the concept of "flying saucers" in the wake of the Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting in 1947. The Majestic 12 documents published in 1982 suggest that there was genuine interest in UFO conspiracy theories in the US government during the 1940s.

The trend to assume that celestial bodies were populated almost by default was tempered as actual probes visited potential alien abodes in the Solar System beginning in the second half of the 20th century, and by the 1970s belief in UFOs had become part of the fringe beliefs associated with the paranormal, New Age, Earth mysteries, Forteana etc. A number of UFO religions developed during the surge in UFO belief during th 1950s to 1970s period, and some, such as Scientology (founded 1953) and Raëlism (founded 1974) remain active into the present. The idea of "paleocontact", supposing that extraterrestrials ("ancient astronauts") have visited the Earth in the remote past and left traces in ancient cultures, appears in early 20th century fiction such as The Call of Cthulhu (1926) and the idea came to be established as a notable aspect of the Ufology subculture in the wake of Erich von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods? (1968). Alien abduction claims were widespread during the 1960s and 1970s in the United States.

On the scientific side, the possibility of extraterrestrial life on the Moon was decisively ruled out by the 1960s, and during the 1970s it became clear that most of the other bodies of the Solar System do not harbour highly developed life, although the question of primitive life on bodies in the Solar System remains an open question. Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman founded the U.S. Planetary Society, partly as a vehicle for SETI studies in 1980, and since the 1990s, systematic search for radio signals attributable to intelligent extraterrestrial life has been ongoing.

In the early 1990s, NASA was set to join in on SETI research with a planned targeted search and all-sky survey. However, Senator Richard Bryan of Nevada cut funding for the project, and no comparable search has taken place since. ^[93]

[edit] Recent history

The failure so far of the SETI program to detect an intelligent radio signal after decades of effort, has at least partially dimmed the prevailing optimism of the beginning of the space age. Notwithstanding, the unproven "belief" in extraterrestrial beings continues to be voiced in pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, and in popular folklore, notably "Area 51" and legends. It has become a pop culture trope given less-than-serious treatment in popular entertainment with e.g. the ALF TV series (1986–1990), The X-Files (1993–2002), etc.

The SETI program is not the result of a continuous, dedicated search, but instead utilizes what resources and manpower it can, when it can. Furthermore, the SETI program only searches a limited range of frequencies at any one time.^[94]

In the words of SETI's Frank Drake, "All we know for sure is that the sky is not littered with powerful microwave transmitters".^[95] Drake noted that it is entirely possible that advanced technology results in communication being carried out in some way other than conventional radio transmission. At the same time, the data returned by space probes, and giant strides in detection methods, have allowed science to begin delineating habitability criteria on other worlds, and to confirm that at least other planets are plentiful, though aliens remain a question mark. The Wow! signal, from SETI, remains a speculative debate.

In 2000, geologist and paleontologist Peter Ward and astrobiologist Donald Brownlee published a book entitled Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe.^[96] In it, they discussed the Rare Earth hypothesis, in which they claim that Earth-like life is rare in the Universe, while microbial life is common. Ward and Brownlee are open to the idea of evolution on other planets which is not based on essential Earth-like characteristics (such as DNA and carbon).

The possible existence of primitive (microbial) life outside of Earth is much less controversial to mainstream scientists, although, at present, no direct evidence of such life has been found. Indirect evidence has been offered for the current existence of primitive life on Mars. However, the conclusions that should be drawn from such evidence remain in debate.

The Catholic Church has not made a formal ruling on the existence of extraterrestrials. However, writing in the Vatican newspaper, the astronomer, Father José Gabriel Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory near Rome, said in 2008 that intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space.^[97][98]

In September 2010, it was reported that the U.N. General Assembly had appointed Mazlan Othman as their official extraterrestrial liaison by the UK paper The Sunday Times.^[99] This claim was later refuted.^[100]

Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking in 2010 warned that humans should not try to contact alien life forms. He warned that aliens might pillage Earth for resources. "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans", he said.^[101] Anthropologist Jared Diamond has expressed similar concerns.^[102] Scientists at NASA and Penn State University published a paper in April 2011 addressing the question "Would contact with extraterrestrials benefit or harm humanity?" The paper describes positive, negative and neutral scenarios.^[103]

Richard Hoover, an astrobiologist at the U.S. Space Flight Center in Alabama, claimed that filaments and other structures in rare meteorites appear to be microscopic fossils of extraterrestrial beings that resemble algae known as cyanobacteria.^[104]

[edit] See also

Popular culture

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alien life

Searches for extraterrestrial life

• Allen Telescope Array
• Communication with extraterrestrial intelligence

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Aliens

Subjects

• Extraterrestrial liquid water
• Planetary protection

Theories

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

• Extraterrestrial Intelligence in the Solar System: Resolving the Fermi Paradox by Robert A. Freitas Jr.
• 'Is There Anybody Out There?' Freeview video by the Vega Science Trust and the BBC/OU.
• PBS: Life Beyond Earth a film by Timothy Ferris
• PBS: Exploring Space – The Quest for Life by Scott Pearson
• Xenopsychology" by Robert A. Freitas Jr.
• "What Aliens Might Look Like" from National Geographic Channel
• Top stars picked in alien search, from BBC News
• Taiwan's Museum of Alien Studies: a new view of the extraterrestrial, from Erenlai
• The short film "Who's Out There? (1975)" NASA is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• Tanzella-Nitti, Giuseppe. "Extraterrestrial Life". http://www.disf.org/en/Voci/65.asp. Retrieved 23 April 2012.

NOTE:  DON'T FORGET THIS ONE:  http://www.greatdreams.com/ufos.htm

 

HERE IS A MTHOD TO CONTACT SPIRIT GUIDES -  SOMETIMES THEY ARE ALIENS

REMEMBER NOT ALL ALIENS ARE PHYSICAL - SOME ARE FROM MOTHER DIMENSIONS AND CAN BE SPIRIT GUIDES