Secret UFO probes 'hidden from UK Government' as military 'didn't trust' them

Dr David Clarke said the Ministry of Defence team tasked with hunting ETs "didn't trust" civil servants

By Berny Torre

The Ministry of Defence's secret ET hunters "didn't trust" civil servants with their information, claims Dr David Clarke who uncovered the Defence Intelligence Staff's study in 2005

Britain's secret UFO investigators kept their findings hidden from the Government, an academic has claimed.

Dr David Clarke, of Sheffield Hallam University, said the Ministry of Defence team tasked with hunting ETs "didn't trust" civil servants briefing ministers with their data.

The lecturer and investigative journalist uncovered the Defence Intelligence Staff's 400-page study into 10,000 UFO sightings in 2005.

He has now said its military officials often kept their findings secret from civil servants over fears the information would be leaked.

Dr Clarke added former Government UFO investigators who have gone public over the findings such as Nick Pope "didn't investigate anything".

He told the UFO Podcast with Martin Willis: "There was a UFO desk where he was an incumbent for three years but he was just one of dozens of different people who did that task and he didn't actually investigate anything.

"He just received reports and filed them. He was a civil servant, there was a body that investigated cases and it was known as the Defence Intelligence Staff, DI55, and they were the people who were tasked to investigate UFO incidents that were deemed to have some kind of military significance."

The UFO investigator added: "The system was extremely complicated and there was at various times two or three different departments of the British Ministry of Defence who were involved in investigating UFOs or responding to the public.

"He might run a few checks with a local radar station but that's as far as time allowed.

"If there was anything deemed to be of potential military significance or something that needed further investigation it was passed to DI55 to do the investigation.

"I've interviewed most of the people who worked on this subject in DI55 at that time and they tell me, 'well Nick Pope didn't have any involvement in this, we did the investigations, we didn't share information with them because we didn't trust them'.

"He was a civilian who was briefing ministers, he was doing PR work and during that time in that job he thought, 'well I could make a living from this'."

Officials at the Defence Intelligence Staff investigated some 10,000 potential ET sightings in the UK from 1997 to 2000.

It concluded that UFOs had an “indisputable” observable presence but there was no evidence to suggest they were "hostile or under any type of control".

NEAR MISS UFO almost collides with passenger jet as pilots approach UK airport

The UFO encounter occurred as the jet prepared to land at Leeds Bradford airportCredit: Alamy

By Isaac Crowson

A UFO came within seconds of colliding with a passenger jet in a terrifying close call.

The rogue object came at the packed Boeing 737 plane “almost head on” as pilots prepared to land at Leeds Bradford airport.

The scare on September 1 was rated a 'Category A' event by the UK Airprox Board - which monitors and investigates near-miss events.

The unidentifiable object - which could have been a drone or lantern - was just 10 feet away from the flight arriving from Spain.

The Airprox report revealed: “Both pilots suddenly saw a bright light and an object which appeared to be moving toward the aircraft, almost head on, slightly up and to the left.

“The object appeared without warning and there was no time to act."

After landing, the pilots were told that a police helicopter had seen lanterns flying in the area.

But the report added: "Neither of the pilots believed what they saw was a lantern.”

Investigators ruled that “a definite risk of collision had existed”.

The near miss came three days before a drone came three feet away from striking an Easyjet flight which had taken off from Manchester Airport.

The Airbus A320, carrying 186 passengers, was 8,000ft over Greater Manchester. The drone was flying 20 times above the legal height.

Pilots have reported fears of drones getting close to passenger jets.

There have been more than 400 incidents in the past five years.

Former Sen. Harry Reid on Biden, climate and UFOs

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), seen here at a 2019 event in Las Vegas, is optimistic about what President-elect Joe Biden can do about climate change. Carlo Allegri/Reuters/Newscom

By Maxine Joselow

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has kept busy since leaving Washington.

The Nevada Democrat has had a flurry of phone calls and text messages with aides to President-elect Joe Biden in recent days, recommending picks for Cabinet positions and offering advice from his three decades in Congress.

The 80-year-old has also stayed active in Nevada politics, setting up a successful political operation that has shaded the Silver State blue.

A climate hawk, Reid has at times angered Republicans and delighted environmental groups with his fierce criticism of the fossil fuel industry and the Koch family.

"We've got to get rid of fossil fuels as fast as we can. We've done a pretty good job of lessening our demand for coal," he said in a recent interview.

While serving as Senate majority leader from 2007 to 2015, Reid notched a number of controversial achievements, including passage of the Affordable Care Act and elimination of the filibuster for executive branch nominations and federal judicial appointments.

Since retiring in 2017, Reid has battled pancreatic cancer. It is now in remission, but he uses a walker to get around.

The political mastermind spoke on the phone with E&E News last week about how Biden can tackle climate change without the Senate, whether the filibuster will survive and why he believes in UFOs.

What have you been up to since leaving Congress?

Well, I've had a few health issues. But my health has been pretty good over the last year and a half, which has given me the opportunity to become more involved.

I try to maintain contact with my former colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans. I've got a call in an hour or so with one of my Republican senator friends. But I try not to interfere too much. I don't want them to think I'm trying to run the government from here.

Of course, I'm also heavily involved in Nevada politics with my program that I developed over the years. I have five children, four of whom live here in Nevada very close to me. So I keep pretty busy and am pretty content with my existence.

Have you spoken with members of President-elect Joe Biden's transition?

Yes. I've talked to [incoming counselor to the president] Steve Ricchetti several times. I've texted with [incoming chief of staff to Biden] Ron Klain. And I'm going to talk to [longtime Biden aide and former senator from Delaware] Ted Kaufman soon.

What have those conversations been like?

They've been good. They're all my friends, so it's easy.

Have you offered any advice for the transition?

Yeah, of course I have. But as far as what I've talked about, that would probably be the end of all my calls if I shared that. [Laughs]

What could Biden accomplish on climate policy if the Senate remains in Republican hands after the runoff elections in Georgia in January?

Of course we're going to wait until Jan. 5 to make that summation. But I think the climate crisis is such an issue that it cannot be ignored anymore. It is an issue that is already affecting migration around the world.

We have talked about it for years and frankly done almost nothing. That cannot continue. So regardless of whether President-elect Biden when he becomes president has a Republican majority or a Democratic majority or it's a tie, it cannot be ignored.

And one of Joe Biden's great attributes is he is a deal-maker. A lot of people who've been legislators even for a long time tend to forget what legislation is about. It's simply about the art of compromise. That's all it is. And Joe has been very good at understanding that. He spent those decades in the Senate as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

What are some of the first actions that Biden should take on climate change?

On day one he should rejoin the Paris climate accord. He should rejoin the World Health Organization. And he needs to look at all the executive orders that Trump executed that were detrimental to the environment.

As to what should happen with energy, Trump was very, very bad about renewable energy, which is something we have to focus on. So there are many, many things that Joe Biden can do as president in the first few days just with executive orders.

You've been a vocal critic of fossil fuels in the past. Why is that?

We've got to get rid of fossil fuels as fast as we can. We've done a pretty good job of lessening our demand for coal, but as we speak, China is building a number of brand new coal-fired generating [stations].

So we've got to get rid of coal and do anything we can to get rid of even natural gas, which is so much better than the normal fuel that we've used in the past. Other countries may not do it, but it's to their detriment.

You served in the Senate with Biden, and then you were Senate majority leader when he was vice president under President Obama. What was it like working with him?

Obama depended on Joe Biden to come to the Hill and try to work things out. And during the time that I was the leader and responsible for trying to execute Obama's policies, there were often times when I needed Joe Biden to help me. And he helped me on a number of occasions, one of which was during the long time I spent on the Affordable Care Act.

Do you have thoughts on who Biden should pick to lead federal agencies focused on energy and the environment, such as EPA, the Interior Department and the Department of Energy?

Yes. Even before the election was over, I'd spoken to Ricchetti on a number of occasions about some ideas I had.

Are you willing to share any of those ideas?

Well, there have been many articles written about names that are out there, and they're good names. For [the Interior Department], they're talking about [Democratic Sens.] Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall of New Mexico. So he's got a wide variety of people who would be excellent that have obviously been considered 'cause there have been articles about them the last few days.

Do you think Biden should avoid progressive nominees who might not get confirmed by a GOP-controlled Senate run by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell [R-Ky.]?

I think Joe Biden should select the best people that he can, the best qualified. If Republicans reject them on a partisan basis, it's a pox on their house, not on Joe Biden.

Do you think the filibuster will survive in the next Congress? And should it survive?

Well, I've been very public about that in saying that it's not a question if the filibuster's going to be done away with. It's just a question of when.

Now with the Senate going to be so evenly divided, it may not happen this Congress. But it's going to happen because you cannot have a democratic body that requires 60 votes.

It used to be that there was a lot of collegiality in the Senate and so it wasn't used very much. But McConnell has used it for everything. And as you know, I previously moved to change the rules for judges and Cabinet appointments but left a supermajority for Supreme Court justices, and the Republicans got rid of that, too.

Based on your experience of Yucca Mountain in Nevada, what do you see as the future of nuclear waste disposal in this country?

I think what we've learned over the years is that the best thing to do with nuclear waste is to place it where it is. Don't transport it. Put it in dry cask storage containers. You can bury it in the ground or leave it above the ground because the dry cask storage containers that we've developed are extremely safe.

You were featured in the recent documentary "The Phenomenon," in which you said the U.S. government has been hiding evidence of possible UFO encounters for years. Why do you believe that?

Well, I've been on the forefront of this for a long time. I obtained $22 million in taxpayer dollars to study these aerial phenomena through the [Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program]. And that was extremely helpful in trying to understand what's going on.

Do we have all the answers? Absolutely not. But at least we know that thousands of people have reported these unusual occurrences over the decades. And as I have said, we cannot ignore what's going on. Russia, China and France are all working on this. And I hope that we will pick up the ball and continue to work on this.

I'm happy that the Pentagon now allows its pilots to report these unusual occurrences. In the past, pilots have been afraid to acknowledge them because it could hurt their promotions. So I think the federal government is doing better at recognizing it's something we have to stay on top of. And we have better cameras now with the aircraft, and we've got pictures we didn't have before.

Aztec is home to another purported alien crash-landing site within NM

An alien head rock formation marks the alleged spot of the Aztec UFO crash. (Courtesy of Susanne Pence)

By Toby Smith

Aztec, New Mexico, with a population of about 6,500, is a tidy community a few miles east of Farmington.

The nearby Aztec Ruins National Monument stands monumentally still. The Aztec Museum and Pioneer Village features such century-ago items as a historic barbershop, antique telephone equipment, various fossils and minerals.

Something else, something much darker, draws tourists to here.

On the night of March 25, 1948, a flying saucer allegedly crash-landed on a lonely mesa in Hart Canyon, four miles distant. There’s a plaque where it put down.

Folks as far away as those who lived in Cedar Hill, 10 miles northeast of Aztec, were said to have heard the crash. But that fact was never verified.

A plaque marks the spot where a flying saucer allegedly crash-landed near Aztec in 1948. (Courtesy of Susanne Pence)

In Farmington, hundreds reported the incident to the Farmington Daily Times. A state policeman debunked by saying the flying saucer was fluff from cottonwood trees. The Aztec tale was suddenly full of holes and hoaxes.

Here’s what came later. Two con men convinced Aztec residents that a saucer had definitely dropped in. That was a fraud, of course.

Nonetheless, Aztec swiftly became a favored spot for sky-watchers and believers from every which way.

A year earlier, in Roswell, in July 1947, a balloon fell smacked into the ground on a nearby ranch. Immediately conspiracy theories took hold as were extra-terrestrials.

As the years went by, Roswell became the king of all those who peered at the heavens thinking they had seen something important.

A 1996 UFO festival, brought Roswell mobs of visitors. A museum and research center dominated Roswell’s Main Street. Ufology turned into a serious subject. Books on the topic suddenly popped up everywhere.

Meanwhile, little Aztec became just a footnote.

A trail sign gives a nod to the alleged UFO crash near Aztec.(Courtesy of Susanne Pence)

And yet supposedly 12 giant humanoids were aboard that UFO. Perhaps 18, maybe 30. The saucer itself was said to be an incredible 100 feet in diameter. Members of the armed forces were ordered to store various pieces of debris and send them to such locales as Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, never to be seen again.

Frank Thayer, an emeritus professor at New Mexico State University, traveled to Aztec to see what the hubbub was all about.

“The military must have used the biggest Bekins truck available to cart away all that stuff,” he told me.

Beginning in 1997, a UFO symposium was held in Aztec. That conference lasted until 2011.

Papers were submitted on such subjects as alien abductions, cattle mutilations and government cover-ups.

Meanwhile, Roswell was experiencing an economic boom. Thus, Aztec became thought of as Roswell’s little brother.

How does one find the Aztec site?

The Visitor’s Center in Aztec is currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the phone, I talked to Wilann Thomas, who ran the center.

I asked her what she believed. Her answer: “All those researchers who were here? They’re all graveyard-dead now.”

Seth Finch, a Presbyterian minister in Albuquerque, grew up in Aztec. He and some college friends took a road trip to where Seth was certain the site was located. “It was getting late, so I don’t know if we were near the actual site. It’s a wild place. There’s no signage at all. We went mountain-biking instead.”

In mid-October, my wife and I met up with another couple from Albuquerque and drove along a gritty, gravel road in Aztec for 6.5 miles. Not a single building could be seen, save for oil and gas operations.

I waved to the driver of a pickup truck to stop. “Do you know where that UFO trail is?” I asked.

He shook his head and said, “I been livin’ here 70 years and don’t know what you’re talkin’ about.”

I thanked him, and onward we went. We hiked up past fallen cedar branches, and down rocky paths. After four hours of looking, we came to a clearing. There stood the celebrated plaque that had been installed in 2007.

It is certainly not a wall plaque. Rather, it appeared to be a lectern, the sort you might see in a college classroom. A few feet away lay a curious circle of rocks. Were those rocks put there by aliens? I wondered.

Nah, probably not.

Mysterious lights 'changing formation' spark UFO fears for Texas locals

Onlookers were left stunned by the changing lights spotted across an 80-mile radius over Texas, with some convinced of an alien visit.

 By Laura Sharman & Michael Havis

Mesmerising footage shows a series of glowing lights hovering above Texas sparking fears of a possible UFO.

The mysterious lights were spotted changing formation in the night sky over three separate counties across an 80-mile radius.

Stargazers in and around Dallas chimed in with sightings after footage of the bizarre presence over Duncanville, in the south of the city, was shared online.

Javier Estrada III said he knew it was something out of the ordinary when filming the bizarre formation (Image: Credit: Pen News/Javier Estrada III)

A flurry of witnesses came forward to claim sightings from multiple sites, with some convinced the lights were caused by visiting aliens.

Retail manager Javier Estrada III, who filmed the footage, said: "What I saw mesmerised me. I was visiting family for my grandma's birthday and happened to look up.

"I saw glowing lights hovering real slow and that's when I knew it was something out of the ordinary - not scary, just crazy to look at.

"I do believe in extraterrestrials so the first thing that came to mind was a UFO. As soon as I saw it, I was starstruck - it seemed so real.

"I wouldn't mind having aliens come to visit but knowing us in the USA we will probably attack them first."

In Javier's video, four lights are visible in the starry sky, shifting from a kite-like formation to a square one, before drifting apart and out of view.

Two more lights then come into view before the clip ends. They could have been drones.

Sightings were reported from a total eight different areas in and around the city, mainly towards the south, with many describing the lights as forming a "straight line."

Onlookers also reported the phenomenon in Allen, to the north of the city, and Granbury, to the southwest - which are separated by a distance that would take nearly two hours to drive.

And with more than 16,000 people seeing the footage, there were plenty of suggestions as to what the lights could be.

Some suggested the display was caused by drones or Chinese lanterns, but nobody ventured an explanation as to how they were spotted in places so far apart.

Others speculated satellites or weather balloons, though nobody offered any tracking data.

While others turned to aliens or conspiracy theories.

One viewer added: "It's 2020. Anything is possible."

Close Encounters of the Artistic Kind

By Piper Whitehead

The year is 1964. You and two friends decide to go for a walk in Cape Cod, when, suddenly, you see a strange object in the sky. You report it to the National Guard, and they do nothing. Obviously. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most people believe there is some form of intelligent life out there in our infinite universe; scepticism usually kicks in about whether aliens consider Earth a one-stop scientific resource/tourism destination. Anyway, your interest is piqued, you begin to research, to publish your ideas and before long, more and more people are contacting you about their experiences with aliens. You’re also the acclaimed abstract artist Budd Hopkins, but everyone needs a hobby.

Hopkins claims to have been an alien sceptic ever since being one of the many listeners who were traumatised by Orson Welles’ The War of the Worlds, history’s most unethical radio play, which is best known for making lots of people think aliens were actually invading the earth. So Hopkins clearly knew the danger of hoaxes, but even he was eventually convinced that the danger of actual aliens was much more worrisome. He went on to dedicate significant portions of his time to researching aliens and supporting victims of supposed abductions.

What I find most compelling about Hopkin’s experience is that it was never something he claimed to represent in his art. Though some people have found his later sculptures quite alien-like, it would be remiss to write an article about extraterrestrial experiences that doesn’t acknowledge the fact that people usually see what they want to see. Still, claims of alien encounters seem to have been detrimental to the career of a respected abstract expressionist, with works held by the likes of Met and MoMA. It certainly dominated his Wikipedia page.

Blatant liars are always around to attach themselves parasitically to any good mystery, invariably for profit. In 2015, British painter Lloyd Canning claimed he was visited by aliens numerous times and that his works were the result of their projections into his mind. A few months later he then announced it was a lie for exposure, and he’d never been abducted, though he had had ‘great sightings’. I don’t think many people were shocked. Perhaps the most questionable part of his story was why aliens thought the psychedelic dreamscapes Canning painted needed to be urgently communicated to earthlings. Personally, I find his paintings the least interesting of those I examined for this article. Then again, that might be my expectations at play. They do say that money is the enemy of good art.

There are also stories of artists encountering aliens that might challenge even the most tin-foil hat-friendly of us. David Huggins, the subject of documentary Love and Saucers, claims to have been visited by aliens for most of his life. What’s more, he claims to have lost his virginity to an alien named Crescent, who continued to visit him throughout his life, and with whom he fathered alien-human hybrids. Unlike Hopkins, Huggins actually did use these encounters as the basis for his art (as you might guess, they get erotic – don’t say I didn’t warn you). His works are eerie and unsettling, often showing himself, Crescent, and others in blank interior environments. Does the fact that the aliens in his paintings resemble ‘greys’, the most stereotypical image of an alien, make it more or less likely that he actually saw them? Does the sheer outrageousness of it all make the story more believable than a defensible lie, like seeing something in the sky? Though his narrative beggars belief, those who have met or seen interviews with Huggins find him compelling. He does not give the impression of a liar.

Perhaps Huggins and Hopkins are just crazy. We tend to treat people who search for UFOs as quacks, eccentrics and outcasts (after all, if you weren’t an outcast before, telling people you’ve seen aliens certainly puts you on the fast track to becoming one). We don’t romanticise claims of alien encounters in the irresponsible way we often do with artists’ mental illnesses. However, there are a number of crossovers between truth seekers and those we call great artists: they’re unusually perceptive, they question the intent of institutions like governments, and they’re willing to say things that the rest of us are afraid to. Perhaps most importantly, both groups have the tendency to wander about in isolated areas. The edge of reason has always been well populated by artists, philosophers and avant-garde types. Maybe they’re the only ones willing to see what we don’t want to.

Filmmaker James Fox on his new UFO documentary The Phenomenon

By UFO Congress

James Fox will be sharing information about his latest film, The Phenomeon.

James Fox is the Executive Producer and Director of three critically acclaimed UFO documentaries, 50 years of Denial, Out of the Blue and I Know What I Saw. Out of the Blue aired on the Sci-Fi channel and I Know What I Saw aired on the History channel. He is now working on an eagerly awaited new documentary that he says will blow the socks off audiences. All of these documentaries are geared towards sharing eye-witness accounts from individuals with impeccable credentials, breaking the stereotype of the typical UFO witness.

Fox assembled the most credible UFO witnesses from around the world to testify at The National Press Club in Washington D.C.: Air Force Generals, astronauts, military and commercial pilots, government and FAA officials from seven countries tell stories that, as Governor Fife Symington from Arizona stated, ”will challenge your reality”. Fox has won the support of several key media, government and military personnel, and has made numerous television and radio appearances including: Larry King Live (CNN) appearances, Anderson Cooper 360° (CNN) appearance, ABC Nightline appearance, Dateline NBC appearance, George Noory’s Coast to Coast Radio.

In 1998, he completed and sold his first major documentary ‘UFOs: 50 Years of Denial’ to the Discovery Channel. It included such notables as Apollo 14 Astronaut Edgar Mitchell and Col. Philip J. Corso, who was in charge of the foreign technology desk at the Pentagon during the Eisenhower administration.  For his film, Out of the Blue, James interviewed witnesses including President Gerald Ford, Mercury Astronaut Gordon Cooper, Cosmonaut Pavel Papovich in Star City, Russia, and five-star Admiral Lord Hill Norton in England.

The Road To UFO Disclosure -- Special Guest: Stephen Bassett

By The Black Vault Originals

The year is 2020. 

It has brought us a global pandemic; riots in the streets of America; and a Presidential impeachment trial that turned the United States upside down. But in between those world changing events – the UFO phenomenon has increasingly been given more credibility and more serious exposure on the nightly news programs. 

UFO Sightings Up During October Says MUFON

By Tim Weisberg

UFO sightings were up around the world and in the United States last month, according to the most recent statistics released by the Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON, in its monthly newsletter.

October saw MUFON collect reports of 414 worldwide sightings, with the United States accounting for the most of any nation at 340, followed by Canada (34) and the United Kingdom (19). Fifteen countries reported sightings in the single digits.

In September 2020, there were 404 worldwide UFO sightings reported to the organization, with the United States leading the way with 313 of those sightings. Canada (28) and the United Kingdom (21) were again the next closest, with 27 other nations having reports in the single digits.

Twenty-one states saw an increase in UFO activity from September to October. California led the way with 56 reports last month, up from 34 in September. North Carolina had the second-biggest jump, going from two reports in September to 11 in October.

When it comes to the shape of the objects, 80 of the worldwide sightings were reported as being a “circle” while 50 were a “sphere.” There were 34 instances each of the craft reported as “star-like” or triangular.

While sightings overall were up in October, landings, hoverings or takeoffs were down from 13 in September to 11 in October. Similarly, fewer entities were observed in the craft in October (six) as compared with September (11).

The ‘Alien Invasion’ Radio Broadcast: Would it Terrify Listeners today as it did 82 years ago?

On October 30, 1938, actor Orson Welles terrified radio listeners when he announced that Martians were invading New Jersey. His announcement horrified listeners who believed the world was under attack by hostile aliens. But the “news” was fake. Recently the Pentagon released UFO videos depicting objects in the sky. However, the videos did not elicit the same reaction as the “fake” alien invasion story 82 years ago.

The current population is more informed with extensive research conducted on extraterrestrial life that such news would not have them petrified. The general understanding is that Mars does not harbor an advanced alien civilization with lethal weapons and spacecraft. Even though the public is still fascinated with extraterrestrials, if Welles was to make his announcement today that strange creatures were invading the Earth, the reaction would be different. The millennials’ typical response would be to capture “the invasion” on their smartphones and share with friends on social media.

In 1938, an actor posed as a news anchor and interrupted a scheduled music performance. With a threatening tone, he described to the audience telescope observations of three explosions on Mars. He then brought in a reporter from the scene in Gover’s Mill, a town next to Princeton, New Jersey. The performance also included eyewitnesses who stated that they had seen Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) and strange creatures shooting an ultramodern heat ray that has killed several people.

Although the program was interrupted by reminders that it was not real, many people tuned in believed the alien invasion was real. Later, newspapers reported how the fake alien invasion had caused a lot of panic among the people. The next day the Daily News was full of accounts of how many listeners ran from their homes in New York and New Jersey with their faces covered with towels to shield themselves from the gas that the invader was said to be emitting.

At the time, space scientists were already aware of the fact that Mars was not capable of harboring a thriving civilization. According to experts, an alien attack of military proportion would require intelligent and technically advanced extraterrestrials. Also, an unbelievable number of variables would have to happen for the invasion to occur.

It is believed that the first encounter would be through discovering microbes from other worlds that are likely to be common in all the cosmos as opposed to intelligent organisms. In the current day and age, an announcement on finding extraterrestrial microbes is likely to attract the interest of many rather than cause panic. However, another school of thought believes that an encounter with intelligent extraterrestrial communications cannot be ruled out.

Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) based in California scans the skies to detect any signals emanating from any form of intelligent life. The institute scans for radio signals that could be directed towards the Earth, and they are confident that as their equipment becomes more sophisticated, they are likely to find something. When they do, you can bet that the announcement will not be horrifying as it was 82 years ago!