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SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, has a fundamentally fascinating hypothesis. Not only do SETI researchers assume extraterrestrial life exists, which most mainstream scientists now take as a given, but they further theorize extraterrestrial civilizations exist that can be detected from Earth. Since about 1960, a handful of SETI researchers have tested that hypothesis by scanning the heavens using radio telescopes and increasingly powerful, sophisticated search programs. Optical SETI, looking for ET laser pulses, is now beginning. The political situation of the times, however, has pushed those interested in SETI into a narrow philosophical position. Most humans want their life’s...

Discovery's external fuel tank was the first to fly with a new insulating foam custom-made to satisfy environmental bans on chemicals suspected of depleting the Earth's ozone layer. NASA is investigating why a 1-pound chunk of the foam peeled off Discovery's tank two minutes after launch July 26, missing the shuttle's right wing as it climbed toward orbit. The incident prompted NASA to ground the shuttle fleet even as Discovery was on its way to the International Space Station. "We are treating this very seriously. We are going to fix this before we go fly," said John Shannon, a senior...

The shuttle Discovery, like Columbia, shed a large chunk of foam debris during liftoff that could have threatened the return of the seven astronauts, NASA said Wednesday. While there are no signs the piece of insulation damaged the spacecraft, NASA is grounding future shuttle flights until the hazard can be fixed. "Call it luck or whatever, it didn't harm the orbiter," said shuttle program manager Bill Parsons. If the foam had broken away earlier in flight, when the atmosphere is thicker increasing the likelihood of impact, it could have caused catastrophic damage to Discovery. "We think that would have been...

Alien Skull Mystery Continues Last Updated: 10/27/2004 8:03:47 AM. Early in 1999, a misshapen skull was presented to Lloyd Pye, who thought it would take six months to interest U.S. scientists in testing it to determine it's biological heritage. Six months turned into six years as Lloyd tried to interest scientists to have a serious go at a skull given the unfortunate name of "Starchild." Scientists would have nothing to do with something even casually suggestive of alien heritage. Fortunately, in early 2004, Lloyd was invited to London to have a series of bone chemistry tests run at the...

What if E.T. called to say hello? How would the third planet from the Sun respond? We can't speak for the planet as a whole, but we can say that the Santa Cruz Astronomy Club is ready for such challenges. And never mind quantum physics and fancy telescopes. This club has eyes for the earthling community below, as well for the infinite skies above. Take Santa Cruz Astronomy Club events coordinator Doreen Devorah, who wears a satisfied gaze as she notes that the Harvey West Clubhouse, which is where the club meets, is full of mostly graying SCAC members. "Two...

The Year is 2020 A new telescope orbiting high above the earth has just made a discovery that will change our lives forever. EXTRATERRESTIAL takes a look at what life on other worlds might really look like.

HAT CREEK, Calif. -- Astronomer Michael M. Davis checked his computer. One of the antennas on the state-of-the-art radio telescope being built in the valley outside his office was picking up an unusual pulse from beyond the Earth. A signal from another intelligent civilization? Not today. It was the Rosetta Satellite, en route to study a comet. Hopeful moments followed by disappointments like this are par for the course for researchers at the SETI Institute, the privately funded successor to the now defunct government project dedicated to searching for alien life. They have been searching the heavens for decades, but...

<p>MANSFIELD -- Thirty years ago tonight, strange things were happening in the skies over north central Ohio.</p> <p>A close encounter in Mansfield, that has since become known as "The Coyne Incident," is still raising eyebrows among believers and UFO investigators.</p>

Astronomers have detected an unusual, powerful burst of intermittent radio waves emanating from the direction of the center of our galaxy. Now the search is on to trace the source of the mystery radio bursts, or at least find more like it. Was it a dying star "burping" its last radio emissions? Or is there something out there completely new to science? The discovery "will cause a stampede of further observations," write astronomers Shri Kulkarni and Sterl Phinney in tomorrow's issue of the science journal Nature. They're in the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy at the California Institute of...

Almost 50 percent of Americans, according to recent polls, and millions of people elsewhere in the world believe that UFOs are real. For many it is a deeply held belief. For decades there have been sightings of UFOs by millions and millions of people. It is a mystery that only science can solve, and yet the phenomenon remains largely unexamined. Most of the reporting on this subject by the mainstream media holds those who claim to have seen UFOs up to ridicule. On Feb. 24, "Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs — Seeing Is Believing" takes a fresh look at the UFO...

WHY would a serious journalist like Peter Jennings tackle a silly subject like UFOs? Maybe it's because 40 million Americans can't be wrong. It turns out that 40 million of us have claimed to have seen UFOs, while half — yes, half — of all Americans believe in their existence… < snip > So, why, if millions of people have seen UFOs, are the eyewitnesses immediately reduced to the level of raving loonies (from "lunar")? Interestingly enough, that is the legacy of another successful government PR campaign…< snip > The feds thought they could keep a lid on UFO sightings...

Tonight, ABC is having a special on UFOs. Considering their past performances, I'm not holding my breath for a even-handed, scholarly or even somewhat complete investigation of the subject. Out of every 50 books on the subject, you may find one that is useful and scholarly. Lights in the Sky & Little Green Men is one such book. From the American Library Association review: Astronomer and clergyman Ross wrote nine chapters of this philosophical, Christian approach to the study of UFOs. Convinced that a small percentage of reports cannot be explained in conventional terms, he rejects the condescending skepticism of...

The other project cut was the Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter. JIMO - recently renamed Prometheus 1 - had been intended as the first mission under Project Prometheus, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe's pet project to encourage the use of nuclear-power propulsion to explore the outer solar system. Washington (UPI) Feb 08, 2005 Despite fears by many in the scientific community that President George W. Bush's initiative to re-invigorate the American manned space program would cause deep cuts in NASA's science budget, the administration's proposed 2006 budget - announced with great fanfare on Monday - left almost all of the agency's present...

ET Visitors: Scientists See High Likelihood By Leonard David Senior Space Writer posted: 14 January 2005 06:47 am ET Decades ago, it was physicist Enrico Fermi who pondered the issue of extraterrestrial civilizations with fellow theorists over lunch, generating the famous quip: "Where are they?" That question later became central to debates about the cosmological census count of other star folk and possible extraterrestrial (ET) visitors from afar. Fermi’s brooding on the topic was later labeled "Fermi’s paradox". It is a well-traveled tale from the 1950’s when the scientist broached the subject in discussions with colleagues in Los Alamos, New...

New Delhi is in the middle of a big secret internal debate. On one side the largest democracy of the world is eager to explain to its citizens and to the world about the ongoing contacts with the UFOs and extra-terrestrials. On the other hand there are invisible untold international protocols that prohibit doing anything that may cause worldwide fear and panic. It is well accepted between the UFO and extra-terrestrial experts that all the five nuclear powers are in contact with the beings from other stars for quite some time. Recently India has seen enormous news on UFO contacts...

now im not a betting man, but i know landrovers and there space caps are not made of wood. This clearly looks like a wooden plank to me. Unless someone hacked Nasa.gov's website and put up a photoshop'ed photo, this looks kinda odd.

According to Subhra Jain, a freelance reporter in New Delhi, she bumped into a very senior Indian Military official in a nightclub in New Delhi. While talking what she came to know will make the rest of the world sit up all night. According to her, Extra Terrestrials have been visiting India and the rest of the world for thousands of years. In recent days most of the super powers have been formally contacted. India is no exception in recent days. ’They always contact through the ground radar stations of the military’, she says. Indian Himalayas and Ladakh (China-India) border...

I once thought that worrying about what we should broadcast to extraterrestrials made as much sense as fretting over the small talk I’d venture with King Carl XVI Gustaf if I won the Nobel Prize. I reckoned there was no need to dwell on the problem, as it was both hypothetical and irrelevant.

This looks like a merger of ETA and Al Qaeda to me

A Sydney man has pocketed £415 - after auctioning a piece of breakfast cereal resembling ET. Chris Doyle came up with the idea after hearing how a US woman sold an old toasted sandwich, said to look like the Virgin Mary for £15,000. Mr Doyle thought he too could be in the money when he spotted a piece of Nutri-Grain resembling ET. Collectors from around the world bid 40 times over eBay for the thumbnail-sized grain, the Daily Telegraph reported. Mr Doyle, a graphic designer, said: "I was just trying to find someone who feels the same way about ET...