US NewsA Howling Cosmic Signal Came From a Faraway Galaxy

Photographers capture the launch of a SpaceX Falcon heavy rocket at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on June 25.

These four panels show the Whirlpool galaxy -- which is actually a pair of galaxies also known as Messier 51 and NGC 5194/5195 -- and how different wavelengths of light can reveal different features of a cosmic object. Located approximately 23 million light-years away, it resides in the constellation Canes Venatici.

The left image (a) shows the galaxy in visible light, from the Kitt Peak National Observatory 2.1-meter (6.8-foot) telescope and shows light at 0.4 microns (blue) and 0.7 microns (green). The next image (b) combines two visible-light wavelengths (in blue and green) and infrared light (in red). The infrared was captured by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and emphasizes how the dark dust veins that block our view in visible light begin to light up at these longer, infrared wavelengths.

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Where do cosmic rays come from ? Solving a 50-year-old mystery, a collaboration of researchers has discovered it's much farther than the Milky Way. Cosmic rays help us understand the composition of galaxies and the processes that occur to accelerate the nuclei to nearly the speed of light.

Mysterious radio signals detected inside our own galaxy , say scientists. Specifically, the detected signals are fast radio bursts (FRBs) — which last only a The radio energy bursts seem to have come from a magnetar — which is a star with an extremely powerful magnetic field, said the scientists who

The right two panels are composed entirely of Spitzer data. In the middle-right panel (c), we see three wavelengths of infrared light: 3.6 microns (shown in blue), 4.5 microns (green) and 8 microns (red). The blended light from the billions of stars in the Whirlpool is brightest at the shorter infrared wavelengths and appear as as a blue haze. The individual blue dots across the image are mostly nearby stars and a few distant galaxies. Red features (at 8 microns) show us dust composed mostly of carbon that is illuminated by the stars in the galaxy.

The far-right panel (d) expands our infrared view to include light at a wavelength of 24 microns (in red), which is particularly good for highlighting areas where the dust is especially hot. The bright reddish-white spots trace regions where new stars are forming and, in the process, heating their surroundings.

The Soyuz MS-11 capsule carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of NASA astronaut Anne McClain, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, lands in a remote area outside the town of Dzhezkazgan (Zhezkazgan), Kazakhstan, on June 25.

The atmospheric glow and a wispy aurora australis, also known as the "southern lights," frame a cloud-covered Earth as the International Space Station orbited 254 miles above the Indian Ocean due east of the territory of French Southern and Antarctic Lands.

A large volcanic ash and gas plume is seen from the International Space Station rising above the Kuril Islands in the North Pacific Ocean after an unexpected series of blasts from the Raikoke Volcano erupts, in this image taken on June 22.

The full moon is pictured as the International Space Station orbited 254 miles above the Pacific Ocean northeast of Guam.

ExTrA is a planet-hunter focused on finding Earth-sized planets orbiting nearby M dwarfs. The small size of these stars makes it easier to discover them using the transit method, because a planet covers a great proportion of the star's face than it would the face of a larger star. It's three .6m telescopes search the sky in infrared wavelengths of light—longer than our eyes can see, but where M dwarfs shine brightest.

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Mount Shasta in California is pictured from the International Space Station as it orbited 256 miles above the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of the United States.

This stunning compilation image of Jupiter's stormy northern hemisphere was captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft as it performed a close pass of the gas giant planet. Some bright-white clouds can be seen popping up to high altitudes on the right side of Jupiter's disk.

The International Space Station was orbiting 256 miles above the north African country of Libya when an Expedition 59 crewmember photographed the isolated volcanic crater of Waw an Namus, which is composed of dark ash and features three small saltwater lakes.

The Namib Desert on the Atlantic Coast of Namibia is photographed from an altitude of 259 miles as the International Space Station orbited off the coast of the southwestern Africa nation.

Size of Earth and Moon, view from the space.

When massive stars die at the end of their short lives, they light up the cosmos with bright, explosive bursts of light and material known as supernovae. A supernova event is incredibly energetic and intensely luminous — so much so that it forms what looks like an especially bright new star that slowly fades away over time.

Dive beneath the pyramids of Egypt’s black pharaohs

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These exploding stars glow so incredibly brightly when they first form that they can be spotted from afar using telescopes such as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The subject of this image, a spiral galaxy named NGC 4051 — about 45 million light-years from Earth — has hosted multiple supernovae in past years. The first was spotted in 1983 (SN 1983I), the second in 2003 (SN 2003ie), and the most recent in 2010 (SN 2010br). These explosive events were seen scattered throughout the center and spiral arms of NGC 4051.

A set of three CubeSats are pictured shortly after being ejected from the Japanese Small Satellite Orbital Deployer attached to a robotic arm outside of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Kibo laboratory module. The tiny satellites from Nepal, Sri Lanka and Japan were released into Earth orbit for technology demonstrations.

The International Space Station was orbiting 269 miles above the Indian Ocean southwest of Australia when this nighttime photograph was taken of the aurora australis, or "southern lights." Russia's Soyuz MS-12 crew ship (foreground) and Progress 72 resupply ship are seen in this mesmerizing view.

The Swedish-ESO-Submillimetre Telescope (SEST) sits under the breathtaking sky at its home at the La Silla Observatory. Now decommissioned, SEST was the only sub-millimetre telescope in the southern hemisphere at the time of its first light, and is superseded by the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).

The pilot of NASA’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology, or QueSST, aircraft will navigate the skies in a cockpit unlike any other. There won’t be a forward-facing window. That’s right; it’s actually a 4K monitor that serves as the central window and allows the pilot to safely see traffic in his or her flight path, and provides additional visual aids for airport approaches, landings and takeoffs. The 4K monitor, which is part of the aircraft’s eXternal Visibility System, or XVS, displays stitched images from two cameras outside the aircraft combined with terrain data from an advanced computing system.

Mysterious ‘alien’ radio signal traced back to its home galaxy

Researchers have pinpointed the source of another ‘fast radio burst’ - a mysterious, powerful radio flash from space. 

The two portals and traditional canopy are real windows however, and help the pilot see the horizon. The displays below the XVS will provide a variety of aircraft systems and trajectory data for the pilot to safely fly. The XVS is one of several innovative solutions to help ensure the X-59’s design shape reduces a sonic boom to a gentle thump heard by people on the ground. Though not intended to ever carry passengers, the X-59 boom-suppressing technology and community response data could help lift current bans on supersonic flight over land and enable a new generation of quiet supersonic commercial aircraft.

China's spacecraft tracking ship Yuanwang-3 sails in the waters near the equator on June 19. Yuanwang-3 has crossed the equator at 23:09 Tuesday Beijing Time 1509 GMT Tuesday and continued its sail for the southern Pacific Ocean for upcoming satellite maritime monitoring missions.

The highly saline Lake Elton in Russia, near the border with Kazakhstan, is the largest mineral lake in Europe. It was photographed from an altitude of 258 miles above the Earth's surface.

The ESA stand at the 53rd International Le Bourget Air & Space Show is pictured in Paris, France, on June 17.

This image from video released by the U.S. Air Force shows the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Canada's Radarsat Constellation Mission (RCM) from Space Launch Complex-4 in Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., Wednesday, June 12.

From the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Christina Koch (@AstroChristina) snapped and posted this image of the planet Venus at sunrise. The blue glow of Earth's atmosphere shimmers as the station orbits our planet.

The robotic arm on NASA's InSight lander deployed its Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument on the Martian surface.

An image of Cerro Paranal and the Paranal Residencia beneath a sky filled with star trails. Each line is the path a star traced across the sky as the Earth rotated through the night, revealing the motion humans are often unaware of.

NASA's Juno spacecraft captured this view of an area within a Jovian jet stream showing a vortex that has an intensely dark center. Nearby, other features display bright, high altitude clouds that have puffed up into the sunlight. The color-enhanced image was taken at 12:55 a.m. PDT (3:55 a.m. EDT) on May 29, 2019, as the spacecraft performed its 20th science flyby of Jupiter.

ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet works on the Fluidics experiment inside the Space Station's European Columbus laboratory. Posting on social media, Thomas wrote: "The spheres for the Fluidics experiment. One liquid is to help get every drop of fuel out of satellite fuel-tanks, the other liquid is to understand surface turbulence in liquids. By looking at surface turbulence without gravity interfering researchers can single out what influences behavior that forms ripples. This could help us better understand ocean currents and wave formation on Earth."

This rugged, wrinkled landscape may resemble Mars, but it is in fact much closer to home — this patch of rippled terrain is a northern region of the Chilean Atacama Desert, home to many of ESO’s world-leading telescopes and observatories. The distinctly otherworldly appearance of the desert has not gone unnoticed; this part of the world is actually used as an “analogue site” for Mars!

This striking image was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3, a powerful instrument installed on the telescope in 2009. WFC3 is responsible for many of Hubble’s most breathtaking and iconic photographs, including Pictures of the Week. Shown here, NGC 7773 is a beautiful example of a barred spiral galaxy.

A bright artificial satellite flare is visible above the Unit Telescopes of the VLT.

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst took this photo from the International Space Station during his Horizons mission and commented: "We need this project for sustainable peace on our home continent and beyond. So we better not take it for granted."

If aliens call, what should we do? Scientists want your opinion.

In the age of fake news, researchers worry conspiracy theories would abound before we could figure out how — or if — to reply to an alien message. The answer to this question could affect all of our lives more than nearly any other policy decision out there: How, if it all, should humanity respond if we get a message from an alien civilization? And yet politicians and scientists have never bothered to get our input on it. At long last, that’s changing. A group of researchers in the UK this week released the first major survey on the question.

From nebulae to supernovae, this video unveils the beauty hidden in the night sky by showcasing some of the most captivating images from ESO’s telescopes alongside mesmerizing artists’ impressions of celestial objects.

On June 7, ESA began a three-day starring role at the World Club Dome electronic dance music festival. Billed as the Space Edition, this event is the latest stage of an eighteen-month partnership with BigCityBeats, the company behind the show.

This artist's concept depicts astronauts and human habitats on Mars. NASA's Mars 2020 rover will carry a number of technologies that could make Mars safer and easier to explore for humans. JPL is building and will manage operations of the Mars 2020 rover for the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington.

In respect for the critical role that satellites play in measuring and monitoring glaciology, the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee has approved seven new names for areas of fast-flowing ice on the Antarctic Peninsula. One of the ice streams, captured in this image from the Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission on May 30, 2019, is now called the Sentinel Ice Stream.

This artist's illustration depicts a coronal mass ejection, or CME, which involves a large-scale expulsion of material, and has frequently been observed on our Sun. A new study using the Chandra X-ray Observatory detected a CME from a star other than our own for the first time, providing a novel insight into these powerful phenomena.

The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft on its 17th contracted mission to resupply mission to the International Space Station is in the grips of the Canadarm2 robotic arm moments before being released.

Some of ESA’s biggest science missions only got off the ground – literally – thanks to the mighty Ariane 5, one of the most reliable launchers that gives access to space from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

ESA has been using the Ariane family of launch vehicles right back since Ariane 1, which launched the comet-chaser Giotto, ESA’s first deep space mission, in 1985. Pictured from left: An Ariane 5 flight takes XMM-Newton into space in December 1999; SMART-1, Europe’s first mission to the Moon, gets its ride to space in 2003; Rosetta begins its 10-year journey through the Solar System starting with a boost into space on an Ariane 5; Herschel and Planck shared a ride on the same launcher in 2009; and epiColombo launches in 2018 on the 101st Ariane 5 launch.

Europe’s next generation launchers, including Ariane 6, will provide new opportunities for ESA’s upcoming science missions to fulfil their scientific goals from their various viewpoints in our Solar System.

The unique capabilities of the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope have enabled it to obtain the sharpest images of a double asteroid as it flew by Earth on 25 May. While this double asteroid was not itself a threatening object, scientists used the opportunity to rehearse the response to a hazardous Near-Earth Object (NEO), proving that ESO’s front-line technology could be critical in planetary defence. The left-hand image shows SPHERE observations of Asteroid 1999 KW4. The angular resolution in this image is equivalent to picking out a single building in New York — from Paris.

An artist's impression of the asteroid pair is shown on the right.

These twin briefcase-sized nanosatellites will move around each other before performing an automated docking in orbit.

The RACE (Rendezvous Autonomous CubeSats Experiment) is ESA’s latest in-orbit demonstration CubeSat mission. CubeSats are low-cost satellites increasingly used to demonstrate promising new technologies and approaches in space, as well as for educational, scientific and commercial applications.

NASA's InSight lander used the Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC) on the end of its robotic arm to image this sunset on Mars on April 25, 2019, the 145th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This was taken around 6:30 p.m. Mars local time. This color-corrected version more accurately shows the image as the human eye would see it.

This mosaic was stitched together using images from the Navigation Camera, or Navcam, on NASA's Opportunity rover. The scene shows the rover's tracks made in Perseverance Valley between Sols 5,000 and 5,030.

Isolated for billions of years, a galaxy with more dark matter packed into its core than expected has been identified by astronomers using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.

This luminous orb is the galaxy NGC 4621, better known as Messier 59. The galaxy was listed in the famous catalogue of deep-sky objects compiled by French comet-hunter Charles Messier in 1779. However, German astronomer Johann Gottfried Koehler is credited with discovering the galaxy just days before Messier added it to his collection. Modern observations show that Messier 59 is an elliptical galaxy, one of the three main kinds of galaxies along with spirals and irregulars.

This stunning long-exposure photograph by ESO Photo Ambassador Petr Horálek captures the hive of activity that is ESO’s La Silla Observatory, the distant glow of roads and settlements in the Chilean Atacama Desert, and the unmissable faint green radiance of airglow (produced by light in Earth’s upper atmosphere).The mythical Seven Sisters of the Pleiades open star cluster can be seen above distant mountain peaks; above them, the dazzling constellation of Orion (The Hunter) dominates the view.

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over El Salvador, the smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. Captured on 30 January 2019, this false-color image was processed in a way that makes vegetation appear red.

In this image made from video provided by NASA, Expedition 59 Commander Oleg Kononenko, center, participates in a spacewalk outside the International Space Station with Flight Engineer Alexey Ovchinin, obscured, on May 29.

The two cosmonauts opened the hatch to the Pirs docking compartment to begin the spacewalk at 11:42 a.m. EDT. They re-entered the airlock and closed the hatch at 5:43 p.m.

During the spacewalk, the duo completed the planned tasks, including installing a handrail on the Russian segment of the complex, retrieving science experiments from the Poisk module’s hull; removing and jettisoning the plasma wave experiment hardware; and conducting maintenance work on the orbiting laboratory, such as cleaning the window of the Poisk hatch.

The spacewalk was the 217th in support of station assembly, maintenance and upgrades and the fourth outside the station this year.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover imaged these drifting clouds on May 17, 2019, the 2,410th Martian day, or sol, of the mission, using its black-and-white Navigation Cameras (Navcams).

These are likely water-ice clouds about 19 miles (31 kilometers) above the surface. They are also "noctilucent" clouds, meaning they are so high that they are still illuminated by the Sun, even when it's night at Mars' surface. Scientists can watch when light leaves the clouds and use this information to infer their altitude.

This image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows the region around NGC 1399 and NGC 1404, two of the largest galaxies in the Fornax galaxy cluster. Located at a distance of about 60 million light years, Fornax is one of the closest galaxy clusters to Earth. This relative proximity allows astronomers to study the Fornax cluster in greater detail than most other galaxy clusters. A new study is an example of what can be achieved when telescopes like Chandra study the Fornax cluster for long periods of time. By combining 15 days' worth of Chandra observing of Fornax spread out between 1999 and 2015, astronomers discovered that pairs of stars had been expelled the galaxies in the cluster.

In addition to these banished X-ray binaries, the researchers found about 150 other sources located outside the boundaries of the galaxies observed by Chandra. One possible explanation for these sources is that they reside in the halos, or far outer reaches, of the Fornax cluster’s central galaxy, where they were formed. Another option is that they are X-ray binaries that were pulled away from a galaxy by the gravitational force of a nearby galaxy during a flyby, or X-ray binaries left behind as part of the remnants of a galaxy stripped of most of its stars by a galactic collision. Such interactions are expected to be relatively common in a crowded region like the one in the Fornax cluster.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took this selfie on May 12, 2019 (the 2,405th Martian day, or sol, of the mission). To the lower-left of the rover are its two recent drill holes, at targets called "Aberlady" and "Kilmarie."

These are Curiosity's 20th and 21st drill sites.

The selfie is composed of 57 individual images taken by the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera on the end of the rover's robotic arm. The images are stitched together into a panorama, and the robotic arm is digitally removed. MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.

Artist's impression of ESA's Earth Return Orbiter.

Bringing samples from Mars is the logical next step for robotic exploration and it will require multiple missions that will be more challenging and more advanced than any robotic missions before. Accomplishments in robotic exploration in recent years have increased confidence in success – multiple launches will be necessary to deliver samples from Mars.

ESA is working with NASA to explore mission concepts for an international Mars Sample Return campaign between 2020 and 2030. Three launches will be necessary to accomplish landing, collecting, storing and finding samples and delivering them to Earth. NASA’s Mars 2020 mission will explore the surface and rigorously document and store a set of samples in canisters in strategic areas to be retrieved later for flight to Earth.

One hundred years ago, on May 29, 1919, measurements of a solar eclipse offered proof for Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Even before that, Einstein had developed the theory of special relativity, which revolutionized the way we understand light. To this day, it provides guidance on understanding how particles move through space — a key area of research to keep spacecraft and astronauts safe from radiation.

The theory of special relativity showed that particles of light, photons, travel through a vacuum at a constant pace of 670,616,629 miles per hour — a speed that’s immensely difficult to achieve and impossible to surpass in that environment. Yet all across space, from black holes to our near-Earth environment, particles are, in fact, being accelerated to incredible speeds, some even reaching 99.9% the speed of light.

Scientists suspect magnetic reconnection is one way that particles are accelerated to nearly light speed. This illustration depicts the magnetic fields around Earth, which snap and realign, causing charged particles to be flung away at high speeds.

With ESA's Space19+ Ministerial Council meeting set for November, a new satellite mission called TRUTHS will be added to the list to be financed in the Earth Observation Earth Watch program.

The TRUTHS mission aims to establish an SI-traceable space-based climate and calibration observing system to improve confidence in climate-change forecasts – a kind of ‘standards laboratory in space’. It would carry a hyperspectral imager to provide benchmark measurements of both incoming solar radiation and outgoing reflected radiation with an unprecedented accuracy.

Black holes are among the most fascinating objects in the Universe. Enclosing huge amounts of matter in relatively small regions, these compact objects have enormous densities that give rise to some of the strongest gravitational fields in the cosmos, so strong that nothing can escape – not even light.

This artistic impression shows two black holes that are spiralling toward each other and will eventually coalesce. A black hole merger was first detected in 2015 by LIGO, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, which detected the gravitational waves – fluctuations in the fabric of spacetime – created by the giant collision.

NGC 4485 has been involved in a dramatic gravitational interplay with its larger galactic neighbour NGC 4490 — out of frame to the bottom right in this image. This ruined the original, ordered spiral structure of the galaxy and transformed it into an irregular one. The interaction also created a stream of material about 25 000 light-years long, connecting the two galaxies.

The stream, visible to the right of the galaxy is made up of bright knots and huge pockets of gassy regions, as well as enormous regions of star formation in which young, massive, blue stars are born. Below NGC 4485 one can see a bright, orange background galaxy: CXOU J123033.6+414057.

In a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, staff at ESO’s Paranal Observatory were treated to a unique performance by the world-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma. On 1 May 2019, the celebrated musician visited Paranal to see the astronomical centre, home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and experience its dazzling skies first-hand. To the delight of the staff, he gave a special concert for which he requested completely dark skies. He is pictured here during the starlit performance, with the majestic band of the Milky Way and the Magellanic clouds overhead, making for a uniquely atmospheric setting.

Today's false color image shows an unnamed crater in Acidalia Planitia. The dark blue feature on the crater floor is a mound of sand. The sand is tall enough to cast a shadow, with the sun is coming from the left (west). The texture on the surface of the sand are dune features created by wind action. The THEMIS VIS camera contains 5 filters. The data from different filters can be combined in multiple ways to create a false color image. These false color images may reveal subtle variations of the surface not easily identified in a single band image.

This animation shows a proposed route for NASA's Curiosity rover, which is climbing lower Mount Sharp on Mars. The annotated version of the map labels different regions that scientists working with the rover would like to explore in coming years. A flyover video explains them in more detail.

Data used in creating this map came from several instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), including the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) and the Context Camera (CTX). The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) instrument on the European Space Agency's Mars Express also contributed data.

NGC 3384, visible in this image, has many of the features characteristic of so-called elliptical galaxies. Such galaxies glow diffusely, are rounded in shape, display few visible features, and rarely show signs of recent star formation. Instead, they are dominated by old, ageing, and red-hued stars. This stands in contrast to the sprightliness of spiral galaxies such as our home galaxy, the Milky Way, which possess significant populations of young, blue stars in spiral arms swirling around a bright core.

However, NGC 3384 also displays a hint of disc-like structure towards its centre, in the form of a central ‘bar’ of stars cutting through its centre. NGC 3384 is located approximately 35 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). This image was taken using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Russian billionaire Yuri Milner has teamed up with British astrophysicist Stephen Hawking in a bid to discover and contact extraterrestrial life. Existence of aliens has always been argued among astronomers for centuries, but there is no substantial evidence of alien existence. From Egyptian civilization to suspected UFOs, here's a look at 16 signs that hint at the possibility of alien activities.

Scientists reportedly found a half-inch long foreign object lodged in the skull of former French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon himself said that he was held prisoner by ‘strange’ men when he disappeared for many days in 1794. Was this just coincidence?

Egyptian Hieroglyphics show engravings that suggest alien-like flying machines visited the ancient Nile valley.

The small town of Bonnybridge is known as the UFO capital of Scotland. Over 300 UFO sightings are reported in a year on an average in the area.
(Pictured) The document made available by the British National Archives shows a UFO sighting report.

When a team of British scientists launched a balloon up into the outer reaches of the stratosphere in 2013, they were shocked that it returned housing tiny living organisms. Scientists were reportedly convinced that these organisms originated in space.

Studies suggest that one of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, may contain frozen red bacteria. This got scientists thinking as the presence of bacteria indicates the possible evolution of advanced life forms.
Pictured: Image of Jupiter's moon Europa released by NASA on Nov. 12, 1996.

After receiving images of the Venera-13 probe of Venus in 1982, Russian scientist Leonid Ksanfomaliti claimed that scorpion-like life forms may exist on the planet.
Pictured: In this image of planet Venus, the dark areas scattered across the venusian plains consist extremely smooth deposits associated with large meteorite impacts.

Researchers found a Martian rock in Antarctica and claim that it contained fossilized nano bacteria. It led to speculation that such rocks found their way to our planet billions of years ago and could have given "life" to organisms.
(Pictured) Photomicrograph of the Martian meteorite Alh84001 with an elongated structure resembling a fossil microorganism (C).

In 1977, scientists in Ohio State University picked up signals which traveled more than 200 million light years in space to reach us. These remarkably strong signals left scientists baffled as they still attempt to identify its source.

Russians scientists have found a microorganism that could survive hazardous radiations, which was never seen in other organism. They believe that the germ originated on Mars, which suggests the existence of extraterrestrial life on the Red planet.

Methane is normally produced by living organisms and a massive amount of the gas has been found in Mars' atmosphere, fueling the the theory of life on Mars.

Malaysian astrophysicist Mazlan Othman is the director of the United Nations office of outer space Affairs (UNOOSA) which deals with space-related activities. Mazlan is tasked to greet alien visitors and coordinate human acknowledgement if Martians make contact with us.

There have been several instances reported about commercial plane pilots suggesting a near-collision with a UFO. One pilot reportedly sighted a “delta-shaped” flying object heading toward his aircraft while flying into Manchester, England. The UFO apparently disappeared before he could react to avoid a collision.

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains more than 400 billion stars and scientists believe that about half of these have at least one planet within their orbit. American astronomer and astrophysicist Dr. Frank Drake put together an argument about the possibility of extraterrestrial civilization based on probability of planets inhibiting living beings.

On Aug. 1, 1966, Erie Morning News reported a UFO sighting at Presque Isle State Park in Pennsylvania, U.S., when Betty Klem saw a bright light descending towards her and landing about 700 yards away.

When American astronauts landed on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission, they sighted an unidentified flying object close to their location. At first they presumed it was part of the detached SIV-B rocket, which was later confirmed to be 6,000 miles (9,656 kms) from them. It's a mystery that baffles scientists even today.

Astronomers have been trying to contact Martians by sending frequent radio waves in outer space for decades. In 2004, they observed an unidentified radio signal that kept getting stronger and believed that aliens were attempting to contact humans.