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(Phys.org) —Scientists as eminent as Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan have long believed that humans will one day colonise the universe. But how easy would it be, why would we want to, and why haven't we seen any evidence of other life forms making their own bids for universal domination? A new paper by Dr Stuart Armstrong and Dr Anders Sandberg from Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) attempts to answer these questions. To be published in the August/September edition of the journal Acta Astronautica, the paper takes as its starting point the Fermi paradox – the discrepancy between...

UFOs may be fodder for comedians and science fiction but there was no joking Monday when a group of pilots and officials demanded the US government reopen an investigation into unidentified flying objects. The 19 former pilots and government officials, who say they have seen UFOs themselves or been involved in probes of strange flying objects, told reporters their questions can no longer be dismissed more than 30 years after the US case was closed."We want the US government to stop perpetuating the myth that all UFOs can be explained away in down-to-earth, conventional terms," said Fife Symington, former governor...

The Starship Builders by Kim Burrafato In UFOs and the New Physics, we discussed some of the daunting problems in applying terrestrial rocket propulsion principles to any hypothetical models of UFO propulsion. A lot has happened since that article?s publication over two years ago. It seems we?re getting almost weekly reports of newly discovered extrasolar planetary systems. What was once highly speculative, is now commonplace. Obviously, our previous estimates of the number of stars with possible planetary systems will be revised dramatically upwards. Then there is the recent announcement from a distinguished British research team, that they also had...

Extra-terrestrial life does exist, the head of NASA has confirmed, but said aliens were not hidden in Area 51. NASA Administrator Major Charles Bolden told British schoolchildren that he was confident that scientists would find life outside of Earth because there were so many planets that are similar to our own. Asked by 10-year-old Carmen Dearing if he believed in aliens, he said: "I do believe that we will someday find other forms of life or a form of life, if not in our solar system then in some of the other solar systems - the billions of solar systems...

If what follows sounds like a scene from the sci-fi disaster flick Independence Day, imagine what President George W. Bush must have thought on the night of January 8, 2008 as he contemplated his ranch home in Crawford, Texas. At around 8:00 pm, an enormous, hovering craft with ridiculously bright lights, at least 1,000 feet long (though some witnesses said a mile long), was tracked on multiple radars heading straight for the president's ranch at low speed. The craft lacked a required transponder, was totally unidentified, did not respond to any attempts at communication, and was flying through restricted airspace....

Explanation: Galactic or open star clusters are young. These swarms of stars are born together near the plane of the Milky Way, but their numbers steadily dwindle as cluster members are ejected by galactic tides and gravitational interactions. In fact, this bright open cluster, known as M46, is around 300 million years young. It still contains a few hundred stars within a span of 30 light-years or so. Located about 5,000 light-years away toward the constellation Puppis, M46 also seems to contain contradictions to its youthful status. In this pretty starscape, the colorful, circular patch above and right of the...

Explanation: While most spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, have two or more spiral arms, NGC 4725 has only one. In this sharp color composite image, the solo spira mirabilis seems to wind from a prominent ring of bluish, newborn star clusters and red tinted star forming regions. The odd galaxy also sports obscuring dust lanes a yellowish central bar structure composed of an older population of stars. NGC 4725 is over 100 thousand light-years across and lies 41 million light-years away in the well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. Computer simulations of the formation of single spiral arms suggest that...

Not only does NASA's chief scientist believe alien life forms likely exist, but she said the space agency knows where to look and could discover signs of extraterrestrial life within the next decade. Speaking on a panel discussion on Tuesday about water in the universe, NASA's chief scientist Ellen Stofan said she believes the first indications of alien life could come by 2025 -- with more concrete evidence of extraterrestrial life coming in 20 to 30 years.

Religions have surprisingly diverse approaches to the issue of possible extraterrestrial life, David Weintraub found. Below, a quick survey adapted from his book "Religions and Extraterrestrial Life: How Will We Deal With It?" and interviews with the author.

Extraterrestrials are conveniently global warming believers Only Paul Hellyer, Canada’s Defence Minister from 1963-67 under Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson who rose to Deputy Prime Minister under Pierre Elliott Trudeau, would tell you that not only do extraterrestrials exist, but they are getting ticked off with those earthlings who don’t buy into Al Gore,/Maurice Strong man-mad global warming. And only Russian Television would be the first to break the ‘scoop’. It’s not enough that earthbound worries like the far left jumping into bed with the expanding Islamic State-Caliphate; that Marxism is on the march in the U.S.A.; or that the...

Supposedly an alien craft that recently crashed near Irkutsk, Siberia resulted in a dead alien-type critter lying dead in a snow bank... Hmmm, looks convincing... and convincingly dead: [video] Hard writing this one off to vodka hallucinations... but still, many have already dismissed this one as an elaborate hoax... we get too much of this stuff from Russia, it seems. Video/more/links at Reaganite Republican

Human beings have always seen unidentified objects in the sky. From the prophet Ezekiel’s sighting of a flying wheel in 593 B.C., to the 1561 A.D. Battle over Nuremberg, Germany, to Kenneth Arnold’s “pie plate” UFOs spotted near Mt. Rainer, Washington, in June 1947, there are things above our heads that baffle us. Many of these unidentified flying objects appear to be intelligently controlled aircraft. Others, like the following sightings in California and Illinois, defy explanation.

A report posted on UFO Sightings Daily claims that life has been discovered on Mars. The report talks about finding a rat like Creature in one of the photos posted in official NASA website. The photo was sent by the Mars Rover. The website, UFO Sightings Daily, is coordinated by Scott C. Waring. He had been affiliated with the United States Air Force at SAC base (USAF flight line). He currently owns an ESL School in Taiwan. In this report, Scott has published images of the creature, taken from official NASA website, along with a video of the creature posted...

Lyn Mitchell, a Missouri rancher living about 80 miles from Kansas City, has reported three cow deaths on her property. That wouldn't be unusual were it not for the state the carcasses were found in. The most recent cow was discovered in the field, her tongue removed, her teats cut off, her heart removed and dangling outside of her body. When the rancher moved her, there was a strange, char-like pattern in the dead grass. What does all this mean? One theory: alien experimentation. Mitchell told news station KSHB that she's open to the possibility that these bizarre surgeries were...

Academics from 11 institutions have set up a network to co-ordinate their Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (Seti). The English Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, will act as patron. The group is asking funding agencies for a small - about £1m a year - sum of money to support listening time on radio telescopes and for data analysis. It would also help pay for research that considered new ways to try to find aliens. Currently, most Seti work is done in the US and is funded largely through private donation.

NASA's Kepler telescope scans the skies for 'habitable worlds' - but an American chemist has suggested the whole project might be a terrible idea. Ronald Breslow suggests that life-forms based on slightly different amino acids and sugars could take the form of huge, ferocious dinosaurs that have evolved to have human-like intelligence and technologies. 'We would be better off not meeting them,' says Breslow, who claims that it was a stroke of luck that an asteroid wiped out dinosaurs on earth, leaving the field clear for mammals such as humans. On other worlds, dinosaurs could have evolved into huge, intelligent...

Observer | Spies admit it: there are no aliens out there Spies admit it: there are no aliens out there Paul Harris Sunday November 4, 2001 The Observer Britain's spies have given up looking for aliens after more than half a century of fruitless monitoring of thousands of UFO reports. Ever since the early 1950s reports of sightings of unidentified flying objects by members of the public and military personnel have been logged by the Ministry of Defence and passed on to its intelligence branch. But the Directorate of Intelligence, Scientific and Technical, has now abandoned the quest for ...

Got some spare time today? How about putting aside that game of Bejeweled Blitz and instead lend a hand in what could be the most important discovery of all time? It’s no joke — the people behind the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project have partnered with TED (Technology Entertainment Design) to create a website where anyone can log on and start searching for aliens. Called SETI Live, the new project reduces the hunt for intelligent life on other planets to a kind of game — sort of a mix between Foursquare and Where’s Waldo. Once you log on and...

The discovery of intelligent aliens would be mind-blowing in many respects, but it could present a special dilemma for the world's religions, theologians pondering interstellar travel concepts said Saturday.

Recently there has been an accelerated ‘wave’ of UFO hysteria sweeping the globe, and many supporters have contacted us asking for comments. Later in this article, the recent claims are highlighted and addressed. Because we have written much in recent years about the growing popularity of what is commonly called the UFO phenomenon, this article will only briefly touch on what underpins this cultural phenomenon. Many of our original arguments and explanations are still relevant to these new speculative claims that appear in the media. This article provides many links to relevant articles already on creation.com, --Snip-- The strength of...