Martians, those supposed little green men with oval heads, antenna and long fingers, it seems, are everywhere. Why only today as I picked up the Metro, my eyes were drawn to an image of Mars’ landscape complete with a blurred figure seemingly peeping out from behind a rock. At last! This blown up image has FINALLY captured a ‘real’ alien! Or a misshapen rock? Ok, so it’s hard to make out and most likely a hoax or wishful thinking but why do newspapers still cover these stories and just what is our fascination with other worldly beings all about?

Fuelling fascination
Clearly, we’re curious. The question ’Is there life on other planets?’ echoes the big ‘Why are we here?’ And if there are other beings out there, we are no longer unique. Call us spoilt but we humans like to feel extraordinary. Perhaps the first thing we should look into is what fuels our interest in alien life and what shapes it. No doubt an interesting combination of real life ‘witnesses’, ‘evidential stories’, and an excellent range of Sci-Fi films and books.

Let’s deal with the so called evidence first. I didn’t just want to look into second hand stories for this, no, I wanted someone who had actually been involved in UFO and alien spotting themselves. So I located Dave Baker, who until 2004 was head of the Yorkshire UFO society, to see what light (flashing or other) he could throw on the UFO thing. Dave explained that as well as discussing a range of footage and having lectures from authors and such, his group would sky watch monthly in the peak district. If anyone’s going to have seen something, it must have been Dave right? So did he?

No. Oh well… According to Lisa Simpson (yes Homer’s brainbox daughter), “People who claim they’ve seen aliens are always pathetic lowlifes with boring jobs.” If that’s true what does it say about the American Army, seeing as they have encountered their fair share of unexplained going-ons on radar?

Dave said his group were made up of genuinely interested but sceptical folk and that their sightings were “planes, meteorites and satellites”. But there are those who report stuff just for attention, spicing up their lives with tales of probes, instantly becoming a local celebrity or celebrity nutter.

Extra! Extra terrestrial
Second to someone who SWEARS they’ve seen aliens, a person can turn to news reports to ‘learn’ more about aliens. Newspapers have such a huge effect on our thinking because they apparently report on factual events and so many of us take what is said as real. When a story comes complete with photographs as evidence they prove powerful in swaying public belief. But with the brilliance of Photoshop anything can be ‘photographed.’ And things caught on camera can be so vague our eye can see virtually anything if it wants to. There is no doubt that broadcast media and journalism are highly influential to how susceptible we are to believing in the existence of ‘others’. The term ‘flying saucer’ for example was coined through the news during a trend of sightings in the 1940’s. The most famous media crazy alien encounter was Roswell (see factbox).

Close encounters
Films also have a big hand in fuelling our imagination and love or fear of aliens. And nobody does it better than the Hollywood! As children we develop our first understanding of life on other plants through Sci-fi. Even my source Dave said his fascination was triggered by watching films such as Close Encounters and ET from a young age.

And recently after experiencing the ‘alien tripods’ in War of the Worlds, (Tom cruise, yay!) I found myself wondering what they would actually look like. When I asked Dave, what effect he thought these images and stories have on the public he pointed out that we are “more likely to see something in what we normally wouldn’t have thought anything about. And that “A number of UFO sightings normally follow some kind of media input.”

ET aside a typical alien film plot includes a typical day with a typical family-maybe facing a small family crisis BUT THEN SUDDENLY aliens attack and it’s doom for anyone that dares calls themselves human. Film aliens always want something we have. Our resources, our planet, even our bodies. This equals war of course and through our incredible human-ness we always prevail. Nine times out of ten, the alien is the Hollywood ‘baddie.’ Through these films the ‘advanced destructive alien’ persona developed, a persona many believe alien’s would resemble. There’s definitely a pattern of celebrating human greatness in these films, over exploring all possibilities of life on another planets. But ‘Hollywood agendas’ is another article and hey it does make for great entertainment.

The truth is out where?
So it’s interesting to question how much time we would give to the idea of alien life if the media and sci-fi hadn’t planted such imaginative seeds in our heads. Whether we’re deciphering strange lights in the sky, or concluding a full-blown abduction, it’s human nature to building a picture of the unknown.
And what else is more of a mystery to humans than space, ‘the final frontier’? When I asked Dave why he thought people believed in aliens he commented, “Probably similar to why people have a belief in God…a higher power that’s going to save us all from ourselves…people don’t want to be alone.”

Dave’s got a point; we are just a dot in the universe, no more important that drifting meteorite dust. Think how many stars there are in just our solar system. Now, how many solar systems there are in our galaxy. Billions. Hundred of billions. And how many galaxies there are in the entire universe. Too many to think of. But I believe anything is possible. Let’s keep an open mind…and keep watching the skies. There are enough planets for life. In whatever form, I believe… life will out!

By Cassie Last

TOP TEN out of this world
ALIEN movies!

1.ET
2.Alien
3.War of the Worlds
4.Men in Black
5.Alien vs. Predator
6.Independence Day
7.Signs
8.Close Encounters
9.Invasion of the Body Snatchers
10.Mars Attacks

HISTORY OF THE MISTERY

Through-out the years there have been numerous reports of alien sitings, here is a quick run-down through the years:

- November 17, 1882, astronomer Edward Maunder spots a flying object, “disc-shaped”.

- February 28, 1904, Lt. Schofield reports “three bright red egg-shaped and circular objects flying.”

- August 5,1926, Nicholas Roerich, Tibet comments on “something big and shiny reflecting sun, like a huge oval moving at great speed”

- February 25, 1942, unidentified flying object caught on radar by the U.S. army over L.A, California.

- 1947 Kenneth Arnold reported seeing “nine brilliantly bright objects” going at “least 1200 miles per hour”

ROSWELL….

Where and when? New Mexico, USA,
7th July 1947

Reported by who? People working on the Roswell Army Air Field

What? A “crashed flying disc.”

Why is it famous? A Commanding General told the press it was only a “weather balloon.” Yet, footage was later released of an “alien autopsy” which appears to show scientists cutting open a being not of this world.
Hushed up? Hidden away? Maybe. Having seen it on Youtube I have to admit it is pretty convincing. When I questioned Dave on the crash he stated, “Something definately happened, whether it was an alien crash…or a balloon…”

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