extraterrestrial

NASA's Kepler spacecraft has been in hot pursuit of extraterrestrial life for four years now. And, on Thursday, it's letting people know just what it's found lurking in the Milky Way.

NASA is holding a Kepler briefing at 11 a.m. PT on Thursday. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and on UStream. The agency will also host a moderated Web chat with Kepler Deputy Project Scientist Nick Gautier of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. During the briefing, people can submit questions to the Kepler scientists via Twitter with the hashtag #AskNASA.

Kepler launched in … Read more

LAS VEGAS--No one has ever met Dr. X.

And even though he claims to have created breakthrough medical technology and powerful cures with the help of alien beings, Dr. X won't show at CES.

But his QuantumMan app is here. It supposedly diagnoses and heals your ailments with the simple touch of a smartphone, a few ounces of faith, and some good old cash.

At a small booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center's mile-long South Hall, somewhere between Wacom Technology and VistaQuest, Extraterrestrial Technology is pushing QuantumMan medical treatments at CES 2013. … Read more

What were you hoping for with the big juicy Mars discovery that a NASA researcher hinted at? Aliens? Kuato? Jimmy Hoffa?

As you'll no doubt recall, NASA investigator John Grotzinger was quoted as saying that data from the Curiosity rover suggested a discovery of epic significance. Well, here's your official oven-fresh serving of disappointment.

Today NASA confirmed there's no earth-shaking finding from the soil samples analyzed with Curiosity's on-board chemistry lab. … Read more

Are we alone? That question has plagued scientists and space enthusiasts for generations. The release of Ridley Scott's "Prometheus," which opens nationwide today, may reignite questions about life beyond the boundaries of our galaxy.

The film marks the legendary director's return to the science fiction genre. Scott directed the 1979 film "Alien," which pit protagonist Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, against one of the most iconic extraterrestrial antagonists of all time, the titular alien.

In Scott's new film, the crew of Prometheus embarks on a mission to search for alien life, but is instead greeted with unexpected horrors. A series of mysteries unfold throughout the film, which is set in the future, with all of the advanced technology to be expected from the imagination of the legendary filmmaker.… Read more

For anyone who's seen the film "Contact," the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a very noble cause. And over the last 35 years, Jill Tarter, who was the inspiration for Jodie Foster's character, has become known as the world's most famous alien hunter.

For years, Tarter has been the director of the Center for SETI Research, and in that position, she has worked harder than almost anyone on the planet to try to find new friends in the skies. So far, her work, and that of her many colleagues around the world, has been unrewarded. Yet, in spite of constant battles for funding and the skepticism of those who believe we're alone in the universe, Tarter has persevered, and SETI has continued. … Read more

A little over a week ago, I stood at the desert site of a 1964 UFO landing and mused about what might have happened when a Socorro, N.M., policeman saw a strange-looking object take off from an arroyo.

Since then, I've heard from skeptics and UFO believers alike. There are science folks who say, "Show me the proof." There are UFO enthusiasts who firmly believe the aliens have already landed. I haven't heard from any alien abductees yet, but I know they're out there, too.

UFOs have been a hot topic for decades, with no sign of relinquishing their place near the front of public consciousness. … Read more

Living in the Bay Area, one often wonders where certain beings really came from.

And it seems that the pressure for authorities to admit that everything down here isn't exactly human increases every day.

Now an astrobiologist with NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Dr. Richard B. Hoover, has added to the excitement.

Hoover has spent considerable years traveling to remote places like Alaska and Siberia. There, he's collected meteorites, which he's taken back to his lab and examined.

He published his conclusions yesterday in the Journal of Cosmology, and one can only describe his findings as … Read more

The British government has released 8,500 pages of previously classified documents detailing its decades-long effort to respond to the public's insistence that UFOs exist.

Among other disclosures, the files reveal that the House of Lords held the only full debate on UFOs in the history of the British Parliament and that the country thought it was possibly facing an alien invasion in 1967. The papers also include messages from the British government to the prime minister of Grenada responding to that nation's attempts to sponsor a debate on UFOs at the United Nations in 1977-78.

The documents … Read more

If and when extraterrestrials try to contact humanity, they might want to stop by the United Nations headquarters. But despite earlier reports, it looks like there won't be a designated ambassador-to-the-aliens waiting for them there after all.

According to numerous reports, 58-year-old Malaysian astrophysicist Mazlan Othman, head of the U.N.'s Office for Outer Space Affairs--which is charged with "promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space"--had been tapped for the role. Word was that she was waiting only for U.N. scientific advisory committees and the General Assembly to give the thumbs-up.… Read more