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Aliens exist – they just haven't visited Earth, a NASA veteran has claimed.
Dr Gentry Lee has worked at the US space agency since 1968, when he first got involved with the Viking mission to Mars.
He has since spent more than half a century designing probes to land on distant planets – but argues Earth has not yet been visited by other–worldly beings.
'There exists nothing today that says any alien or any alien machine has ever landed on the planet Earth,' he told the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference in Phoenix.
'If you believe otherwise, you are being misled.'
According to the expert, in every case of a supposed UFO sighting or alien encounter, there is likely a simpler explanation for those phenomena.
But when it comes to distant planets, life has 'just got to be there somewhere'.
He added: 'We are going to find life of some kind somewhere else. The odds are overwhelming.'
Dr Gentry Lee has worked at NASA since 1968, when he first got involved with the Viking mission to Mars
Scientists generally believe that the best candidates for alien life are 'Earth–like' worlds orbiting distant stars in other parts of the galaxy.
One such contender is the Earth–sized planet TRAPPIST–1e, located just 40 light–years from Earth, which is located safely within its star's habitable 'Goldilocks zone'.
Another promising candidate is the planet K2–18b, which some studies suggest could be teeming with life.
Located 124 light–years from Earth in the constellation of Leo, K2–18b is a giant world covered entirely by oceans – making it what scientists call a 'Hycean world'.
Even in our own solar system, Saturn's moons Enceladus and Titan could have the right conditions for life to emerge and thrive.
Dr Lee also said that space scientists must be prepared to find alien forms that are very different from the life found on Earth.
He said that all life on our planet – 'you, me, an elephant, slime mould, bacteria' – relies on DNA to reproduce.
He added: 'Extraterrestrial biologists would come to the Earth and would go back and report: "Not a terribly interesting planet. All life is the same. All of it reproduces in the same way using the same major [DNA] molecule."'
K2–18b (artist's impression) is a massive water world covered in oceans that orbits a red dwarf star 124 light–years from Earth. Scientists have found chemicals in its atmosphere that could be a sign of life
The worlds with the best chance of having alien life
- TRAPPIST–1e
- K2–18b
- Kepler–62e and Kepler–62f
- Enceladus
- Titan
Mr Lee is currently chief engineer for the Solar System Exploration Directorate at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
He oversaw the engineering of the Curiosity rover for Mars, the Dawn mission to two asteroids, the Juno mission to Jupiter and the Grail mission to the moon.
Speaking to promote a new documentary, called Spaceman, Dr Lee said that space telescopes such as Kepler had studied a significant 'slice' of the galaxy in our neighbourhood of the Milky Way and found huge numbers of planets orbiting other stars.
'If the slice of the heavens that Kepler looked at is representative [of the whole Milky Way], and we have no reason to believe it's not, then there are close to a trillion planets in our galaxy alone,' he said.
'So you can go through all the probabilities of life forming [on some of them] and sooner or later you say, it's just gotta be there somewhere.'
Yesterday, NASA gave a hilarious response to President Trump following his demand for UFO files – dashing hope for an extraterrestrial breakthrough.
Earlier this month, the hunt for life beyond Earth took an unexpected twist when Barack Obama claimed aliens are real.
The former president later went on to clarify he was not talking about extraterrestrial forms visiting Earth, and that he believes life must instead exist somewhere in the 'vast cosmos'.
But his comments prompted Donald Trump to lash out at his predecessor for allegedly sharing 'classified information'.
The President said he has directed his Secretary of War to release all government files related to aliens, extraterrestrial life and UFOs.
NASA finally responded to his demands – but it crushes any hope that a collection of spooky documents are about to be released.
'We continue to embrace President Trump's open science commitment as an agency,' NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens wrote on X.
But she added: 'As [NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman] has said, there are certainly things he's come across in the job that he can't explain… but they relate more to unnecessarily costly programs than they do to extraterrestrial life!'
KEY DISCOVERIES IN HUMANITY'S SEARCH FOR ALIEN LIFE
Discovery of pulsars
British astronomer Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was the first person to discover a pulsar in 1967 when she spotted a radio pulsar.
Since then other types of pulsars that emit X-rays and gamma rays have also been spotted.
Pulsars are essentially rotating, highly magnetised neutron stars but when they were first discovered it was believed they could have come from aliens.
'Wow!' radio signal
In 1977, an astronomer looking for alien life in the night sky above Ohio spotted a radio signal so powerful that he excitedly wrote 'Wow!' next to his data.
In 1977, an astronomer looking for alien life in the night sky above Ohio spotted a radio signal so powerful that he excitedly wrote 'Wow!' next to his data
The 72-second blast, spotted by Dr Jerry Ehman through a radio telescope, came from Sagittarius but matched no known celestial object.
Conspiracy theorists have since claimed that the 'Wow! signal', which was 30 times stronger than background radiation, was a message from intelligent extraterrestrials.
Fossilised Martian microbes
In 1996 Nasa and the White House made the explosive announcement that the rock contained traces of Martian bugs.
The meteorite, catalogued as Allen Hills (ALH) 84001, crashed onto the frozen wastes of Antarctica 13,000 years ago and was recovered in 1984.
Photographs were released showing elongated segmented objects that appeared strikingly lifelike.
Photographs were released showing elongated segmented objects that appeared strikingly lifelike (pictured)
However, the excitement did not last long. Other scientists questioned whether the meteorite samples were contaminated.
They also argued that heat generated when the rock was blasted into space may have created mineral structures that could be mistaken for microfossils.
Behaviour of Tabby's Star in 2005
The star, otherwise known as KIC 8462852, is located 1,400 light years away and has baffled astronomers since being discovered in 2015.
It dims at a much faster rate than other stars, which some experts have suggested is a sign of aliens harnessing the energy of a star.
The star, otherwise known as KIC 8462852, is located 1,400 light years away and has baffled astonomers since being discovered in 2015 (artist's impression)
Recent studies have 'eliminated the possibility of an alien megastructure', and instead, suggests that a ring of dust could be causing the strange signals.
Exoplanets in the Goldilocks zone in 2017
In February 2017 astronomers announced they had spotted a star system with planets that could support life just 39 light years away.
Seven Earth-like planets were discovered orbiting nearby dwarf star 'Trappist-1', and all of them could have water at their surface, one of the key components of life.
Three of the planets have such good conditions, that scientists say life may have already evolved on them.
Researchers claim that they will know whether or not there is life on any of the planets within a decade, and said: 'This is just the beginning.'
