Seth Shostak

In a movie, it's often important to have aliens whose gestures and facial expressions can be 'read' by humans. And in the days before sophisticated computer animation, most extraterrestrial bit players were guys in rubber suits. Such practical considerations forced Hollywood's hand when it came to aliens - they look like us for good reasons.

American Scientist

George Smoot

For many centuries, humans have speculated that there might be planetary systems around other stars and that there could be extraterrestrial life there and even intelligent being. However, those were simply speculations, and now we have evidence for the first part of these ideas.

Ann Druyan

This planet seems to be in such sorry shape. And I can't ever think about the rest of the universe without coming back home and thinking what the implications for life here would be if we were to really have some definitive proof of extraterrestrial life.

American Writer

John de Lancie

I'm of the opinion that it flies in the face of reason not to believe. The odds are too great against you to not believe that there is some sort of extraterrestrial life out there.

American Actor

David Grinspoon

Among the plausible niches for extraterrestrial life in our solar system, the clouds of Venus are among the most accessible and the least well explained.

Orrin Hatch

The Federal government does not have any information about extraterrestrial life to conceal, and there are no secret projects for me to investigate.

Politician

Joan Didion

The fancy that extraterrestrial life is by definition of a higher order than our own is one that soothes all children, and many writers.

American Author

Frank Drake

The pulsar map is not dangerous at all. It will likely never even be seen by extraterrestrials.

Mike McCready

I like 'X-Files'-type shows with government conspiracies and extraterrestrials and all that.

American Musician

David Duchovny

I don't believe in a conspiracy to hide the existence of extraterrestrial life.

Commonly seen in science fiction to describe aliens or their technologies.

Sci-Fi Usage

Extraterrestrials are often portrayed as invaders, but can also be friendly or neutral.

Not Always Hostile

Many stories and movies use extraterrestrials to explore themes of otherness and xenophobia.

Cultural References

Indicates origin, not necessarily from a traditional planet; can include asteroids or comets.

Beyond Earth

Can refer to non-biological things, like water or chemicals, from outside Earth.

Not Limited to Life

Sparks questions about the universe's capacity to harbor different life forms.

Scientific Curiosity

 is a matter of life and death. And though the strength of duct tape’s adhesive bonds can’t compete with those of epoxy glues, tape does have the advantage of instantaneous stickiness in an emergency. Glue may be necessary to get a rocket to space, but when it comes to extraterrestrial repairs,

Which is stronger: Glue...

 We're going to launch thousands of these into the solar system to look for extraterrestrial life. Quite different. You see that Moore's law really applied itself to spacecraft. However, the rockets that we've been building have been designed for carrying these very large,

Small rockets are the...

 to be really open-minded their number of talks to talk about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and Who am I to say that they're wrong I think about the words of Karl saying induces that when you consider our place in the universe perhaps the little arrogant

To listen is to live PIPE...

 fascination with the concept of intelligent life out there what would happen if we somehow managed to make contact is at the heart of all of the cases we investigate on our show given the chance to send a one time message to an extraterrestrial civilization what

Replying to the Wow...

 If either spacecraft is discovered by extraterrestrial life, there's a possibility that they could decipher the clues from the golden record and one day reach our planet. That's particularly true if theirs is a much more technologically advanced civilization.

Should we be looking for...

 And in all cases we have to ask -- What's the more likely explanation? Before we say something is out of this world, we should first make sure that it's not in this world. What's more that Arnold had extraterrestrial help in his run for the governorship,

Why people believe weird...

 Some journeyed to the moons and planets. A race of advanced extraterrestrials watching our solar system from afar could confidently predict Earth's final doom in another six billion years. But could they have predicted this unprecedented spike

Sir Martin Rees: Earth...

 Now, we've had distributed computing before, of course. We use it for everything from Skype to the search for extraterrestrial life. But you add distributed computing and powerful encryption -- that's very, very hard to censor and control.

How the mysterious dark...

 world that's the idea behind the ancient astronaut theory and the ancient astronaut theory tries to establish whether or not extraterrestrials visited earth in the remote past so why do we think it's even

Ancient Astronaut Theory...

 We've all seen movies about terrible insects from outer space or stories of abduction by little green men, but the study of life in the universe, including the possibility of extraterrestrial life,