Aliens

Aliens can refer to everything from little green men in the sci-fi realm to microscopic life forms beyond Earth. For all these possibilities, Live Science has you covered. We break down the latest discoveries that hint at life on other planets and the state of scientific searches for such extraterrestrial life. Sometimes, we may dissect a "little green man" sighting as well.

Related Topics: Planets, Robots, Astronauts, Paranormal

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Artist's illustration of the view from the seas of a potentially habitable "Hycean" exoplanet.

Alien life could thrive on big 'Hycean' exoplanets

By Mike Wall

The search for alien life should broaden its horizons a bit, a new study suggests.

A conceptual illustration of a Dyson sphere

Alien 'Dyson spheres' could be harvesting the power of black holes

By Adam Mann

Researchers show how intelligent aliens might draw nearly-limitless power from a black hole using a Dyson sphere.

Two aircraft pilots reported seeing a bright green UFO over Canada in July 2021.

Two planes report 'bright green UFO' swooping through the clouds over Canada

By Brandon Specktor

Two aircrafts flying over Canada reported a "bright green UFO" that disappeared into the clouds on July 30.

Alien spaceships in warped space.

Harvard-led team to search cosmos for extraterrestrial space tech and UFOs

By Mindy Weisberger

A multi-institutional research team will seek evidence of technologies crafted by intelligent alien civilizations — living and extinct.

Scientists guided lucid dreamers to emulate encounters with aliens and UFOs during REM sleep.

'Alien abduction' stories may come from lucid dreaming, study hints

By Mindy Weisberger

People have described extraterrestrial encounters that take place in a dreamlike state, and experiments suggest that such experiences may be lucid dreams.

alien world artist illustration

How to tell if extraterrestrial visitors are friend or foe

By Avi Loeb

Aliens will most likely be robotic and guided by AI—so we'll need our own AI to figure them out.

An image showing a UFO was allegedly captured on closed circuit television (CCTV) in the United Kingdom in 2008.

Most Americans think intelligent aliens exist, and half think they have visited Earth

By Mindy Weisberger

A new survey reveals that most Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life and do not feel threatened by the appearance of UFOs.

A government employee photographed a UFO that hovered for 15 minutes near Holloman Air Development Center in New Mexico, on Dec.16, 1957.

Long-anticipated 'UFO report' finally released. No, it's not aliens.

By Jeanna Bryner

The Pentagon has released a highly anticipated "UFO report" that does not implicate aliens in 144 UFO sightings. Here's what the report shows.

fish-eye lens photo of planet Earth from above with field of stars in the backgorund

Aliens in 1,700 star systems could have seen civilization emerge on Earth

By Nicoletta Lanese

If aliens are out there, are any of them looking at us?

U.S. Navy videos of alleged UFO sightings were previously available but had not been officially declassified.

Skies alive with UFOs? Government report on mysterious sightings due soon

By Leonard David

The U.S. government is set to release a UFO report soon, perhaps sometime this week. What will it say?

On July 16, 1952, Coast Guard seaman Shell Alpert took this photo of four roughly elliptical blobs of light in formation through the window of his photographic laboratory near Salem, Massachusetts. The U.S. Air Force's UFO task force, Project Blue Book, investigated the image and deemed it "unexplained."

'No evidence' UFOs are alien spacecraft, but they're not American, Pentagon says

By Mindy Weisberger

In a new report, Pentagon officials claim they lack evidence that UFOs are from worlds other than Earth.

A government employee photographed a UFO that hovered for 15 minutes near Holloman Air Development Center in New Mexico, on Dec.16, 1957.

Pentagon's long-awaited UFO report to Congress due this month

By Mindy Weisberger

U.S. lawmakers called for an official assessment of UFO sightings in December, and the six-month deadline is up.

The auction of this so-called evidence of extraterrestrials has an opening bid of $1 million or 450 Ethereum (a network for the cryptocurrency Ether).

1947 'alien autopsy' film frame is up for auction as an NFT

By Mindy Weisberger

A film frame allegedly showing the autopsy of an extraterrestrial that crash-landed in Roswell, New Mexico has an opening bid of $1 million.

U.S. Navy videos of alleged UFO sightings were previously available but had not been officially declassified.

UFO answers coming soon? The Pentagon to report on mysterious sightings.

By Mike Wall

We could soon start getting answers to some vexing UFO questions.

The Library of the Great Silence will feature artifacts of transition, like this handaxe.

'Library of the Great Silence' invites E.T. to share long-term survival strategies

By Mike Wall

Intelligent aliens will soon have a space here on Earth where they can share how they made it through their technological adolescence.

U.S. Navy videos of alleged UFO sightings were previously available but had not been officially declassified.

To be declassified: UFO broke sound barrier with no sonic boom

By Stephanie Pappas

Former Trump intelligence director John Ratcliffe told Fox News that more unexplained sightings of flying objects will soon be declassified.

exoplanet proxima b art

Can super-rotating oceans cool off extreme exoplanets?

By Paul Sutter

New research suggests a way to move heat around "tidally locked" alien planets: ocean currents whipping around the worlds faster than they rotate.

U.S. Navy videos of alleged UFO sightings were previously available but had not been officially declassified.

CIA releases entire collection of UFO-related documents to truth-seeking website

By Brandon Specktor

The CIA just turned over 2,700 pages of UFO-related material to The Black Vault, a free repository of UFO records online.

The dot at the center of this image is 'Oumuamua, an object with unusual properties that moved through the solar system in 2017. Scientists never got a much better look at it than this, an issue that has helped seed an ongoing high-profile controversy. This image was taken on OCt. 28, 2017 with the William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands.

An alien machine already visited us, Harvard astrophysicist still contends

By Rafi Letzter

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has reignited a debate about whether alien life can explain an object that visited the solar system in 2017 in a scathing new book.

An artist's illustration of the evolution of the interstellar object 'Oumuamua, whose weird, elongated shape may have come from tidal forces.

Here's what we learned about aliens in 2020

By Brandon Specktor

From the best places to find them to what they might breathe, here are the newest clues we discovered about alien life.