UFO: Do aliens exist? It is the question that has plagued people for generations [GETTY]

But the biggest question humans have always asked is whether we are alone in the universe.

And thanks to sightings and tales of alien visiting Earth, many people believe the answer is no.

Here NADINE LINGE looks at the most famous extra-terrestrial encounters ever reported.

THE BETTY AND BARNEY HILL INCIDENT

THE EVENT: In September 1961, American couple Betty and Barney Hill were driving south through the White Mountains in New Hampshire when they saw a large, bright object in the sky, following them and rapidly descending towards their car.

The Hills said they were terrified as the silent spacecraft loomed closer to them and they spotted several humanoid figures standing at the windows of the mysterious craft.

Fearing they were about to be captured, the Hills drove quickly away but shortly afterwards, the couple said they found themselves 35 miles farther along on the road and realised they had lost two hours of time.

To find out what had happened, the couple were regressed by a psychiatrist.

Through a long series of sessions, the Hills recounted a tale of being abducted by alien beings into the UFO and given physical examinations before being returned to their car with their memories completely erased.

Speaking about the alleged kidnap, social worker Betty said: “They were four-and-a-half to five feet tall, humanoid-like, very large eyes that slanted upward, very flat nose, just a thin slit for a mouth, a greyish complexion. And they were all dressed alike.”

Kathy Marden, the Hills’ niece, who is also a social scientist, said: “What’s very important was that Betty and Barney both had conscious recall of the experience, except for the actual UFO abduction itself.

RELATED ARTICLES

• Britain leads the way in hunt for aliens with £25 MILLION space probe
• Aliens exist and I’ve seen them! Star Trek legend William Shatner makes bizarre claim
• The World’s Greatest Mysteries: Marilyn Monroe, 9/11, Princess Diana and 1969 moon landing
• The world’s great mysteries: Malaysian flight MH370, Bermuda Triangle and ghost ship saga

“The public was under the impression that Betty and Barney observed only a light in the sky, but those familiar with the case know that they observed much more.”

The couple are both now dead but in 2011, New Hampshire erected a historic highway marker to commemorate the 50th anniversary of their reported close encounter with aliens.

FACT OR FICTION? Around the same time as the Hills said they had their UFO sighting in the White Mountains, Pease Air Force Base in nearby Portsmouth confirmed radar had picked up an unfamiliar signal in the area.

But sceptics point out that the Air Force concluded the UFO was simply a weather balloon.

Betty said she communicated with the extra-terrestrial leader on board the spacecraft who showed her a 3D “star map” of where She drew it under hypnosis but amateur astronomer Marjorie Fish spent years studying it and found a possible match in the shape of double star system Zeta.

MYSTERY: Have you seen this creature? Let us know [GETTY]

“The public was under the impression that Betty and Barney observed only a light in the sky, but those familiar with the case know that they observed much more”

Kathy Marden, the Hills’ niece

FIRE IN THE SKY

THE EVENT: In 1975, Travis Walton was working as a logger in Arizona when he and six colleagues encountered a UFO.

Just after 6pm on November 5, the crew finished their work for the day and piled into a truck for the drive back to their home town of Snowflake.

The crew reported that after beginning the drive home, they saw a bright light behind a hill.

They drove closer and said they saw a large silvery disc hovering above a clearing and shining brightly. It was around eight feet high and 20 feet in diameter.

Travis jumped out and ran over for a closer look. When he reached the base of the object, it started making a whirring noise and he began to walk away.

As he did, his fellow loggers saw him hit by a blue-green beam of light from the craft.

ONE DAY? Many are convinced we are not alone in the universe [GETTY]

One, Jerome Clark, wrote how he “rose a foot into the air, his arms and legs outstretched, and shot back stiffly some 10ft, all the while caught in the glow of the light. His right shoulder hit the earth, and his body sprawled limply over the ground.”

The rest of the group ran for safety and immediately reported the incident to local cops.

Travis disappeared for five days and when a police hunt couldn’t find him, the other men were initially thought to have killed him.

But when he returned, Travis said he had been taken on board the UFO and woken up in an exam room surrounded by three figures in orange jumpsuits.

He described the aliens as less than 5ft tall, with bald heads and enormous brown eyes.

Travis blacked out and when he woke, he was off the craft and by a garage in Arizona.

RESTRICTED: The desert which is home to the legendary Area 51 [GETTY]

FACT OR FICTION? Travis took a lie detector test and failed it.

But he later took two further tests which he passed.

He was also hypnotised in which he could only account for two hours out of his missing five days.

The hypnotherapist also hit a mental block in Travis’ mind where he said he would “die” if the treatment continued.

In 1993, his story was made into a film called Fire In The Sky.

And last year, Happy Mondays star Shaun Ryder met Travis for a series on UFOs and was convinced he was telling the truth.

In almost 40 years since the incident, none of the seven men has changed his story.

TAKEN: Travis Walton insists he was abducted [PH]

CRAFT: Britain’s most infamous sighting took place in Suffolk [PH]

DEEP IN THE FOREST OF FEAR

THE EVENT: Britain’s most famous UFO sighting took place in Suffolk.

During the nights of December 26 and 27 1980, American servicemen at RAF Woodbridge and Bentwaters reported mysterious lights in nearby Rendlesham Forest.

A team of airmen, including Deputy Base Commander Lieutenant Colonel Halt, went to investigate.

They were armed with an image intensifier and a tape recorder but were unable to identify the source.

The men chased lights they called “weird phenomena”. They claimed they had encountered and touched an alien craft, and even touched it.

Years later National Archive files released a document, apparently typed on official departmental paper, revealing the “entities” were “approximately 1.5m tall, wearing what appeared to be nylon-coated pressure suits, but no helmets”.

BEAM ME UP: Many of our views on aliens are founded on science fiction works [GETTY]

They were apparently “hovering above ground level” and were recorded speaking in and “electronically synthesised version of English, with a strong American accent”.

They were said to have had “clawlike hands and with three fingers and an opposable thumb”.

Six years earlier lights were also seen in the Berwyn Mountains, north Wales. UFO believers claimed non-human bodies had been found and covered up by the government.

FACT OR FICTION? The many theories from an elaborate hoax, to the men being confused by lights from a nearby lighthouse.

The government insists the incident was fully investigated at the time, and Britain’s air defences had not been breached.

ROSWELL: The most famous alien incident of all – this creature is said to have landed in New Mexico in 1947 [AP]

ALONE: There is yet to be any confirmed evidence of life on another planet other than Earth [GETTY]

ROSWELL

THE EVENT: Perhaps the most notorious UFO spot of all. In 1947 something crashed near Roswell in New Mexico.

The debris was found in the desert by a local rancher who rang the sheriff.

The wreckage was taken back to a military base at Roswell and chiefs announced they had found a “flying disc”.

But they appeared to quickly change their mind and soon after insisted it had just been a weather balloon.

The story went away until the late 1970s when people who had been involved at the base started to speak out.

Major Jesse Marcel said the wreckage looked like “nothing on Earth” and made of paper-thin metal covered in strange symbols.

Other witnesses recalled seeing small, humanoid bodies at the scene, but the US military later said these were crash test dummies, dropped with parachutes.

Walter Haut, the military officer who was ordered to release the original “flying disc” story to the media, died in 2004.

But he left a signed affidavit in which he confirmed that the object that crashed really was extraterrestrial in origin.

UNEXPLORED: Humans have explored only a tiny fraction of space [GETTY]

FACT OR FICTION? The US government has tried to shut down reports on Roswell but talk of a cover-up persists.

They have been given credibility by Ed Mitchell, a former astronaut who is one of a handful of men to have walked on the Moon.

Mitchell, who also had contacts in the US military, is convinced the Roswell incident was an extra terrestrial visitation.

He says: “I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we have been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real.

“It’s been well covered up by all our governments but slowly it’s leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on it.

“I’ve been in military and intelligence circles who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge – yes, we have been visited.”

Source: dailystar.co.uk