The common trope of aliens in Hollywood movies has become a main source of entertainment within the Sci-Fi realm. Take the over-dramatized action portrayals found in Men in Black, War of the Worlds, and Alien vs. Predator as prime examples of the film industry capitalizing on a seemingly mythical and fascinating concept. After all, many people remain skeptical to alien existence at all. Perhaps it is the ambiguity of extra-terrestrial life that leaves it so intriguing to such a widespread audience, and spectators are able to safely indulge in this fantasized reality within the confines of a movie theater.

But how likely is it that science fiction created in these theaters becomes science fact? Or more so, that science fiction is already science fact?

In the past one hundred years alone, there have been over 100,000 UFO and alien sightings reported, according to statistics from the National UFO Reporting Center. This data may seem inundating and even unrealistic; however, even operating under the doubtful assumption that 99% of these occurrences have been falsified, that still leaves a remaining 1,000 accurate sightings up for question–sightings that may prove that we, as humans, aren’t the only ones out there.

One of such sightings was the unexplained incident in Roswell, New Mexico. In July of 1947, an unidentified flying object crash-landed on a ranch. Nearby farmers claimed debris from the crash was constructed out of a rigid, malleable material, expanded over three-quarter miles, and had unusual properties, including forming a trench in the ground that was several hundred feet long. Other eyewitnesses described the debris as weightless and indestructible–basically impossible to belong to an airplane or other military technology. This made national news that the government immediately attempted to cover up by labeling the object as a weather balloon. Eyewitnesses that were involved in the investigation even claimed that they were visited by men in suits threatening to kill them or their families if they publicly shared their experiences. Thus, the question is posed: why would the government go to such strenuous extents to cover up this event if it really was just a weather balloon? What were they hiding, and why was it so important to keep this knowledge secret from the public? Furthermore, a few days after the event a mortuary officer from the Roswell Army Air Force called the Ballard Funeral Home, requesting small, sealed coffins and inquiring about body preservation. Can one presume these were alien bodies? As one of the more infamous UFO sightings in history, this is definitely suspicious.

Alongside incidents such as this one are other ominous sightings and strange occurrences. Chuck Zukowski and Debbie Ziegelmeyer coined the concept of the “37th Latitude” upon discovering several cow mutilations that were oddly similar. Zukowski claimed that all of his mutilated cows were laying on their right side, laying east to west, and were all cleanly cut in the same anatomical places. Furthermore, all of them resided on the 37th Latitude, also known as UFO Highway due to its countless number of alien sightings and other paranormal content. Even Area 51, a top secret military base that many have conspired with houses alien evidence, lies on this world renowned “highway.” It is assumed that this is the path extra-terrestrials follow when entering and exiting Earth’s boundaries.

In February of 2017, NASA discovered seven Earth-sized planets, three of which they suspect are capable of supporting human life. These planets, which orbit the dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, all contain water–an essential component when factoring human existence into the equation. What’s even more thrilling– they are less than forty light years away from Earth. Consider what lies beyond that. One cannot even begin to fathom the vastness of the universe. The Milky Way Galaxy alone contains trillions of planets, and there are over a hundred billion galaxies besides ours. We, as humans, have not even made the most minuscule dent into space exploration. How ignorant would it be to think that we are the only surviving species in the unimaginable expansiveness that is “space”? When taking this into consideration, determining the probability of alien life based on the availability of water seems overly incredulous and even naive. Who’s to say that species don’t exist that have different biological needs than our own? Who’s to say that we are the singular beings within this ever-growing universe? Who’s to say that nothing exists out there when this mere idea violates every discovery regarding space exploration so far? If there’s one thing we’ve learned from putting a man on the moon, a rover on Mars, and a 27,000 pound telescope observatory into space, it’s that anything is possible. Anything is possible.