Buzz
The search for intelligent life beyond Earth has traditionally been confined to science fiction, with tales of Moon-dwelling Nazis. However, this was not always the case. For many years, both astronomers and theologians have asserted that they either discovered or could justify proof of life on neighboring planets.
10. Franz von Paula Gruithuisen
In 1824, Franz von Paula Gruithuisen, a German astronomer and physician, released a paper titled, “Discovery of Many Distinct Traces of Lunar Inhabitants, Especially One of Their Colossal Buildings.” Over the course of 28 years and several papers, he described what he believed to be a genuine lunar city located near the Schroter crater.
Through numerous sketches, Gruithuisen interpreted what he saw in his telescope as man-made structures, waterways, and roads. He created intricate and stunning maps of the Moon’s surface, but most of his peers dismissed his claims of a “Lunar City” as mere fantasy.
9. Giovanni Schiaparelli
Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer, was known for some of the most thorough and accurate observations of Mars during the 19th century. In 1877, Mars reached a point in its orbit that brought it into close proximity to Earth.
As Schiaparelli observed the approaching planet, he sketched the light and dark patches on its surface. He also named these areas and composed a treatise discussing the strikingly Earth-like features of Mars.
Schiaparelli mapped canali (“channels”). Although he used the word interchangeably with fiumi (“rivers”), the idea of a canal being a man-made structure quickly captured the public’s imagination.
Due to his color blindness, Schiaparelli’s color perception influenced his view of the canals. As a result, he reported seeing features that others could not. While he never claimed the canals were artificial, he was careful to suggest that anything was possible.
8. Guglielmo Marconi And Nikola Tesla
Although Guglielmo Marconi and Nikola Tesla are widely recognized for their groundbreaking contributions to various scientific fields, their experimentation with radio signals led them to believe they were intercepting messages from Martians.
Tesla first conceived the idea of using radio waves to contact extraterrestrial life around 1896. In 1899, his Knob Hill Tesla coil receiver picked up unusual, regularly repeating signals. He believed these signals were coming from inhabitants of Mars. Later, historians speculated that the signals were either misinterpreted data or interference from Jupiter’s magnetosphere.
Marconi received signals that he believed were evidence of life on Mars, and other radio pioneers also explored the possibility of using the emerging technology to communicate with the Red Planet.
7. Sir David Brewster
When scientists confirmed that Earth was just one of many planets, religious thinkers had to decide whether Earth was unique and, if so, why God would create so many empty worlds. Cosmic pluralism emerged as a popular theory, suggesting that other worlds must be inhabited by other good, God-fearing Christians, as there would be no other reason for their existence.
Sir David Brewster’s argument for the existence of life on other planets relied on logic. Since planets were too distant to directly observe life, we had to reason based on evidence. The surfaces of other planets appeared superficially similar to Earth’s, indicating they were created for the same purpose: to support life.
Brewster compared this to the analogy of an eye. While creatures might have eyes of various shapes and sizes, they all served the same purpose: to see. In the same way, all planets were created for one purpose: to support life.
6. John J. O’Neill
John J. O’Neill, a science editor for the New York Herald Tribune, developed a particular interest in the Moon’s landscape during the summer of 1953. On July 29, he made what he believed was a remarkable discovery: a bridge spanning two rocky outcrops near the Mare Crisium crater.
O’Neill estimated the bridge’s length to be about 19 kilometers (12 miles). He shared his findings with the scientific community, and others confirmed that there appeared to be something unusual in that area.
O’Neill and other astronomers made their findings public, proposing that the bridge was an artificially constructed structure of lunar technology. However, subsequent observations revealed that the bridge was an illusion caused by light and shadow. Despite this, the idea was later immortalized in a book by Arthur C. Clarke.
5. Mikhail Vasin And Alexander Shcherbakov
Despite being members of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, Mikhail Vasin and Alexander Shcherbakov struggled to gain support for their theory, which they published in Sputnik magazine, claiming to have evidence that humans were living on the Moon.
According to the researchers, the evidence had always been in plain sight. The Moon’s craters were too shallow compared to their diameter, suggesting they couldn’t have been formed by impact events on a rocky surface.
They argued that this meant the Moon wasn’t a natural satellite but a space station. The researchers proposed that the Moon was actually a kind of Noah’s Ark, possibly carrying an ancient civilization that had been traveling through the galaxy for millions of years.
That was the only piece of evidence they provided, but other members of the scientific community were not swayed by their argument.
4. Percival Lowell
Giovanni Schiaparelli may have been one of the first to document the so-called canals on Mars, but it was Percival Lowell who popularized the idea that they were evidence of an advanced civilization. Lowell published several books and numerous sketches illustrating how the canals were clearly artificial, created by intelligent beings.
Lowell argued that the canals were the desperate last effort of a dying civilization trying to survive. They were designed to draw resources from Mars’ ice caps, a concept inspired by major global projects of the time like the Panama and Suez Canals. He also claimed to have observed similar canals on Venus, which raised further questions.
Later investigations comparing Lowell’s maps to the pattern of blood vessels in the human retina suggested that he wasn’t actually mapping the surface of Mars. Instead, he was mapping the images projected onto his own eyeball.
3. Leonid Ksanfomaliti
In 2012, Leonid Ksanfomaliti, a professor at Moscow's Space Research Institute, made an announcement that was met with skepticism. He claimed that while reviewing photographs taken in 1982 by the Venera 13 probe, he discovered evidence of life on Venus.
He highlighted a supposed giant scorpion that seemed to move across several successive photographs. Ksanfomaliti pointed out that the creature had a distinct body and tail, which appeared to shift before disappearing from the probe’s camera's view.
A similar creature was reportedly captured in images from another Venus probe. While this has stirred debate over the possibility of life on Venus, NASA maintains that there is a more mundane explanation for these occurrences in the low-resolution photographs.
It’s the lens cap of the probe camera.
2. Reverend Thomas Dick
Reverend Thomas Dick, a Scottish educator and theologian, proposed that science and religion could harmonize if there existed a grand design for the alignment of all planets. He argued that this alignment meant God’s laws were universal, extending beyond Earth to the rest of the cosmos. Additionally, Dick claimed he could estimate the populations of other planets by drawing parallels with Earth's population.
He based his mathematical framework on the assumption that England had a population density of 108 people per square kilometer (280 people per square mile). By comparing this ratio to the number of square miles on each planet, their moons, and even Saturn’s rings, Dick estimated the number of intelligent beings that might inhabit each celestial body.
According to Dick, Jupiter’s population was an astonishing seven trillion, and its moons were home to another 27 billion inhabitants.
1. Richard Proctor
In the 1860s and 1870s, British astronomer Richard Proctor undertook a comprehensive study of the planets in our solar system to determine if they could support life. After evaluating everything from climate and atmosphere to seasonal variations, Proctor believed he had gathered enough evidence to confirm the presence of life on other planets—though not necessarily intelligent life.
Building on Darwin’s theories, Proctor proposed that the unique conditions observed on each planet suggested the existence of specialized life forms. Since Mars showed signs of oceans and water, he thought of it as a miniature version of Earth.
As a result, Proctor concluded that Mars was the only planet capable of supporting life as we know it. Conversely, he believed that Jupiter could only possibly sustain very small organisms, if any at all.
+ Further Reading
Whether you’re a skeptic or a believer, there’s always room for more reading and speculation! Here are a few additional ET lists for your enjoyment:
10 Government Officials Who Acknowledged the Presence of Aliens 10 Strange Theories About How Aliens Might Reach Out to Us Top 10 Alleged Encounters Between Humans and Aliens 10 Outlandish Conspiracy Theories Regarding Extraterrestrial Life
