Buzz
Currently, our best prospects for discovering alien life are in the form of ancient bacteria fossils on Mars. With a bit of luck, we could even find microbes on Europa, though reaching them won't be easy.
In earlier times, when people had far less knowledge of space, they imagined far more complex scenarios regarding the aliens we might encounter there.
10. Camille Flammarion's Vision of Alien Afterlife
French astronomer Camille Flammarion endorsed Percival Lowell's ideas about the canals on Mars. When an experiment suggested that Lowell's observations were optical illusions, Flammarion conducted the same experiment, aiming to prove the scientists wrong.
Flammarion believed that Martians would be superior to humans, given how low our standards had fallen through war and our inability to agree on a universal calendar. He speculated that Martians might have attempted to communicate with us while we were still hunting mammoths, but after receiving no response, they gave up. He concluded, 'I would like to go to Mars; it must be an interesting place.'
He also believed the Moon was probably inhabited. Inspired by Darwin's revolutionary ideas, Flammarion imagined a race of sentient plants that combined digestion and respiration into a single process. As a mystic, he held the belief that after death, the soul would 'travel from one planet to another' in its quest for perfection. This belief, which began in the Enlightenment, remained alive for Flammarion well into the 20th century.
This belief was echoed in a fictional story he wrote, where a dead man named Lumen finds himself on a distant world. Lumen comes upon a mountain covered with palaces made of trees, from where he can view the Sun and planets as distant stars. At the peak of this mountain town, 20 or 30 elderly men stand, gazing at the sky and lamenting the horrific violence they can see happening in Paris through their magical eyes.
9. Mormon Moon Men
Numerous stories are tied to Mormon beliefs about life on other planets, with varying degrees of reliability. One of the most well-known, often shared by critics of the church, claims that Joseph Smith stated the Moon was inhabited. These lunar inhabitants supposedly resembled Quakers and lived for 1,000 years. This tale was first recorded by a Mormon named Oliver Huntington, who wrote it in his journal in 1881.
While this may not be an entirely trustworthy account of Smith’s beliefs, it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility. In 1843, Joseph Smith's brother, Hyum, preached, 'Sun and Moon is inhabited.' Brigham Young, the second president of the church, declared in 1870 that there was 'no question' the Sun existed to provide light not just for Earth, but for its own inhabitants and others beyond.
8. William Herschel
British astronomer William Herschel is regarded as one of the most significant scientists in history. His notable discoveries include Uranus, several moons of Saturn, infrared radiation, and binary star systems. He was also deeply fascinated by the possibility of extraterrestrial life, especially on the Moon.
In the 1770s, Herschel recorded in his journal that he had observed forests and fields on the lunar surface. Over time, he became convinced he had seen canals and even patches of vegetation. But it was the craters that truly captivated his imagination. He constructed the largest telescope of the era and saw perfectly round formations unlike anything previously observed. He referred to them as 'circuses' and wondered, 'perhaps, then on the Moon every town is one very large Circus?'
Herschel's theories about the Lunarians (as he referred to the Moon’s inhabitants) remained unknown until after his death. Meanwhile, some of his contemporaries were less reserved. In the 1820s, Franz von Paula Gruituisen published a series of papers describing gigantic buildings, animal tracks, roads, cities, and temples he claimed to have discovered. However, these findings were overshadowed by the claims of Herschel’s son, John, a renowned astronomer, who was said to have developed a telescope powerful enough to observe lunar insects. Unfortunately, these revelations turned out to be part of one of history’s most notorious hoaxes.
7. Islamic Cosmological Beliefs
During the Golden Age of Islam, extraterrestrial life was a topic of much speculation among scholars. The renowned philosopher Avicenna crafted a story about a hero named Absal, who embarked on a journey to worlds beyond Earth. According to him, there are nine realms in the heavens, each inhabited by different beings.
The Moon is inhabited by swift-moving people with short trunks. The beings on Mercury have even shorter trunks and move at a slower pace. Venus, unsurprisingly, is ruled by a woman. The inhabitants are graceful, sophisticated, and carefree—quite the contrast to the brutish Martians. Martians are governed by a red king, and they have a brutal nature, delighting in killing and mutilating. The people of Jupiter are wise and kind-hearted, while Saturn’s inhabitants tend to be evil, though they can be remarkably good when they choose to be.
Unfortunately, we know nothing about the inhabitants of Uranus or Neptune, as those planets hadn’t been discovered yet. However, the Heaven of the Zodiacal Signs, or stars, is filled with cities. Even the Sun is said to have its own kingdom, inhabited by strikingly handsome, large-bodied individuals who yearn for things far from them—perhaps even something like air conditioning.
6. Cusa And Bruno
Nicholas of Cusa, also known as Nicholas Cusanus, is often referred to as 'the man who invented extraterrestrials.' While this isn’t entirely accurate (Avicenna’s tale of planetary exploration predates him by centuries), he was the first significant scholar in Christian Europe to discuss the concept. In 1439, he wrote, 'we will suppose that in every region there are inhabitants, differing in nature by rank and all owing their origin to God.'
Cusanus proposed that the beings in different worlds would reflect the nature of the worlds they inhabited. Those residing on the Sun would be 'bright and enlightened,' while those on the Moon would be 'lunatics.' He didn’t think highly of humans, suggesting they may be 'of an inferior type.' His ideas had little impact until his work was rediscovered in the 19th century, except for influencing one other individual: Giordano Bruno.
Giordano Bruno, born over 80 years after Cusanus's death, was burned at the stake in 1600 for heresy. Much of this was due to his manuscript On the Infinite Universe and Worlds, published in 1584, where he argued that the universe was infinite and teeming with alien life.
5. Jewish Theology
One well-known Jewish narrative not only asserts the existence of aliens but also specifies how many planets they inhabit: 18,000. This idea is based on a quote from the Talmud, which states, 'God flies through 18,000 worlds.'
However, Judaism also teaches that the entire universe was created for humanity. This raises the question of why God would populate other worlds with intelligent life if we are unable to interact with them. The answer lies in the belief that these worlds are meant for the most righteous and spiritual masters of humanity—Tzadiks—who will rule them once Earth becomes too restrictive for their spiritual growth. As such, interstellar travel may be necessary to bring about a messianic age of universal peace.
4. The Adventures of Lucian
Though a work of fiction, True History by the second-century satirist Lucian is the oldest surviving story of traveling to other worlds. In the narrative, Lucian and his companions set sail across the Atlantic, only to be swept up by a massive 550-kilometer-high (350-mile) water spout that takes them to the Moon. There, Lucian encounters Endymion, the Moon’s king, who rides on a giant vulture. Endymion asks Lucian and his group to assist in their battle against the Sun’s king, whose forces are mounted on giant ants.
A battle scene depicts the fantastical inhabitants of both the Moon and the Sun. On the Moon's side, there are giant birds with herb-covered feathers and wings made of lettuce. Archers ride fleas that weigh as much as a dozen elephants, supported by skirmishers who fly through the air using their shirts as sails. The Sun’s archers ride great gnats and have troops who hurl giant radishes, 'a wound from which was almost immediately fatal.' Their heavily armored soldiers use mushrooms as shields and asparagus as spears.
Though it’s often said that no one wins in war, this particular salad-fueled chaos concludes with the victory of the Moon's people. They negotiate a peace treaty that orders the Sun-dwellers to stay away. Lucian returns to Earth, where he continues his adventures within a 320-kilometer-long (200-mile) whale inhabited by intelligent sea creatures, who are even more terrifying than the creatures from space.
3. Emmanuel Swedenborg
You might remember Emmanuel Swedenborg for his strange visions of Hell. However, his spiritual communications didn’t only reveal knowledge of the underworld. They also shared information about the inhabitants of all the planets in the solar system—except Neptune and Uranus, which weren’t discovered until after his death, and which the spirits failed to mention.
Swedenborg believed that all planets and moons were inhabited by human-like beings. On the Moon, these creatures were child-sized, and their voices were as loud as thunder, a result of the massive lungs needed to draw in the Moon's thin atmosphere. In contrast, the Martians were telepathic, enabling them to communicate with angels.
In general, inhabitants from other planets are considered superior to humans. The people of Saturn are described as 'upright and modest,' and are believed to be closer to God. Those on Jupiter live in tight family units, where their primary focus is 'the education of their children.' They are free of jealousy, theft, and war, finding these human traits unbearable even to hear about.
2. Eastern Folktales
The oldest surviving Japanese folktale, 'The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,' dating back to the 10th century, tells the story of Princess Kaguya, who hails from a kingdom on the Moon. An elderly man discovers Kaguya as a tiny baby inside a bamboo stalk. The man and his wife raise her, only to learn that she is destined to return to her lunar city.
In East Asian folklore, it's not the princess but rather the animals that dominate the Moon's inhabitants. In both Japanese and Chinese traditions, a starving old man asks forest animals for food. The monkey offers nuts, the fox provides fish, but the rabbit, unable to offer anything else, sacrifices itself. It turns out the old man is actually a god, and he rewards the rabbit with 'eternal life on the Moon.'
Later, a girl who stole an immortality pill from her husband was sent to the Moon to join the rabbit. When the Apollo 11 crew heard this legend on their journey to the Moon, Michael Collins jokingly remarked, 'We’ll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl.'
1. Fontenelle’s Speculations
A Plurality Of Worlds is the most renowned work of French scientist Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle. Published in 1686, it is most famous for helping to popularize the Copernican theory that the Sun is at the center of the solar system. Additionally, it speculated about the existence of inhabitants on Venus.
Fontenelle theorized that since Venus is so close to the Sun, it is likely to be very hot. Consequently, he imagined its inhabitants would resemble the people from the hotter regions of Earth, particularly ‘the Moors of Granada,’ who were described as ‘a little black people, scorched with the Sun, witty, full of fire, very amorous, much inclined to music, and poetry, and ever inventing masks and tournaments in honor of their mistresses.’
Fontenelle believed that Earth would appear much larger to the Venusians than Venus appears to us. Thus, Earth would not be called the 'mother of love,' as such a name would be better suited to a small, brisk, airy planet, bright and shining like the goddess herself. Instead, that title would go to Earth's moon, prompting Fontenelle to reflect, 'How happy art thou to preside over the amorous activities of the inhabitants of Venus, who must be such masters of gallantry!'
Fontenelle also speculated about Mercury, suggesting that its inhabitants would be so intensely affected by the Sun's heat that they would be ‘absolutely mad.’ He imagined they would lack memory, much like many people of African descent, comparing them to 'most of the Negroes.'
