Pope Francis Has Died! The Vatican Has Over 50 Miles of Underground Archives Containing the World’s History

Pope Francis has died! However, not many people know that the Vatican has over 50 miles of underground archives containing the world’s history. Let that sink in… 50 miles. And this isn’t even a conspiracy theory.

The Vatican’s Secret Archives are real and located in one of the most famous religious and cultural places in the world—the Vatican. These archives stretch across 53 miles of shelving and include 35,000 volumes of catalogs. They hold documents that are over 1,200 years old.

The name “Secret Archives” adds to their mystery and makes people think of hidden secrets or dark stories. Because the indexes aren’t public and access is limited to certain scholars, many people imagine that the archives hold shocking or even strange things. Some even believe the Vatican is hiding aliens there! (Source)

But in truth, the archives are not actually meant to be “secret.” The word “secret” comes from a Latin word, secretum, which really means “private.” These archives were always meant to store the Pope’s official documents, letters, and important Church records.

Inside, you’ll also find some of the Church’s most valuable historical papers, with some dating back to the 700s. For a long time, not even religious scholars could read them. That changed in 1881 when Pope Leo XIII, a forward-thinking Pope, opened the archives to researchers. Since then, the documents have helped tell the story of both the Church and the wider world.

One of the most important documents in the Vatican’s Secret Archives changed the course of religious history. It’s the official paper that shows the Catholic Church kicking out Martin Luther. Luther was a German man who challenged the Church by writing his famous 95 Theses, which started the Protestant Reformation. In response, Pope Leo X wrote a statement called Decet Romanum Pontificem, officially excommunicating Luther. This allowed Luther to start his own church and created a major split in Christianity that still affects the world today.

Another fascinating document in the archives is called the Chinon Parchment. It records the trial of the Knights Templar, a Catholic military group that was accused of crimes like heresy during the Crusades. The parchment is huge—about the size of a dining table—and was lost for hundreds of years due to a filing error. It wasn’t rediscovered until 2001, hidden in a box with other papers. Once found, it was properly sorted and made available to researchers.

When the Vatican made the Chinon Parchment public in 2007, it revealed something surprising: in 1308, Pope Clement V had actually cleared the Knights Templar of heresy. This new information helped restore the group’s reputation, which had been damaged for centuries.

All these documents—and many more—are stored in a special place near the Vatican Library in Rome. The archives include regular stacks and reading rooms, but also an underground fireproof bunker to protect delicate materials. There’s even a school for clergy to study history, and because it’s the Vatican, there’s sacred art to enjoy as well.

Access to the archives isn’t open to everyone. Only carefully approved scholars are allowed in. Still, the Vatican has become a bit more open in recent years. In 2010, journalists were allowed to visit for the first time—partly due to public interest after Dan Brown’s book Angels and Demons. In 2012, the Vatican held a public exhibition for the archives’ 400th anniversary, showing off some of its most important documents.

In 2019, Pope Francis announced that the Vatican would open up its archives on Pope Pius XII. During an event honoring the 80th anniversary of Pius’s election, Francis said, “The Church is not afraid of history.”

What secrets do you think are hidden in the Vatican’s secret archives?

Throughout history, some people have had a deep knowledge of many subjects. One such person was a Russian man named Genrikh Mavrikiyevich Ludvig. He was very smart and skilled in ancient cultures, architecture, engineering, and old languages. Some people even compared him to Leonardo da Vinci. It’s said that Ludvig was able to access secret files from the Vatican and may have found information about ancient aliens.

Ludvig’s story became more widely known in 2011 when a Russian newspaper called Sovershenno Sekretno published an article about him. The writer described Ludvig as a large man with a bald head, a big forehead, and a beard. His eyes were intense and he often got into trouble with the Soviet government. In 1938, he was accused of being a Vatican spy and sent to a concentration camp.

The writer, who had been one of Ludvig’s students, remembered attending a lecture by him in the 1960s. At first, it seemed interesting, but then it became confusing as Ludvig talked about many different topics like language, history, plants, and science. The writer wasn’t sure if Ludvig was a genius or a mystic. However, he said meeting Ludvig changed his view of the world.

Ludvig claimed that during the 1920s, he was allowed to read secret documents in the Vatican Archives, a huge collection of very old records. These documents are usually hidden from the public for 75 years. He said he found strange texts about ancient codes, alchemy, and even stories about aliens and UFOs visiting Earth long ago. (Source)

According to Ludvig, some of these texts talked about aliens helping early civilizations like the Egyptians, Mayans, and Mesopotamians. He studied the Mayan symbols and believed they showed images of spaceships and astronauts. He even said there were signs of nuclear weapons being used in ancient times, like melted walls in Babylon.

Ludvig also had a deep interest in the Sumerians, one of the first known civilizations. He believed that they suddenly advanced around 4000 BC, learning to build cities, use irrigation, invent the wheel, and create writing. Their early writing was made up of picture-like symbols and dated back to around 3200 BC.

He also believed that the pyramids in Egypt were not just tombs, but tools for spiritual or cosmic communication. Ludvig thought Christian images of angels came from an earlier culture called the Etruscans.

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During World War II, even while he was a prisoner in the GULAG, Ludvig worked as an inventor and engineer. Between 1941 and 1943, he created 17 military inventions. Today, many UFO researchers and people who believe in ancient aliens know his name.

In 2016, leaked emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign showed that her advisor, John Podesta, had received messages about UFOs and extraterrestrial life. One of the emails came from astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who said that the Vatican was aware of alien life. He also spoke about the need to keep peace in space and prevent it from being used for war.

Despite these amazing claims, not everyone believes Ludvig’s story. There is not much solid evidence to prove he really saw the secret Vatican documents or discovered all this information.

Vatican’s involvement in UAPs & Alien life

In his other interview with James Landoli on “Engaging The Phenomenon,” Daniel Sheehan, who was a former Chief Council for the United States Jesuit order, revealed intriguing details about his conversations with the head of the Vatican archives regarding the Vatican’s knowledge of extraterrestrial life. Sheehan shed light on his involvement in a groundbreaking initiative to address the theological and philosophical implications of the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence.

During the interview, James raised the topic of David Grusch‘s claim that the Vatican possessed knowledge of extraterrestrial phenomena. Sheehan discussed his access to the classified files of the Project Blue Book, where he encountered photos of UFO crash retrievals and concrete evidence of non-human piloted vehicles.

He proposed the formation of a task force involving all 54 major religious denominations to address the issue from a theological perspective. However, at that time, there was insufficient consensus, and the proposal was declined. Sheehan is currently working through his New Paradigm Institute to organize a global summit conference involving world religious leaders to discuss the recent recovery of an extraterrestrial spacecraft.

“The United States government is in possession of biological evidence and has actually taken into custody alive an extraterrestrial person. They’re keeping this secret, interrogating the being, and distorting the information to justify massive expenditures on weapon development under the guise of a perceived threat.”

– Daniel Sheehan

Sheehan highlighted the Vatican’s acknowledgment of the possibility of extraterrestrial life. He referenced a formal statement issued by the Catholic Church on November 10, 2009, authorized by Pope Benedict. The statement, issued by Father Jose Gabriel Alfuz, a director of the Pontifical Observatory in Rome, recognized the increasing discovery of exoplanets and called for a global discussion on the philosophical and theological implications of the imminent discovery of extraterrestrial life.

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White Orb Watches Family BBQ Over Lakeland, Florida April 20, 2025, UFO UAP Sighting News.

Date of sighting: April 20, 2025

Location of sighting: Lakeland, Florida, USA

Source: Email Report at scwaring @ yahoo.com

 

Guys this just in. An eyewitness at a family BBQ were enjoying the day when someone pointed out a white orb in the sky above. Then others came and they noticed it stayed over them as if it were watching them and recording the humans reactions to what they were seeing. You see, aliens love knowledge, like humans like money, knowledge is everything to them. The smaller orb drones are sent out from a mother drone and months later gathered after the orbs have recorded information about anything and everything they saw. Orbs record not just visual things, but also mental things like human feelings, fears, prayers...and yes every thought you have if you are outside with no obstruction between you and the orb above. How do I know? Because I have summoned them, and so have thousands of others worldwide. It validates everything I just said. 

Scott C. Waring - Utah 

Eyewitness states: 

The object is still in the sky as of writing this, it doesn’t move from what we can tell, not even a little. My brother got out his binoculars and it looks circular in shape, almost like you can see through it, and had defined edges visible from the suns light. It was difficult to keep the binoculars steady enough to clearly make out what it is, but I feel like even if I could I couldn’t identify what it was. A high altitude jet flew fairly close to it at one point and it appears to me like the object is at a lower orbit than the jet was, that or it is a massive object. With the naked eye you can clearly tell it’s circular shape, but it doesn’t move with the wind.

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Mind-blowing New Pyramid In Antarctica And More, Google Earth Map, UFO UAP Sighting News.

Date of discovery: April 20, 2025

Location of discovery: Antarctica

Source: Me using Google Earth

Coordinates: Under my Youtube video in the description. 

 

Guys I spent a few hours outside pulling weeds, gardening and making sure a chicken hawk didn't grab my tortoise in my yard, but I hope all of you had a great Easter, loved spending mine this way. 

 

I found two newer discoveries in Antarctica that I have not seen before and that nobody else has reported on. The shadow is an old discovery of mine, but I believe it is that of a cloaked alien...a very tall one mind you. Cloaking might hide the object from view, however physics says it will still throw a shadow. Also near it today I found a pyramid and a barrel structure. The pyramid structure is proof of ancient aliens and is about 110 yards along one side and about 85 meters tall. Thats about half the size of the great pyramid in Egypt. The barrel structure almost looks like the old US Marine barracks made of steel, but it might just be an entrance to something deeper, like an alien base. It's hard to say but I sure would love a ground level view of all these three discoveries. 

Scott C. Waring

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Mars Has the Remnants of a Lopsided Magnetic Field

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

Searching for Life on Mars in the Snow and Ice

{ https://www.universetoday.com/ }

White UFO Over Wantagh, NY, USA April 17, 2025, UAP Drone Sighting News. VIDEO!

Location of sighting: Wantagh, New York USA

Date of sighting: April 17, 2025

Credit: NUFORC 

 

This just in, a white long UFO was seen passing over New York this week. The object was said by the eyewitness to look like a dumbbell shape, but in this close up photo...I have to say I have never seen anything like it. The object looks almost organic and its long and white...and reminds me of some astronauts descriptions of UFOs. This looks real, not ai for sure, but...is it alive or is it a craft? Hard to say without more focused video of it moving. 

Scott C. Waring - Utah

 

Eyewitness states: 

Traveling very slowly, almost floating. Took a picture and a video to max zoom from an iPhone. Looking through binoculars you can see it had a dumbbell shape to it.

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

UFOs or Starlink? 🧐 Jackson, Mississippi April 17, 2025, UAP Sighting News.

Date of sighting: April 17, 2025

Location of sighting: Jackson, Mississippi, USA

Source: NUFORC

 

Now this is odd. These lights almost look like Starlink satellites and yet, they don't seem to move much in the sky. Now a satellite will travel in orbit at 17,000 miles per hour, they orbit the Earth in 90 minutes, so they should be really moving, but they are not and this has me concerned. It may be that these are UFO, yes you heard me correctly, UFOs that are trying to disguise themselves as satellites. Aliens pride themselves on being more intelligent than humans. They have attitude and it looks like this time...they were wrong and we caught them red handed. They look alien to me. 

Scott C. Waring - Utah

 

Eyewitness states: 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

NASA discovery linked to Jesus' crucifixion 'reveals exact day Christ died'

• READ MORE: Firsthand evidence of Jesus' crucifixion found in manuscript

By STACY LIBERATORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

A discovery by NASA may confirm the Biblical account of Jesus' crucifixion, according to researchers from Oxford University.

The Bible states that the sun turning into darkness and the moon into blood, which some scholars believe referenced events following Christ's death.

NASA's models, which trace the positions of the Earth, moon, and sun through history, show a lunar eclipse occurred on Friday, April 3, 33AD — the year  traditionally linked to Jesus' death. 

The cosmic event would have been visible in Jerusalem shortly after sunset, and the position of the moon would have given it a reddish hue. 

The Biblical historians believe the lunar eclipse identified by NASA was the same written about in the Bible.

The NASA discovery was made in the 1990s, but is now going viral on TikTok as today is known among Christians as the day Jesus was crucified. 

'Christian texts mention that the Moon turned to blood after Jesus's crucifixion—potentially referring to a lunar eclipse, during which the Moon takes on a reddish hue,' NASA noted.

The American space agency added that scholars narrowed narrowed down a possible date of the crucifixion to Friday, April 3, 33AD, because a lunar eclipse o

Christians across the world are celebrating Good Friday to commemorate the crucifixion and death of Jesus. A discovery by NASA has provided proof of accounts of Jesus' death in the Bible

The Bible verse that discusses the moon appears in Acts 2:20, which states: 'The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.' 

Scriptures details how the apostle, Peter, shared the words 50 days after the crucifixion, leading some experts to believe he was recalling events witnessed during Jesus's death.

However, many historians argue that the passage was meant to prophesize the second coming of Jesus.

That is because Peter was quoting from Joel 2:28–31, a passage that speaks of cosmic signs and spiritual awakening: 'The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.'

Because the Book of Joel was written centuries before the crucifixion, many scholars believe Peter was explaining how the crucifixion was previously prophesied by Joel. 

Colin Humphreys and W. Graeme Waddington, biblical scholars from the University of Oxford used NASA's findings, along with textual references of the crucifixion to argue that the moon did in fact to red blood following Jesus' death.

They theorized that Peter was not giving a prophecy about the coming of Jesus, but was telling the crowd that Joel's prophecy was filled. 

NASA's astronomical models, which can track the positions of the Earth, moon and sun throughout history, revealed that a lunar eclipse occurred on Friday, April 3, 33AD

According to the Gospels, darkness fell over the land from noon to 3pm while Jesus hung on the cross, which the researchers said closely aligns with the imagery described in Joel's prophecy. 

Humphreys and Waddington argued that Peter's use of the phrase 'the sun shall be turned into darkness' referenced Matthew 27:45: 'From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land.'

The researchers also pointed to lesser-known texts in the New Testament apocrypha, which contains writings about Jesus' life, such as his infancy, divine nature, and relationships with his family and disciples. 

The New Testament apocrypha, however, was not included in the traditional biblical canon because it was not considered divinely inspired.

However, Humphreys and Waddington highlighted a verse, the so-called Report of Pilate, as further evidence of unusual celestial events during the crucifixion.

'At his crucifixion the sun was darkened; the stars appeared and in all the world people lighted lamps from the sixth hour till evening; the moon appeared like blood,' the verse reads.

Thus, they said, provides more evidence that Jesus died on the day of the ancient lunar eclipse. 

Christians across the world are celebrating Good Friday to commemorate the crucifixion and death of Jesus.

Good Friday is always two days before Easter Sunday, which is determined by the first full moon after the first day of spring, and then it is the first Sunday following that full moon.

The method stems from early Christian efforts to align the holiday with Jewish Passover and astronomical events. 

Jesus is believed to have been crucified around Passover, which is based on the Hebrew lunar calendar.

According to the Gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the Sunday following Passover.

Early Christians wanted Easter to reflect this timing, so they sought a system that would keep Easter connected to Passover and Jesus' resurrection. 

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• READ MORE: Scientists develop photos from 50-year-old Nessie camera trap

By MICHAEL HAVIS FOR MAILONLINE

Jaw-dropping footage captures the moment two loved-up 'Nessies' emerge from the depths of their watery abode in Scotland. 

Or so claims monster hunter, Eoin O'Faodhagain, who spotted the two 'captivating' shapes while watching the famous Loch Ness via webcam.

'On close examination of the footage, there are actually two creatures breaking the surface,' he said. 

'The first disturbance that rose up out of the water was of a smaller height, and also not as long as the second. 

'The second was longer and higher, out of the water by at least four feet, with a distinct hump at the rear, and a smaller one at the front. 

'I believe the images represent two Loch Ness monsters.' 

In Eoin's footage, two mysterious shapes can be seen surfacing in the distance, one after the other, separated by a short expanse of water. 

In subsequent clips, captured a few minutes later, one shape resurfaces nearby and then moves steadily south, against the flow of the water. 

In Eoin's footage, the two mysterious shapes can be seen surfacing in the distance, one after the other, separated by a short expanse of water

The existence of Scotland's legendary Loch Ness Monster has been hotly-debated for nearly a century. Affectionately referred to as Nessie, the large marine creature is said to inhabit the freshwater loch south of Inverness - and be a species as yet unknown to science

Mr O'Faodhagain, a veteran Nessie hunter, believes the footage could show a courtship display. 

He said: 'It is the behaviour of both objects that make this sighting intriguing.

'What is going on? Could it be something to do with breeding – a male Nessie showing off to a female Nessie to attract her attention? 

'Or is it just feeding behaviour? But if it was this, I would imagine this behaviour would be visible all the time on the surface.' 

He added: 'It was captivating observing these three examples of unexplained phenomena in Loch Ness.' 

The sighting was recorded using a webcam maintained by Visit Inverness Loch Ness (VILN) at Shoreland Lodges, near Fort Augustus at the loch's southern end. 

It unfolded over the span of several minutes last Saturday, April 12. 

Given the distance from the camera, Eoin estimates that the first creature was 10 to 12 feet long, while the second was 15 to 18 feet long. 

Mr O'Faodhagain, a veteran Nessie hunter, believes the footage could show a courtship display or a 'mating dance' - an act preceding sexual intercourse 

Famously, the legendary marine creature is said to inhabit the freshwater loch southwest of Inverness

'There are no known creatures in Loch Ness that come near those dimensions,' he said. 

'It is unexplained what these live creatures are – you have to label them Nessies.' 

Mr O'Faodhagain, 60, often logs on to watch the water from his home in County Donegal, Ireland. 

Over the years, he's racked up multiple entries in the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register.

The earliest report of a monster in Loch Ness is AD 565, but 'Nessie' became a global phenomenon in 1934 upon the publication of Surgeon's Photograph, which purported to show the beast (although doubts surrounding the snap's authenticity remain).

In the near-century since, many visitors have taken blurry photographs of what they think to be the beast in the 23-mile loch. 

The VILN webcams can be watched live online at visitinvernesslochness.com.

What IS the Loch Ness Monster?

Rumours of a strange creature living in the waters of Loch Ness have abounded over the decades, yet scant evidence has been found to back up these claims.

One of the first sightings, believed to have fuelled modern Nessie fever, came in May 2, 1933.  

On this date the Inverness Courier carried a story about a local couple who claim to have seen 'an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface'.

Another famous claimed sighting is a photograph taken in 1934 by Colonel Robert Kenneth Wilson.

It was later exposed as a hoax by one of the participants, Chris Spurling, who, on his deathbed, revealed that the pictures were staged.

Other sightings James Gray's picture from 2001 when he and friend Peter Levings were out fishing on the Loch, while namesake Hugh Gray's blurred photo of what appears to be a large sea creature was published in the Daily Express in 1933.

Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London physician, captured arguably the most famous image of the Loch Ness Monster. The surgeon’s photograph was published in the Daily Mail on April 21, 1934 - however it was later proven to be a fake 

The first reported sighting of the monster is said to have been made in AD565 by the Irish missionary St Columba when he came across a giant beast in the River Ness.

But no one has ever come up with a satisfactory explanation for the sightings - although in 2019, 'Nessie expert' Steve Feltham, who has spent 24 years watching the Loch, said he thought it was actually a giant Wels Catfish, native to waters near the Baltic and Caspian seas in Europe.

An online register lists more than 1,000 total Nessie sightings, created by Mr Campbell, the man behind the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club and is available at www.lochnesssightings.com. 

So what could explain these mysterious sightings? 

Many Nessie witnesses have mentioned large, crocodile-like scutes sitting atop the spine of the creature, leading some to believe an escaped amphibian may be to blame.

Native fish sturgeons can also weigh several hundred pounds and have ridged backs, which make them look almost reptilian.

Some believe Nessie is a long-necked plesiosaur - like an elasmosaur - that survived somehow when all the other dinosaurs were wiped out.

Others say the sightings are down to Scottish pines dying and flopping into the loch, before quickly becoming water-logged and sinking.

While submerged, botanical chemicals start trapping tiny bubbles of air.

Eventually, enough of these are gathered to propel the log upward as deep pressures begin altering its shape, giving the appearance of an animal coming up for air.

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Scientists now say MILLIONS of planets could be teeming with life - as a water world is found to have the right conditions

• READ MORE: Scientists may have found aliens…but should we contact them?

By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE 

Scientists have stunned the world with the news that life likely does exist on a faraway planet. 

K2-18b – which is more than twice as big as Earth and 120 light-years away – sits within the habitable zone of its star in the Leo constellation.

According to a new University of Cambridge study, its atmosphere contains huge quantities of chemicals, which on Earth are only made by living organisms. 

Planet K2-18b is a suspected a 'hycean' world – a rocky planet with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and vast oceans of water.

It's probable that K2-18b's oceans are filled with something like phytoplankton – tiny organisms that feed on the energy from the nearby star.

But what's exciting is that K2-18b is very unlikely to be a one-off in the universe – meaning many others that are similar likely exist too. 

Peter Vickers, a philosophy of science professor at Durham University, said there are likely 'millions' of planets outside our galaxy hosting some kind of lifeforms.  

'If it does turn out that K2-18b has life, then it is virtually guaranteed that there are million more exoplanets harbouring extraterrestrial life,' he told MailOnline. 

Planet K2-18b is a suspected a 'hycean' world - a rocky planet with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and vast oceans of water

(artist's impression)

But what's exciting is that K2-18b is very unlikely to be a one-off in the universe - meaning many others like it likely exist 

Professor Vickers added: 'Hundreds of millions is pretty safe estimate and not overblown.' 

Planet K2-18b is in the same galaxy as us – the Milky Way – but there are billions to trillions of estimated galaxies in the universe. 

The academic stressed that we've only sampled a 'tiny, tiny percentage of planets' in our galaxy alone, using various space and Earth-based telescopes. 

So the universe as a whole surely has many more planets waiting to be found that have conditions right for life to thrive. 

'It would be like dipping a cup at random in an ocean and getting a fish, and then asking the question whether there are probably lots of other fish in the ocean, he said.

And if you think biological activity does exist out there in the vast reaches of space, the likelihood is that experts in the field would agree with you. 

A survey by Professor Vickers and colleagues conducted last year suggests this is the general consensus among astrobiologists (scientists who study extraterrestrial life). 

Out of 521 astrobiologists who responded, 86.6 per cent agreed or strongly agreed it’s likely that extraterrestrial life (of at least a basic kind) exists somewhere in the universe, while less than 2 per cent disagreed and 12 per cent were neutral. 

On Earth, DMS and DMDS are only produced by living organisms - mostly microbial life such as marine phytoplankton (like the ones pictured). Life on K2-18b could be similar

No life beyond Earth has ever been found and there is no evidence that alien life has ever visited our planet. But this may be due to extraterrestrial life being too scared of 'dangerous' and 'violent' humans

(artist's impression of the typical 'alien' concept)

What's more, 88.4 per cent of non-astrobiologists agreed – showing astrobiologists aren't biased toward believing in extraterrestrial life compared with other scientists. 

'So, based on this, we might say that there’s a solid consensus that extraterrestrial life, of some form, exists somewhere out there,' said Professor Vickers and colleagues in a piece for The Conversation. 

British science writer and biologist Matthew Ridley believes it would be 'fairly bizarre' if Earth was the only planet in the universe with life on it. 

'Given the scale of the universe, it would be more surprising if life did not exist in it,' he says in today's Daily Mail. 

'If [life] started billions of years earlier on other planets, then it is probable that it has had time to generate not just microbes and algae, but technology-generating beings too, and probably super-intelligent ones.' 

However, Viscount Ridley said perhaps 'we should keep quiet and not let the aliens know we exist' in case our planet is destroyed or conquered. 

Mark Buchanan, a physicist and science writer, also thinks there are many more exoplanets like K2-18b that harbor similar lifeforms. 

'It's only in the past decade or so that our telescopes have become powerful enough to find and examine planets orbiting other stars,' Buchanan told MailOnline. 

Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers identified huge quantities of chemicals only made by living organisms on Earth. They have picked up the chemical fingerprints of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) - molecules that are primarily produced by microbial life such as marine phytoplankton

'Plausible estimates put the number of potentially life supporting planets in the hundreds of millions or more. 

'The universe really is a big place and we're just beginning to explore what is out there.' 

Buchanan called the new announcement from University of Cambridge scientists a 'fascinating finding' as it suggests there's 'more advanced life forms elsewhere'. 

The new findings provide the 'strongest hint yet' of biological activity outside our solar system according to the researchers – although they are yet to be definitively confirmed. 

What have scientists found at Planet K2-18b?

Investigations into planet K2-18b are being led by Dr Nikku Madhusudhan, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge, who called it a 'hycean' world – a rocky planet with a hydrogen-rich atmosphere and oceans of water.

Planet K2-18b – more than eight times the mass of Earth and over twice as big – was discovered 10 years ago, but it was only in 2019 that the presence of water vapour in K2-18b's atmosphere was reported.

Then, in 2023, the James Webb telescope detected carbon dioxide and methane in its atmosphere, as well as a shortage of ammonia – a 'very profound' finding because it indicates there's a water ocean underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere.

Arguably even more exciting, however, is the discovery of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) in the planet's atmosphere. 

Earlier observations of K2-18b identified methane and carbon dioxide in its atmosphere. This was the first time that carbon-based molecules were discovered in the atmosphere of an exoplanet in the habitable zone (a planet outside our solar system that's at just the right distance from its star for life to realistically proliferate) 

On Earth, DMS and DMDS are only produced by life, primarily microbial life such as marine phytoplankton – suggesting a similar form of life on the distant planet.

In fact, scientists have been unable to think of any natural geological or chemical process that could create DMS without living organisms. 

What's more, concentrations of DMS and DMDS in K2-18b’s atmosphere are estimated to be thousands of times stronger – more than 10 parts per million by volume compared with one part per billion on Earth – conjuring a scenario of an ocean world teeming with life. 

However, the team 'remain cautious' and want to obtain more data before officially announcing that life has been found on another world.

The observations have reached the ‘three-sigma’ level of statistical significance – meaning there is a 0.3 per cent probability that they occurred by chance. 

To reach the accepted classification for scientific discovery, the observations would have to cross the five-sigma threshold, meaning there would be below a 0.00006 per cent probability they occurred by chance. 

Between 16 and 24 hours of follow-up observation time with JWST may help them reach the all-important five-sigma significance. 

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Life on Mars WAS possible! Scientists say carbon residue in the Red Planet's rocks show it was habitable billions of years ago

• READ MORE:  Scientists are baffled after discovering bizarre rock on Mars

By XANTHA LEATHAM, EXECUTIVE SCIENCE EDITOR

It’s one of the most profound questions in science – did life ever exist on Mars?

Now, experts have unearthed evidence that the Red Planet was once habitable.

Scientists have found carbon residue in Martian rocks, indicating that an ancient carbon cycle existed.

And it means the Red Planet was likely once warm enough to sustain life.

Researchers have long believed that, billions of years ago, Mars had a thick, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere with liquid water on its surface.

This carbon dioxide and water should have reacted with rocks to create carbonate minerals.

However, rover missions and analysis from satellites so far haven’t detected the amounts of carbonate on the planet’s surface predicted by this theory.

But that’s all just changed, thanks to data collected by NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover.

The NASA Curiosity rover (pictured) found large deposits of a carbon-rich mineral on Mars. Here, it can be seen exploring the Red Planet's surface

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover sees its tracks receding into the distance at the 'Ubajara' site. This site is where the rover made the discovery of siderite, a mineral that may help explain the fate of the planet’s thicker ancient atmosphere

Information recovered from three drill sites reveals the presence of siderite, an iron carbonate mineral.

It was picked up within the sulfate-rich rocky layers of Mount Sharp in Mars’ Gale Crater.

‘The discovery of abundant siderite in Gale Crater represents both a surprising and important breakthrough in our understanding of the geologic and atmospheric evolution of Mars,’ said Benjamin Tutolo, associate professor at the University of Calgary and lead author of the paper.

To study the Red Planet’s chemical and mineral makeup, Curiosity drills three to four centimetres down into the subsurface then drops the powdered rock samples into its CheMin instrument, which uses X-ray diffraction to analyse rocks and soil.

‘Drilling through the layered Martian surface is like going through a history book,’ said Thomas Bristow, research scientist at NASA Ames and coauthor of the paper.

‘Just a few centimetres down gives us a good idea of the minerals that formed at or close to the surface around 3.5 billion years ago.’

The discovery of carbonate suggests that the atmosphere contained enough carbon dioxide to support liquid water existing on the planet’s surface.

Carbon is vital for life on Earth because it's the fundamental building block of all living organisms, forming the basis of their molecules, including DNA, proteins, and carbohydrates.

NASA's Curiosity rover has collected 42 powderised rock samples with the drill on the end of its robotic arm 

Mars is called the Red Planet primarily due to the presence of iron oxide, or rust, on its surface. Experts say the new findings suggest it was likely once warm enough to sustain life

It also regulates the planet's temperature. 

As the atmosphere thinned – which is thought to have happened around 4 billion years ago - the carbon dioxide transformed into rock form.

‘The abundance of highly soluble salts in these rocks and similar deposits mapped over much of Mars has been used as evidence of the ‘great drying’ of Mars during its dramatic shift from a warm and wet early Mars to its current, cold and dry state,’ Dr Tutolo added.

‘It tells us that the planet was habitable and that the models for habitability are correct.

‘The broader implications are the planet was habitable up until this time, but then, as the CO2 that had been warming the planet started to precipitate as siderite, it likely impacted Mars’ ability to stay warm.’

He said it’s clear that small changes in atmospheric CO2 can lead to huge changes in the ability of the planet to harbour life.

‘The most remarkable thing about Earth is that it’s habitable and it has been for at least four billion years,’ he added.

‘Something happened to Mars that didn’t happen to Earth.’

NASA’s Curiosity rover landed on Mars on August 5, 2012, and has travelled more than 20 miles (34 kilometres) on the Martian surface. 

The findings were published in the journal Science.  

THE NASA MARS CURIOSITY ROVER LAUNCHED IN 2011 AND HAS IMPROVED OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE RED PLANET

The Mars Curiosity rover was initially launched from Cape Canaveral, an American Air Force station in Florida on November 26, 2011. 

After embarking on a 350 million mile (560 million km) journey, the £1.8 billion ($2.5 billion) research vehicle touched down only 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away from the earmarked landing spot.

After a successful landing on August 5th, 2012, the rover has travelled about 11 miles (18 km). 

It launched on the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft and the rover constituted 23 per cent of the mass of the total mission. 

With 80 kg (180 lb) of scientific instruments on board, the rover weighs a total of 899 kg (1,982 lb) and is powered by a plutonium fuel source. 

The rover is 2.9 metres (9.5 ft) long by 2.7 metres (8.9 ft) wide by 2.2 metres (7.2 ft) in height. 

The Mars curiosity rover was initially intended to be a two-year mission to gather information to help answer if the planet could support life, has liquid water, study the climate and the geology of Mars an has since been active for more than 3,700 sols

The rover was initially intended to be a two-year mission to gather information to help answer if the planet could support life, has liquid water, study the climate and the geology of Mars.  

Due to its success, the mission has been extended indefinitely and has now been active for over 3,700 sols.

The rover has several scientific instruments on board, including the mastcam which consists of two cameras and can take high-resolution images and videos in real colour. 

So far on the journey of the car-sized robot it has encountered an ancient streambed where liquid water used to flow, not long after it also discovered that billions of years ago, a nearby area known as Yellowknife Bay was part of a lake that could have supported microbial life.

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• READ MORE: Secret CIA files claim Ark of the Covenant has been found

By CHRIS MELORE, ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

The Trump Administration quietly revealed it has futuristic technologies that literally bend time during a speech on 'the golden age of American innovation.'

The director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Michael Kratsios, declared that the US currently has the ability to 'manipulate time and space' and 'leave distance annihilated.'

Kratsios made the bold statement on Monday during the Endless Frontiers Retreat, a scientific conference in Texas focused on promoting US technological innovations to maintain global competitiveness. 

The rest of the director's speech touched on American breakthroughs of the past and undoing Biden-era policies that the Trump Administration claims stifled innovation - adding that the regulatory process on new tech has been a burden since the 1970s.

Kratsios actually referenced this again at the end of his speech, saying that Americans will soon have the choice to 'craft new technologies and give themselves to scientific discoveries that will bend time and space.'

Kratsios did not clarify his points, but they may have been a hyperbolic reference to recent breakthroughs in AI and quantum computing.

Currently, there is no device publicly known that can literally 'manipulate time and space' or make distance irrelevant.

President Donald Trump recently lauded the capabilities of the new 6th generation F-47 fighter jet on March 21. Trump also made reference to a mysterious secret weapon on April 9

President Donald Trump has not been shy about its focus on Earth-shattering innovations, especially when it comes to space and technology.

During his first term in 2019, President Trump created a new branch of the military, the US Space Force, with the mission 'to secure our nation's interests in, from, and to space.'

The White House also has a very public relationship with Elon Musk, whose commercial spaceflight company SpaceX has become a key player in NASA's ongoing missions and has its sights set on delivering astronauts to Mars within the next five years.

However, the comments that the US already has the ability to manipulate time and space stoked the flames of government conspiracy theorists online. 

'Did he just say the quiet bit out loud?' one person on X asked.

'Is this the US secret weapon Trump was talking about?' another person asked, referencing a cryptic statement by President Trump on April 9.

'We have a weapon that no one has a clue what it is. And this is the most powerful weapon in the world, which is more powerful than anyone even close,' Trump claimed.

DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House for comment.

Michael Kratsios stoked wild speculation online after he said that the US currently has the ability to 'manipulate time and space' and 'leave distance annihilated'

Kratsios added that Americans are still seeking to explore 'endless frontiers' and that the country will soon have the technological inventions on hand to reach them.

'Our technologies, and what we do with them, will be the tools with which we will make the destiny of our country manifest in this century,' Kratsios said.

The director noted, however, that the US would first need to safeguard US intellectual property from nations like China and also keep American companies from exporting these innovations overseas.

The speech by Trump's science policy director is just the latest in a growing pile of 'evidence' some say may prove there's more going on in Washington and in the US military than the public knows about.

Recently, scientists told DailyMail.com that time travel is possible - and people have already done it.

In 1915, Albert Einstein presented his theory of general relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin and proved that time travel is possible. 

As bizarre as this situation sounds, Einstein's theories show that this type of time travel is not only possible but extremely common.

Dr Alasdair Richmond, a philosopher and time travel expert from the University of Edinburgh, told DailyMail.com: 'Einstein teaches us that how fast time passes in your surroundings varies with your velocity.'

Essentially, this means the faster you travel, the slower you experience time. 

So, if you're on a plane or train, you will be experiencing time slower than anyone standing still and experiments have shown this is true.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station travel around the Earth at speeds close to 17,500 mph, fast enough to experience slight time travel.

For example, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has spent 520 days on the station and, as a result, has aged a little bit slower than his identical twin, Mark Kelly, who stayed back on Earth.

If Kratsios was referring to some sort of faster-than-light travel (also known as warp speed), well, scientists have recently proven that this was possible too.

According to NASA, time travel involves moving through time faster than one second per second. In Interstellar (pictured) this is done by getting close to a black hole but, in reality, the same can be achieved just by getting on a plane

A 2024 study published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, suggested that real-life warp drive is not just a far-fetched concept of science-fiction after all.

Researchers from the University of Alabama and the Applied Physics Laboratory believe warp speed could be possible by bending the rules of physics using Einstein's theory of general relativity.

They proposed creating a 'warp bubble' around a spaceship using a shell of regular matter, like dense particles or dark matter, to compress spacetime in front of the ship and expand it behind.

This bubble would let the ship travel faster than light without breaking the laws of physics, and crucially, it doesn't need exotic 'negative energy' that past theories required.

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Mysterious 'portal' discovered on Mars by NASA that could lead to new world of alien life

• READ MORE: Harvard scientist says Mars was home to a civilization wiped out in a nuclear war

By CHRIS MELORE, ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

NASA has admitted that an over 300-foot-wide hole in the surface of Mars could be a 'portal' leading to an underground world of alien life.

The American space agency shared the shocking image of a massive opening in the Martian landscape on Sunday for its Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Rather than leave people with a mystery, NASA speculated that the giant hole appears to lead to a mysterious 'lower level' that may support life.

'Holes such as this are of particular interest because they might be portals to lower levels that extend into expansive underground caves,' NASA researchers said.

'If so, these naturally occurring tunnels are relatively protected from the harsh surface of Mars, making them relatively good candidates to contain Martian life,' they added.

It's quite a statement by NASA, which has consistently tried to manage the public's expectations of finding extraterrestrial life both on other planets and here on Earth.

So far, the focus has been on microbial life that may be hiding in frozen oceans on Earth's neighboring planets and moons.

However, researchers noted that there could be 'expansive underground caves' on the other side of this hole, adding that this area could soon become a major target of future astronauts landing on Mars.

NASA released an image of a massive hole in the surface of Mars on April 13 as part of the agency's Astronomy Picture of the Day series

NASA pointed out that this image, originally taken in 2017 by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, actually shows several holes in the planet's surface.

'There are numerous holes pictured in this Swiss cheese-like landscape, with all-but-one of them showing a dusty, dark, Martian terrain beneath evaporating, light, carbon dioxide ice,' the researchers wrote.

That most noticeable ditch is the perfectly rounded hole in the upper-right portion of the satellite photo - a giant cavity spanning roughly 328 feet.

Making the discovery even more mysterious is the fact that this hole also has a circular crater surrounding it.

As for what caused it, the NASA team speculated that it may have been created by a meteor impact, but the bigger question now is what's sitting at the other end of this pit.

'These pits are therefore also prime targets for possible future spacecraft, robots, and even human interplanetary explorers,' NASA added.

Although scientists believe Mars was once more Earth-like billions of years ago, the best hope of finding signs of life today rests in NASA's rovers, satellites, and future astronauts discovering underground caves or lava tubes in the long-dead Martian surface.

Since Mars now lacks a strong magnetic field and thick atmosphere, its surface is constantly bombarded by high levels of cosmic and solar radiation, which can be deadly to life as we know it.

Mars is believed to have several similar holes that may be craters from meteor impacts, potentially leading a vast system of underground caves and lava tubes

The USGS Astrogeology Science Center has mapped hundreds of possible sites that experts believe could be entry points to subterranean caves on Mars

However, life may have been able to survive below the soil thanks to the natural shielding of these caves and tubes - meaning astronauts might be able to find evidence or even fossils of living organisms here.

America's experts on underground mysteries and seismic activity - the US Geological Survey (USGS) - were even brought in to find these caves.

In 2019, the USGS Astrogeology Science Center revealed a stunning map detailing over 1,000 candidates that their experts believe could be cave entrances scattered throughout the surface of Mars.

Unfortunately, USGS noted that their review used data coming in from probes flying 250 miles above the Martian surface. 

Glen Cushing, a space scientist from the USGS Astrogeology Science Center, said: 'It is impossible to see how far any of them extend beneath the surface.'

'Not knowing which instances are caves and which are merely alcoves with modest lateral extent, we are careful to express that these are 'candidate' cave entrances,' he added in the 2019 release.

Other space missions, including the European Space Agency's Mars Express, have also found evidence of ancient lava tubes beneath the planet's dormant volcanoes.

However, this newly released photo makes it undeniably clear that there's at least one hole on Mars which leads to an unknown subterranean layer.

The soonest human astronauts may be able to see this enormous hole for themselves could be in 2028.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk recently appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, where he rapidly accelerated the timeline for people arriving on the Red Planet.

Previously, the goal was to land the first astronauts on Mars by 2030 at the earliest. 

Musk said that SpaceX's 'default plan' was to 'launch several Starships to Mars at the end of next year.'

These are the same type of space vehicles SpaceX has been testing, with some of the recent tests ending in a fiery explosion. 

These missions would also have no crews and would see if the vehicles could successfully land on the Red Planet. Musk added that he's hoping his company will launch a total of five of these remote-controlled starships to Mars in 2026.

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Scientists have found the origin of WATER on Earth - and say it didn't come from asteroids after all

• READ MORE: Scientists baffled after discovering a unique asteroid-comet hybrid

By WILIAM HUNTER

With an abundant supply of liquid water, Earth is one of the few places in the universe where life can develop and flourish.

But scientists have long wondered where exactly all of our life-giving water came from in the first place.

Finally, scientists from the University of Oxford have the answer - and say that, contrary to popular belief, Earth's water did not come from asteroids after all.

Instead, the researchers believe that the ingredients for the water in our oceans and rivers were actually part of Earth from the very beginning.

In their study, the team analysed a rare asteroid made of a material very similar to the rocky debris which came together to make Earth.

Using a powerful beam of X-rays, the scientists found that these materials were 'incredibly rich' in hydrogen, which forms water when combined with oxygen.

Co-author Tom Barrett, a PhD student at the University of Oxford, told MailOnline: 'The big conclusion of this study is that hydrogen, and by extension the ingredients for water, were incorporated into Earth by its primary building blocks, making it an inevitable consequence of our planet’s formation. 

'This may mean that water on the surface of planets is not as unlikely as previously thought.'

Scientists say they have finally solved the puzzle of where Earth's water came from, and they say it wasn't delivered by asteroids

(stock image)

To explain how life was able to develop on Earth, and whether it could exist on other planets, scientists first need to figure out how liquid water came to exist.

We know that the water on Earth was formed by the combination of hydrogen and oxygen, so the debate has often centred on how these elements came to Earth.

Many believed that the rocks which came together to make the Earth 4.55 billion years ago were too poor in hydrogen to explain all the water we see on the planet today.

It was therefore suggested that water might come from space rocks rich in hydrogen or covered with ice from elsewhere in the universe which hit the Earth 100 million years ago.

Since we can't see what the early Earth was like directly, the best way to test this theory is to look for meteorites that have been drifting through space since the planet formed.

In their new study, published in the journal Icarus, researchers studied a meteorite dubbed LAR 12252 which had been found in Antarctica.

LAR 12252 is a rare type of meteorite called an 'enstatite chondrite' which has a composition similar to that of the early Earth.

A French research team had previously shown that this rock contained hydrogen hidden inside tiny spherical structures called chondrules.

The researchers analysed a rare meteorite found in Antarctica (pictured) which has the same composition as the early Earth. Their study revealed that this space rock was much richer in hydrogen, one of the ingredients of water, than expected 

But the way in which their study was conducted meant it wasn't clear whether this hydrogen was an original 'intrinsic' part of the rock or whether it was contamination from Earth.

To learn more Dr Barrett and his co-authors used a technique called X-Ray Absorption Near Edge Structure spectroscopy.

This works by shining a very powerful X-ray beam onto the material and looking at each atom absorbs energy to work out what element it is and what kind of chemical it is part of.

When the researchers shone the X-ray on the edges of the chondrules, where water had been found before, they found that these areas were extremely rich in a chemical called hydrogen sulphide.

Since this rock is so similar to the composition of the Earth when it formed, this suggests that the planet may have already had enough hydrogen for liquid water to form.

Dr Bryson says: 'Our work suggests that water did not need to be delivered from asteroids.

'The material that created Earth likely contained enough hydrogen, in the form of hydrogen sulphide, to explain the entire water budget of Earth.'

Additionally, the location of the hydrogen-rich chemicals in the meteorite is a strong sign that their findings are accurate.

Using a powerful beam of X-rays the researchers found that some parts of the rock were exceptionally rich in hydrogen sulphide. This means that the early Earth might have had all the hydrogen it needed right from the start 

Since this type of meteorite is such a good match for the building blocks of Earth, the researchers believe that there was no need for asteroids to deliver water to the planet since there was already enough hydrogen here 

While the material around the spherical chondrules was rich in hydrogen sulphide, parts of the meteorite which had signs of contamination such as cracks or rust had none.

This tells the researchers that the hydrogen in the meteorite must have been part of its structure before it arrived on Earth.

Co-author Dr James Bryson, associate professor of mineralogy at the University of Oxford, told MailOnline: 'We are pretty confident that the meteorites we have measured are a good repression of Earth's building blocks.

This is because the meteorite contains the same ratio of stable isotopes, types of elements, as found near the interior of Earth. 

This doesn't mean that none of Earth's water came from asteroid impacts, since we have good evidence that some water on the planet's surface was delivered in this way.

However, this shows that some of the water on the surface and most of the water in the interior, which is the majority on the planet, was there from the beginning.

Dr Bryson says: 'Our findings just show that there was enough hydrogen in Earth from its inception to form abundant water - we don't know when or how that happened, but we hope our research will inspire those questions to be examined.'

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• READ MORE: Signature of alien life 'found' 120 light years from Earth

By WILIAM HUNTER

In a 'transformational' discovery, scientists have discovered the strongest evidence of life on a distant alien planet.

Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers found huge quantities of chemicals produced by life on Earth in the atmosphere of the planet K2-18b.

According to scientists from the University of Cambridge, an 'ocean that is teeming with life' is the best explanation for this stunning discovery.

But what would that alien life look like?

MailOnline has used AI to take scientists' best predictions and imagine what life might be like on K2-18b.

The most likely scenario is that K2-18b's oceans are filled with something like phytoplankton - microscopic organisms that feed on the energy from the nearby star.

However, where there are plankton there is also the possibility of more complex lifeforms evolving to feed on this abundant food supply.

That could mean K2-18b is teaming with strange lifeforms, from filter-feeding shrimp to alien flying fish. 

Scientists say life on the planet K2-18b will likely be microscopic phytoplankton

(AI Impression) 

Researchers found traces of chemicals produced by life in the atmosphere of K2-18b (artist's impression), a planet 124 light-years from Earth. This planet is most likely a 'Hycean' world covered by oceans 

Plankton

K2-18b is an exoplanet located around 124 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Leo.

It is 2.6 times larger and 8.6 times as massive than Earth, and experts believe it is likely covered in an ocean – making it what they call a 'Hycean world'.

From observations, scientists know that K2-18b is orbiting a red dwarf star in an area known as the 'habitable zone' in which liquid water can exist.

As the planet passes in front of its star, scientists can record how different chemicals in the atmosphere absorb the light.

This revealed the chemical fingerprints of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), which are only made on Earth by living creatures.

Dr Arik Kershenbaum, a zoologist from the University of Cambridge says: 'It's a complex chemical that decays really quickly. So, if you see it there, then something must be making it.'

Although scientists can't be 100 per cent certain that K2-18b is a Hycean world, if it is, then the oceans would be the most likely place for life to develop.

On Earth, DMS and DMDS are only produced by living organisms - mostly microbial life such as marine phytoplankton (like the ones pictured)

K2-18b is thought to be a 'Hycean' world (depicted) - a class of exoplanet possessing key ingredients for alien species because of their hydrogen-rich atmospheres and oceans of water. Life most likely exists near the surface of the water, feeding on the energy from the star

However, Dr Arik Kershenbaum, a zoologist from the University of Cambridge and author of The Zoologists Guide to the Galaxy, says that life on K2-18b would be quite different to life on Earth today.

'Even if there is an ocean on this planet it's going to look more like what Earth looked like three or four billion years ago when life first evolved,' he said. 

'So, one thing we can say pretty confidently is that the vast majority of planets that have any sort of life on them are going to have simple life on them.'

That means the most likely form of life will be microscopic organisms such as phytoplankton.

On Earth, these creatures sit near the surface of the water and convert sunlight into energy by photosynthesis and, importantly, also create DMS and DMDS.

So, if these chemicals do really have a biological source, phytoplankton in K2-18b's oceans are the most likely contender.

Filter feeders

However, just because life is simple on K2-18b, this doesn't mean that it will all be small.

More complex life may have evolved to feed on the microorganisms in the water, these could resemble Earth creatures called choanoflagellates which suck water through their funnel-like bodies (AI impression)

Dr Kershenbaum says: 'By simple I just mean simple interactions and a very simple ecosystem.

'So, you might have organisms that capture light from the star like plants do on our planet and then, as they die and sink down in the water there might be some organisms that eat the dead creatures.

'That's probably what life was like on Earth around two billion years ago.'

Dr Kershenbaum says that the restrictions of physics and the limits on how creatures can move themselves mean that life on K2-18b would share some similarities with life on Earth.

So, if more complex life has evolved it could resemble some of the early filter feeders in Earth's history.

On Earth, one of the very first things to start eating microorganisms was a type of single-celled organism called choanoflagellates, the earliest living ancestor of all animals on Earth. 

These simple creatures looked like tiny badminton shuttlecocks which used microscopic hairs to suck bacteria through a funnel and consume them.

Scientists believe that something very much like this was probably the closest relative of all animal life on Earth so simple creatures on K2-18b might look similar.

Animals on K2-18b could look like some of Earth's first filter-feeding organisms. These were large, shrimp-like creatures which gathered particles in the water using their feather-like appendages (AI impression) 

Although complex animals only evolved more recently in Earth's evolutionary history, the fossil record might offer some hints to what alien life could look like.

Scientists believe the first filter-feeding animal in Earth's history was a large shrimp-like creature called Tamisiocaris borealis which lived 540 million years ago.

This animal used long, feather-like structures around its head to gather tiny particles from the water.

Although it isn't likely, if there is more complex life on K2-18b it might have evolved in a similar way.

More complex organisms

Life has existed on Earth for about four billion years, but it is only in the last half a billion years or so that anything resembling an animal has emerged.

This makes it less likely that K2-18b will have forms of life with complex relationships like predation and evasion behaviours.

However, if it does happen to have a truly complex life, scientists have some ideas of what it could look like.

Scientists have said that flying fish or even birds might develop on water worlds to avoid predators (AI impression) 

Since the light from the red dwarf star is so dim, any creatures in K2-18bs oceans would have evolved very large eyes (AI impression)

Since K2-18b orbits a red dwarf star, the light reaching the planet will be dim which places some constraints on how life could develop.

Astronomer Michael Garrett, a professor at Manchester University, previously told MailOnline: 'I think the way complex life might appear will depend a lot on the environment within which it evolves.

'If your star is a red giant, you might find life with eyes that are much more sensitive and larger than ours.'

Professor Garrett also said that if the world had a low-density atmosphere, it may have 'life forms with wings of enormous scale'.

Likewise, in 2013, NASA researchers discovered two water worlds, called Kepler-62e and Kpler-62f, which were promising candidates in the search for life.

Speaking to Space.com at the time, lead researcher Bill Borucki, of NASA's Ames Research Center, said that these planets could be home to fish or even birds.

Mr Borucki said: 'At least in our ocean, we have flying fish. They 'fly' to get away from predators. So we might find that they have evolved — birds — on this ocean planet.'

Since K2-18b is a water world just like Kepler-62e and 62f, its oceans could also be home to strange alien flying fish or even sea birds.

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Newly found mummies reveal new human ancestor that broke off from humanity thousands of years ago

• READ MORE:  Mysterious underwater 'pyramid' believed to be 12,000 years old reshapes history

By CHRIS MELORE, ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Shocking DNA findings from two mummies discovered in Northern Africa may rewrite the family tree of human history.

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute in Germany found that these ancient corpses unearthed in present-day Libya carried the DNA of a previously unknown group of humans from 7,000 years ago.

This lost group in the Sahara Desert had a distinct genetic makeup that was much different than scientists expected to find out among ancient humans traveling in and out of Africa.

Between 5,000 and 14,500 years ago, this desert region was a lush and fertile area known as the Green Sahara.

That has led scientists to believe that ancient humans in this part of the world would have interacted more with other human tribes arriving from sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.

Instead, this lost group appears to have completely isolated themselves from other human populations migrating to the Green Sahara.

In fact, the mummy DNA had significantly less Neanderthal DNA than ancient humans living outside of Africa in that era, challenging what researchers assumed about the ancient world and how much these cultures intermingled.

First author Nada Salem from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology said: 'Our research challenges previous assumptions about North African population history and highlights the existence of a deeply rooted and long-isolated genetic lineage.'

Scientists have discovered 2 mummies in present-day Libya which appear to be from a long lost lineage of early humans

The skeletons were identified as being from two women, buried in the Takarkori rock shelter in southwestern Libya.

Instead of sharing a similar genetic makeup with modern populations from Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, these women had close genetic ties to a group of scavengers from 15,000 years ago.

The German researchers said these foragers lived in caves in present-day Morocco during the last Ice Age.

Both the group from the Ice Age and the newly discovered mummies from the Green Sahara have a DNA makeup that is completely different from sub-Saharan Africans.

This appears to prove that the two populations on the continent stayed relatively separate, even though this fertile region provided ample opportunity for the communities to meet and eventually interbreed.

In comparison to ancient humans found outside of Africa from 7,000 years ago, the Takarkori mummies have only a small trace of Neandertal DNA - far less than the one to two percent in Middle Eastern farmers of that time period.

Researchers noted that this unique lineage of humans no longer exists in its original form in the modern world.

The DNA of the Takarkori mummies now only makes up a part of the greater genetic puzzle in humans today.

However, the team explained that 'this ancestry is still a central genetic component of present-day North African people, highlighting their unique heritage.' 

Scientists from Germany say the 2 female skeletons trace their ancestry back to a population of scavengers from the Ice Age 15,000 years ago

Roughly 7,000 years ago, the Sahara Desert was actually a fertile land that scientists now refer to as the Green Sahara. It was a region that would have been ideal for farming and herding livestock

As for how this changes the story of early human history, the study published in the journal Nature contended that the mummies prove that early agricultural practices spread by one group teaching others how to farm and herd livestock.

This practice, known as cultural diffusion, means that the lost group of humans learned new ideas and shared their own with outsiders, but rarely intermarried or lived together.

Based on this theory, people in the Sahara started herding livestock around 7,000 to 8,000 years ago. Those ideas likely came from ancient travelers making their way from the Middle East.

The Green Sahara's grassy plains and water sources were perfect for grazing animals, so it made sense for people to adopt this lifestyle.

Based on the genetic results of the Takarkori mummies, it's clear that the Middle Eastern farmers did not permanently migrate to this area, according to the study.

This 'migration theory' would have meant that Middle Eastern herders moved into the Green Sahara with their animals, bringing their genes along, and eventually changing the genome of the local population.

However, none of this appears to have taken place, and herding actually spread throughout Northern Africa because it was a practical skill, not part of a cultural takeover.

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Mysterious triangular tower at Area 51 is discovered on Google Maps - as baffled viewers suggest it could be 'alien technology'

• READ MORE: 'Gate of the Gods' could reveal advanced Peruvian civilization

By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE 

Our world is full of many confusing oddities, from a 'UFO-like disc' in New Mexico to a secret 'doorway' in Antarctica. 

Now, people are being left concerned by a mysterious triangular tower stationed at Area 51 in the Nevada desert. 

The imposing sci-fi worthy structure, about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is circulating online after being spotted on Google Maps. 

On social media, people have compared it to a skyscraper, an exhaust vent and even a Dyson air purifier. 

But its location at Area 51 is leading conspiracy theorists to speculate that it is somehow involved in alien contact.

Area 51, the highly classified United States Air Force base and active military installation, is frequently linked with UFO theories and folklore.

After a shot of the tower was posted to Reddit, one user said 'it's where the aliens test their various white powders'. 

Someone else posted: 'Obviously alien technology. It pops out when the Earth is done.' 

Visible on Google Maps, the unusual structure is stationed in a remote spot in Nevada, about 80 miles (130km) northwest of Las Vegas 

'It was built to specifically provoke theoretical conversation,' another added. 

Facebook users also joked about the identity of the tower, with one person calling it 'a new version of Jenga', the popular British board game. 

Someone else remarked: 'That's my Samsung TV remote', while another said: 'That is the leaning tower of pizza'.

One simply offered the description: 'Toblerone trade center.' 

Yet another said: 'The aliens are like we can help you out but we can't work in those square things you humans work in we need our tall triangle shaped building.' 

Others compared it to the tall revolving home air conditioners from the likes of Dyson, with one saying it is being used as 'the cure to global warming'. 

As noticed by other commentators, it has a similar aura to the mysterious monolith in Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi film '2001: A Space Odyssey'. 

On Google Maps, the unusual structure can be located simply by entering the coordinates in the search bar – '37.24624° N, 115.82334° W'. 

As users can see, it's stationed in the remote spot in Nevada, about 80 miles (130km) northwest of Las Vegas, the state's largest city. 

The tower is located at Area 51 - leaving conspiracy theorists to speculate that it is somehow involved in alien contact  

It has a similar vibe to the black monolith in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 epic, '2001: A Space Odyssey' (pictured). The mysterious object arrives at Earth, causing confusion for startled primates

The tower has what looks like a long, looping dirt pile going around it in the shape of a noose and an imposing shadow from the Nevada sunshine – leading one Facebooker to call it a 'very accurate sundial'. 

Curiously, Google Maps does not name the structure, and if users click on it they're only presented with a pop-up of its coordinates. 

However, there appears to be a rational explanation for the tower – and it's not to do with aliens, global warming or the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

The tower is used for radar cross-section (RCS) testing, where aircraft or mock-ups are mounted to measure how detectable they are to radar. 

One Facebook user explained: 'Its shadow and elevated position match the known appearance of this type of pylon structure used for mounting full-scale aircraft models or prototypes.' 

Variously described as 150 feet and 190 feet in height, it was reportedly constructed 20 years ago but only acknowledged by the US government in 2013.

Largely due to US government secrecy surrounding its military efforts, the site will likely long continue to inspire such farfetched theories.  

The tower is located at Area 51 - leaving conspiracy theorists to speculate that it is somehow involved in alien contact (file photo)

It comes shortly after a mysterious structure in a mountainous region of New Mexico took the internet by storm, sparking claims of UFOs. 

Google Map users spotted the large, white disc poking out from the ground at an elevation of 7,400 feet, with the coordinates 34°24'21.6"N 107°05'44.5"W. 

The structure was later identified as a rainwater catchment that has since been removed and replaced by a different structure.' 

Meanwhile, a mysterious 'doorway' spotted in Antarctica, just southeast of the Japanese-run Showa Station, sparked a similar wave of theories across the internet, with one describing it as 'bigfoot's vacation home'. 

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• READ MORE: Terrifying 'doomsday' fish found on beach in Canary Islands

By JONATHAN CHADWICK FOR MAILONLINE 

One of nature's mightiest beasts has never before been documented in its natural environment – until now. 

Scientists have captured the first ever footage of a live colossal squid – the largest invertebrate on the planet. 

The stunning 4K video film, captured in the deep sea by California's Schmidt Ocean Institute, shows the rare creature's transparent body and eight pink tentacles. 

Colossal squid can grow up to 23 feet (7 metres) and weigh as much as 500kg, making them the heaviest invertebrate on the planet. 

But this specimen, which looks like a delicate glass sculpture, is just a 'teenager' – measuring 11 inches (30cm). 

Dying colossal squid adults have previously been filmed by fishermen, but the species has never been seen alive at depth before. 

Expedition chief scientist, Dr Michelle Taylor at the University of Essex, called the footage 'stunning' and 'beautiful'. 

'The squid is a teenager and none have ever been filmed alive before in their natural habitat, juvenile or adult,' she told MailOnline. 

This is the first confirmed live observation of the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, in its natural habitat

The species can reach 23 feet (7 metres) in length, but this specimen is a baby - just 11 inches (30cm)

'Adults likely shy away from remotely operated vehicles; we probably caught this teenager unawares and its response was to sit very still and hope we weren’t a predator.' 

It comes 100 years after the first colossal squid specimens were found and described in 1925 – based on specimens from the stomach of a hunted sperm whale. 

This incredible new sighting occurred on March 9 this year during an expedition near the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. 

Schmidt Ocean Institute's remotely operated vehicle (ROV) SuBastian was at a depth of 1,968 feet (600 metres) as it was livestreaming the footage. 

However, those watching, including Dr Taylor, did not know the significance of what they were seeing on the screen. 

'At the time, not being a squid expert and regrettably having none on board the ship, we did not realise that we had seen a colossal squid,' Dr Taylor told MailOnline. 

'We knew it was a beautiful glass squid so paused on the descent to watch it; why would you not, it’s stunning.' 

Only later when a team of scientists including Dr Bolstad and Dr Aaron Evans, an independent squid expert, reviewed the footage could its identity be verified.

The colossal squid was first described in 1925 based on specimens from the stomach of a commercially hunted sperm whale. A century later, an international voyage captured the first confirmed video of this species in its natural habitat

The remotely operated vehicle (ROV) SuBastian, which captured the historic footage, is recovered onto Research Vessel Falkor (too)

Colossal squid can grow up to 23 feet (7 metres) and weigh as much as 500kg, making them the heaviest invertebrate on the planet

Distinguishing characteristics of colossal squid are hooks on the ends of the two long tentacles and in the middle of each of the eight shorter arms. 

When they saw the arm hooks, Dr Evans 'started hyperventilating', he told a press briefing announcing the footage on Tuesday. 

Fortunately no attempts to catch the creature and bring it to shore were made, unlike other colossal squid specimens.

Back in 2007, the largest recorded colossal squid, a female, was captured by a New Zealand fishing boat in the Ross Sea off Antarctica.

The squid was dying when it was captured and photographed before its corpse was taken back to New Zealand for scientific study.

Dr Taylor said seeing a live specimen in its natural habitat is so important because we get to observe finally observe its biology and ecology. 

'For example, see how it holds itself in the water column, how is moves, its behaviours – none of this is possible with dead specimens,' she said.  

As well as being the world's largest invertebrate, the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) is the world's largest squid species and a member of the glass squid family (scientifically known as 'Cranchiidae'). 

A preserved colossal squid on display at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington

Back in January, another expedition filmed the first confirmed footage of the glacial glass squid (Galiteuthis glacialis) in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica 

It is not to be confused with the giant squid (Architeuthis dux), which is similarly large and elusive but has been seen in its deep sea habitat before. 

Little is known about the colossal squid’s life cycle, but eventually, they lose the transparent appearance of the juveniles, as seen in this new clip. 

It comes shortly after the first confirmed footage of the glacial glass squid (Galiteuthis glacialis) in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, taken in January.  

G. glacialis is another glass squid species that has never been seen alive in its natural environment before – although adults only reach a maximum mantle length of 20 inches (50 cm). 

'The first sighting of two different squids on back-to-back expeditions is remarkable and shows how little we have seen of the magnificent inhabitants of the Southern Ocean,' said Dr Jyotika Virmani, Schmidt Ocean Institute’s executive director.

'Fortunately, we caught enough high-resolution imagery of these creatures to allow the global experts, who were not on the vessel, to identify both species.'

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