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Sunday, December 7, 1997 Published at 12:11 GMT
Sci/Tech
Close encounters of an extra-terrestial kind
![image: [ Grainy photos, allegedly of flying saucers, have failed to prove the existence of UFO's. ]](/olmedia/images/_37645_saucer3001.JPG)
Grainy photos, allegedly of flying saucers, have failed to prove the existence of UFO's.
International scientists have gathered in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, for a week-long conference which aims to take a serious look at unidentified flying objects.
The conference has been billed as the largest gathering of its kind, with more than 50 top UFO researchers from across the world expected to take part.
The theory that intelligent beings have visited or are visiting Planet Earth has attracted its share of eccentrics.
But ufologists, as they call themselves, want the United Nations to recognise their science as a legitimate subject for study.
I want to believe
The popularity of science fiction films like Hollywood's Men in Black and television series like The X Files are a testimony to our fascination with the subject of extra-terrestial life.
A recent poll in the United States showed that some 60% of people believe in the existence of intelligent life-forms in space.
A recently declassified CIA document claims that many of the UFO sightings
were experimental jets and the top secret spy planes of their day.
Rational explanations often fall on deaf ears. Ufology is a science which lends itself to conspiracy theories and claims of massive government cover-ups.
The town of Roswell in New Mexico claims to be the sight of an UFO crash landing in 1947 in which the bodies of aliens were found. It has built a thriving tourist trade around its extra-terrestial connection and even boasts a UFO museum.
Speakers from across the world
The list of international speakers invited:
The discovery of fossilised micro-organisms in a tiny fragment of a meteorite from Mars has rekindled the debate over extra-terrestrial life. According to Nasa scientists, the fossilised remains are the first scientific proof that life can exist elsewhere.
![[ image: Mars fragment rekindled debate over extra-terrestrial life]](/olmedia/images/_37645_alf150.JPG)
Mars fragment rekindled debate over extra-terrestrial life
Despite decades of grainy photographs of flying saucers and other supposed space ships, the existence of UFOs has never been proven.
![[ image: 'Take me to your leader']](/olmedia/images/_37645_dalek150.JPG)
'Take me to your leader'
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| Internet Links UFO resource website SETI Institute Ufology Society International British UFO Research Association International UFO Museum and Research Center, Roswell The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites. |
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