Ancient Aliens returns for Season 12 and kicks off with a look at how the search for alien life dates back not just decades, but thousands of years.
This premiere episode titled ‘The Alien Hunters’ examines the 20th century’s boom in the search for extraterrestrial life and looks back to evidence that ancient civilisations were embarked upon similar endeavours long before SETI or NASA.
Shortly after WWII scientists and governments around the world started to take the search for alien life far more seriously. The United States Air Force carried out Project Sign over most of 1948, followed it up with Project Grudge that ran intermittently until 1951 and then Project Blue Book that ran from 1953 through to 1970.
They all looked at the evidence for UFOs but varied their goals slightly with the final project designed to work out if these objects were a national security threat and to scientifically analyze any related data.
The conclusion of all three was that most of the 12,000+ reports were people misidentifying clouds, stars and aircraft.
All the reports are available though the identities of those who reported them have been removed.
Other ongoing work by both NASA and SETI is well documented and every year scientists reach further out into our galaxy in their search for habitable planets and the possibility of alien life.
Earlier this year NASA announced it had found a nearby planetary system with seven Earth-sized planets orbiting its sun. Three of these planets are thought to be in the habitable zone and the system itself is fairly close, at just 40 light years.
However, Ancient Astronaut theorists also think that many ancient civilisations were aware of the possibility of aliens out in space and that they were actively searching for them. They point to people like the Babylonians who were deeply involved in tracking the movements of the planets and stars and to the many observatories built by other civilisations.
Ancient Aliens airs Fridays at 9PM on History Channel.