And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." ~ Hamlet Act 1, scene 5, 159–167 Popular American culture is replete with UFO sightings and conspiracy theories. Now it would appear that the phenomenon has spread to China. Just a week after an unidentified flying object (UFO) shut down the Xiashan Airport in Hangzhou, China, another one was spotted Thursday in the city of Chongqing.

As a fan of astrophysics, astronomy and the universe, I often ponder the possibility of extraterrestrial life, if not in a humanoid form, then at least primitive oceanic life forms. I eagerly await the new mission to Jupiter's icy moons, the Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM), is proposed for a launch in 2020. Who knows what more we will learn?

"To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational," Hawking says in a new Discovery Channel series called Stephen Hawking's Universe. "The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like."