E.T. Returns
"He is afraid. He is totally alone. He is 3,000,000 light years from home."

March 22, 2002 marks the 20th anniversary re-release of E.T. the Extraterrestrial in movie theaters throughout the United States. This Steven Spielberg film was originally released in 1982 and became one of the top 10 highest-grossing movies of all time with a worldwide gross income of more than $704 million. A heartwarming sci-fi masterpiece, the movie was enjoyed by film audiences for its portrayal of the relationship between a young boy, Elliot, and a lost and homesick visitor from another planet who gets stranded on Earth.

Aliens have been a part of popular culture long before E.T. was written and long since its debut in theaters. Our fascination with creatures from other planets is reflected in books, movies, and television; it's also evident in our real efforts to find life elsewhere in the universe.

Extraterrestrials in Pop Culture
Public fascination with aliens began in the 19th century when astronomers reported observation of large canali (meaning channels) on Mars. The term was mistranslated as "canals" in English, leading some to conclude that people living on Mars had constructed them.

The French philosopher, Voltaire, wrote a short story about aliens in 1752. His Micromégas featured a giant alien called Sirius who was over 20 miles tall and had a lifespan of 10 million years. But the first major work to explore the concept of the "extraterrestrial invader" in popular culture was H.G. Wells' 1897 book, The War of the Worlds. It is a story of the invasion of Earth by technologically advanced Martians who flee their dying planet and attempt to take over Earth and its resources. The Martians attack the helpless citizens of London, England and create panic until they suddenly succumb to a fatal infection by terrestrial germs. The opening paragraph of the book has become famous.

• The whole text is available at H.G. Wells — The War of the Worlds.
• You can also view The War of the Worlds Study Guide from Washington State University.

On October 30th, 1938, Orson Welles created widespread panic in the U.S. with his radio broadcast of an adaptation of The War of the Worlds. It was performed by Welles and his Mercury Theatre Players in the style of news bulletins and on-the-spot reporting. Terror grew across the United States as listeners mistook the production to be a broadcast of real, live events.

• Read the script of the radio broadcast.
• Read an essay on the significance of Welles' broadcast from the Transparency Web site by media critic Ken Sanes.
• Would Welles' broadcast have fooled you? There are many factors, such as age, family, religion, education, and television-viewing habits, which influence one's beliefs in space aliens, ghosts, and other paranormal things. Learn more about television's influence on paranormal beliefs in this article from Purdue University.

The allure of aliens has grown even greater with Hollywood's help. Of the top 10 highest-grossing movies in 2000, five were about alien life forms. Independence Day, Star Wars, Men in Black, E.T: The Extraterrestrial, and Return of the Jedi all made the list with a combined world income of nearly $3.5 billion. Of course, some movies are better than others. "Santa Claus Conquers The Martians (1964) was possibly the silliest movie ever made," says David Catling, a research planetary scientist in the Space Science Division at NASA. Santa is captured by Martians to stop Earth kids from being cheery. But once on Mars, Santa teaches the Martians the real meaning of Christmas.

• Do you think movies about aliens have gotten much better over the years? Here are some recent movies to look for in your video store that depict human interaction with aliens:
  • Red Planet (2000)
  • Mission to Mars (2000)
  • Mars Attacks! (1996)

• Two classic sci-fi movies to look out for are 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).
• For science fiction film reviews, check in with the space experts at NASA's Ames Research Center.
• NASA has developed a policy to assist entertainment-oriented motion picture and television productions. With NASA's assistance, movie producers can create more realistic portrayals of alien-human encounters.

New Space Show
Does life exist anywhere else in the universe? The Search for Life: Are We Alone, at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York, approaches this question with an innovative new Space Show narrated by Academy-Award-nominated actor Harrison Ford. It is now showing in the world's largest virtual reality simulator, allowing participants to travel through space and time to witness phenomena as never before.

More Links
Visit the Web site for the new release of E.T. the Extraterrestrial.

See what's new at the Space Science Division at NASA.

The Real E.T. Search
While movies and books tell fictional tales of aliens, a real-life hunt for extraterrestrials is ongoing — headed by government agencies such as NASA. "Astrobiology" is the name given to the branch of biology that investigates the existence of life beyond planet Earth.

Chemists at the University of Florida (UF) say that chances are slim that aliens will have earthling traits — such as the ability to speak English — as portrayed in the movies. "We cannot expect the future of space exploration to be like that in Star Trek, where the aliens almost always resemble human actors," said Steven Brenner, a professor at UF. But if aliens do not have human features, how will we recognize them? According to Brenner, who is also the principal investigator for the Astrobiology Institute funded by NASA, it's difficult to design experiments that look for life when you don't know what that life may look like.

To recognize never-before seen life forms, Brenner and his colleagues at UF are depending on universal features in genetic material that might be found in alien beings. Brenner describes how DNA has evenly spaced, repeating negative electrical charges along it. These charges could be a "universal" trait among living things. "While the rest of the genetic molecule will vary from life form to life form and from planet to planet, they will, we expect, all have the repeating, spaced electrical charges," states Brenner. He and his colleagues are using what they know about the chemical attributes of life on Earth to generalize features of living systems that could exist in other parts of the universe.

• Scientists are examining meteorites from Mars to see if they contain evidence of ancient Martian life. They theorize that life on Mars and life on Earth may be more closely connected than we realize. Find out more in this recent article from the Riverdeep Current, "Life on Mars, Life on Earth."
• Visit NASA's Astrobiology Web site to learn more about what alien life might be like.
• Currently, there's an experiment underway in the Canadian Arctic to see if humans can survive in a Mars-like environment. Read more about the experiment, view images of the terrain, and ask the team of experts questions at Discovery.com.