A top British scientist claims he has found proof that extraterrestrials exist after cracking open a meteorite.
Instead of finding an alien like Hollywood favourite ET, Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe discovered the two-inch wide rock was pitted with tiny fossils of algae, similar to the kind found in seaweed.
The respected professor believes it proves we are not alone in the universe.
He said: “These finds are crushing evidence that human life started outside Earth.”
The rock was one of several fragments of a meteorite which crash landed in central Sri Lanka in December.
They fell to earth in a spectacular fireball and were still smoking when villagers living near the city of Polonnaruwa picked them up.
The fossils were discovered when the rocks were examined under a powerful scanning electron microscope in a British laboratory.
They are similar to micro-organisms found in fossils from the dinosaur age 55 million years ago.
Critics say the rock had probably become contaminated with algae fossils from Earth.
But Prof Wickramasinghe insists they are the remnants of extra-terrestrial life.
He said: “The algae organisms are similar to ones found in Earth fossils, but the rock also has other organisms we have not identified.”
The scientist is a well known champion of the “panspermia hypothesis” – which suggests the first seeds of life were deposited on our planet from outer space 3,800 million years ago.
The professor believes these microbes came from comets, which then “multiplied and seeded” to form life on Earth.
He said: “We are all aliens – we share a cosmic ancestry. Each time a new planetary system forms, a few surviving microbes find their way into comets.
"These then multiply and seed other planets.
“These latest finds are just more evidence to point to the overwhelming fact that life on Earth began on other worlds.”
The professor, an expert on inter-stellar dust, spent decades working with Sir Fred Hoyle – a British astronomer and mathematician who was well known for rejecting the Big Bang theory.
The pair set out on a mission to try to prove their “life from outer space” theory back in the 60s.
Prof Wickramasinghe said: “Evidence from astronomy overwhelmingly supports the view that life did not start on Earth but was seeded from outside.”