British Scientists Launch Search For Extraterrestrial Life-- Petition To Expand SETI On "Roswell Incident" Anniversary

The "Roswell incident" crash in Roswell, New Mexico wasn't the first time scientists speculated about UFOs-and it certainly won't be the last. British scientists want to restore the search for extraterrestrial life.

A new team of scientists in the UK announced they are joining a search to look for alien intelligence. The new team will coordinate the search for alien signals...and they're asking for the government to restore aliens to a national agenda.

66 years ago today, an object some think was a UFO crashed near Roswell, New Mexico...and aliens have fascinated some ever since.

"Ask astronomers do they think ET exists and most will tell you yes," said Tim O'Brien, a scientist who runs the eMerlin telescope told press. "We don't know what the nature of life would be, or whether it wants to communicate with us, but since we're collecting all this data anyway, it seems rather remiss not to search for ET signals."

The UK team announced it is joining an array of mostly American projects called the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI).

The, UK SETI Research Network (UKSRN) will rent time on British radio telescopes such as the eMerlin array in an effort to pick up extraterrestrial signals; they'll also research new ways to find alien life.

The group had its first meeting and announced it would apply for funding to the tune of 1 million pounds in order to rent telescope time and analyze data.

In the US, SETI is backed by private donors. The British program hasn't been approved for public funding, but the scientists hope it will be.

"If we had ... half a percent of the money that goes into astronomy at the moment, we could make an amazing difference. We would become comparable with the American effort," said Alan Penny, who is and one of the leaders of the British SETI network and  an astronomer at the University of St. Andrews.

He highlighted the importance of their efforts by saying,

"It's quite possible that we're alone in the universe. And think about the implications of that: If we're alone in the universe then the whole purpose in the universe is in us. If we're not alone, that's interesting in a very different way."