CYKAS can you keep a secret

“What we know is a drop, what we don’t know is an ocean.”

Isaac Newton

“Finding a second earth is not a matter of if, but when” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA Science Mission Director, commenting on the discovery of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a nearby star. The recent discovery has inflamed the public debate: today, the eventuality of not being alone runs through the minds of even the most skeptical. However, there is a large and variegate group of people worldwide who, regardless the contingent debate, have made of this question a crucial element in their lives. Everyday, alone or in groups, they look up to the sky searching for trace of extra-terrestrial life: a shuttle, a moving light or even a gleam. They call themselves “sky watchers”. They are mostly common people, coming from all sort of backgrounds: civil servants, journalists, researchers, artists, retirees; all connected by a firm belief in the existence of other forms of life. On a starry night, when the sky is clear and the moon is low on the horizon, you can find these “seekers” far from light pollution, out in the fields or on the beaches, armed with lasers, smartphones or binoculars, waiting to catch a single blink of light. Only in Italy, according to Doxa, about 3 millions people declare to have seen a UFO (acronym of Unidentified Flying Object). The skywatchers reality, however, is not just about sightings: proliferate more or less documented stories of terrestrial alien bases, abduction and relations between humans and extra-terrestrial ranging from friendship to love. Gaspare C. in 1956 in Ascoli Piceno, met “a being from another planet, human looking except for the height, about 3 meters”. Fortunato Z., a watchman of the province of Genoa, was kidnapped several times by the Reptilians between 1978 and 1981 that “withdrew its blood” and them released him unharmed. Iwona S., kidnapped at age 8, still looks at the sky filming her sightings. These and others testimonials, are part of a voluminous dossier stored in a dedicated body created in 1978 within the Defence Department named OVNI (the Italian version of Unidentified Flying Object).