Television shows such as The X-Files have tapped into this obsession with life beyond our planet and there seems to be an insatiable appetite for stories and pictures related to possible life on other planets.

More than 8,000 people have logged on to our website to see the picture from American space agency NASA that appears to show an alien sitting on a rock on the red planet and many believe this proves aliens exist.

A spokesman for the Psychology Department at University College Northampton said: "People like to believe in aliens because it gives them a sense of worth and meaning in the universe.

"It also can provide hope and comfort, that things not necessarily supported by rational thought can be true."

However, others remain sceptical about the photograph and whether there is life on other planets.

Katherine Hendry, of Greenhill Road, Kettering, said: "The alien picture has been blown up from something tiny and could easily be a shadow.

"I don't think it is real. People are seeing an alien because that is what they are looking for in the first place."

Footage on our website of UFOs has also had more than 20,000 people reading.

Jackie Austin, of Station Road, Raunds, saw a UFO in the field behind her house on April 4, 1997.

She said: "I have always believed in UFOs before I actually saw one.

"I got up to go to the toilet and saw three lights in the shape of a triangle, it came towards the house and then straight up.

"I saw a story in the paper about another woman who had seen the same thing in Moulton and apparently there were a few other sightings that night.

"Even now I always look up when I am walking the dog.

"I regularly see an orange light which suddenly disappears so I don't know if that is a UFO or just a plane that turns at that point in the sky."