So, how did the concept originate that these incredible flying vehicles seen throughout the history of mankind were "evil aliens from outer space"? The telescope was not introduced to astronomy until 1609 by the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei, but six of the nine planets are easily seen by the unaided human eye. This means that humankind has been looking at these objects, whether they understood what they were or not, since first gazing into the sky, and Earth was not even generally known to be a planet until the 17th century. Up until that time, it was believed all the known planets orbited the Earth. Before Galileo invented his telescope, the planets of the Solar System were not recognized as potential locations or worlds, they were only lights that moved differently from stars. The shift of concepts from gods commanding UFOs to visitors from other planets had its origin in two events:

First, Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli, who was director of the Milan Observatory and an esteemed Italian astronomer, saw Mars in a whole new light through his telescope in 1877. He created the first "modern" map of Mars, on which he showed a system of what he called “canali”. Although canali in Italian means "channel“ or “gully”, without the implication of being an artificial feature, when his work was translated into English, the word “canali” was incorrectly rendered as canal. This mistakenly implied something made, rather than natural, and was immediately taken to mean that Schiaparelli had discovered evidence of intelligent life on Mars.

Then, only 21 years later, the War of the Worlds, written by H. G. Wells in 1898, which described an invasion of England by aliens from Mars, was published. It was an instant hit in its day, and had a repeat impact 40 years later when Orson Welles broadcast a radio adaptation of War of the Worlds by the Mercury Theatre as a Halloween special on October 30, 1938, which caused panic throughout the United States.

Combined with Schiaparelli's falsely labeled "Canals on Mars" hitting the public just two decades before, the die was cast. From that point forward, up to the present day, UFOs, have been connected with life from other planets. If we presume that recorded history goes back 12 to 14 thousand years, mankind thought they were gods for 13,900 years, and aliens from other worlds only a little over 100 years. We have no more proof that there is life on other planets than we did 14,000 years ago, yet, UFOs are thought by almost everybody to be from other worlds. This is a very strong point to consider when determining who is piloting them and what they actually are.