The image of a city skyline appeared floating in the clouds above the cities of Jiangxi and Foshan on Oct. 7 — and skeptics are starting to question its origin.

Scientists say Chinese residents witnessed what is a mirage called a Fata Morgana — but conspiracy theorists were quick to jump in calling it part of a secret project by NASA to fake the second coming of Christ.

The Fata Morgana is created when temperatures cause light to bounce and bend through different layers of air, Prof. Kenneth Bowman from Texas A&M University explained.

"It's not exactly a reflection because it's not a mirror but it's like looking through a lens and you're seeing the surface at a long distance away but it looks like it's floating up in the atmosphere," Bowman said.

Despite the science backing up the phenomenon, conspiracy theorists still believe the vision could be part of a suspected NASA project called Project Blue Beam — which will use holograms to simulate alien invasions or the second coming of Christ.

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The image of a city skyline appeared floating in the clouds above the cities of Jiangxi and Foshan in China on Oct. 7 — and skeptics are starting to question its origin. http://nydn.us/1jyXKyc
Posted by New York Daily News on Tuesday, October 20, 2015

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The truth is out there — and one Russian billionaire wants to find it.

Just in time for “The X Files” reboot, Internet bigwig Yuri Milner has pledged $100 million to find out if aliens really exist.

Milner is channeling a portion of his $3 billion fortune to what's known in science circles as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI.

His project, Breakthrough Endeavor, will give a boost to failing observatories, and astronomers the ability to spot different types of radar and lasers from light-years away.

"We have a responsibility to not stop searching," Milner told the New York Times. "It should always be happening in the background. This is the biggest questioning. We should be listening."

Cosmologist Stephen Hawking joined Milner in making the announcement.

"In an infinite universe there must be other occurrences of life," the astrophysicist said in a statement. "Or do our lights wander a lifeless universe? Either way, there is no bigger question."

There could be billions of places for aliens to live in our galaxy alone, NASA experts say, calling it a "cosmic haystack." Just a few thousand out of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way have been examined. And there are at least 100 billion other galaxies out there, each potentially with thousands of planets.
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