Alien life will be discovered 'within this lifetime', the US congress has been told.
At a meeting of lawmakers and top scientists, America's legislature was informed that humanity is closer than ever to making contact with extra-terrestrial life.
Dan Werthimer of the SETI Research Center at the University of California told the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology that "It would be bizarre if we are alone".
"The universe is likely to be teeming with primitive life," he said. "The chances of finding it I think are good and if that happens it will happen in the next 20 years depending on the financing".
Werthimer told Congress that without funding for space research and domestic programmes designed to search for aliens from Earth (though not on Earth) it might take longer, however.
Watch the hearing in the video above...