The past is replete with examples of such “aliens.” Even a stealth aircraft had a time when people thought it was an alien craft.

A skeleton of a hand with unusually long fingers found in the sands of Ilha Comprida, São Paulo State, Brazil by a couple last week has triggered a new controversy about the “alien” factor with the couple believing it could be something out of this world.

Leticia Gomes Santiago and her boyfriend Devanir Souza filmed the hand to share their shocked reaction on social media describing how “big” it was. “We think it is not human because of the size and amount of bones,” Santiago said. “What could it possibly be?”

One commenter wryly remarked that it could be the beloved extraterrestrial from Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film about a pint-sized alien, or perhaps it belonged to a creature from prehistoric times.

“Looks like ET’s hand,” one person quipped. It could be a “mermaid hand!” suggested another. “Might as well be a dinosaur bone!” stated one. “Take it to a biologist, because this isn’t normal,” one sane person advised the couple.

When they took it to Eric Comin, a marine biologist, his first deduction was that the hand probably belonged to a dolphin that died most likely in the water 18 months ago, though insisting on more testing to pinpoint exactly which sea creature the mysterious discovery belonged to.

Alien controversy?Anything unidentified or scientifically not proved now falls into the category of alien and some sections of the media have jumped on the wagon to link the long fingers of the skeleton to an alien, indeed.

This is not the first time to cite an alien behind something. History is full of such pieces of “aliens”. Until the US Air Force clarified, even a stealth aircraft was branded as an alien sighting in the sky.

A reflection of the International Space Station’s blimp across its glass window was often attributed to an alien or UFO. The alien phenomenon remains enamored as long as the hype-seeking media outlets seek succor in extrapolating even trivial findings.

Ever since the blockbuster “ET, the Extra-Terrestrial”, followed by the decades of Star Trek episodes to the books of Isaac Asimov and Ursula K Le Guin, science fiction writers have rekindled the alien interest among us.

Though no evidence of extraterrestrial life has been found, we haven’t lost hope. In fact, any tweaked shadow or a strange rock on Mars has been widely used to see an “alien” structure or evidence of past life on the red planet.

In 1961, astrophysicist Frank Drake came out with a formula to estimate the number of alien civilizations which may likely exist in the Milky Way galaxy stating that there is a decent chance of finding intelligent extraterrestrials out there in the universe.

But John Zarnecki, emeritus professor of space sciences at the Open University in the UK differs. Giving the example of exoplanets, he said, “Finding life or making contact is always going to be highly unlikely until the day we do… we all suspected exoplanets were out there, but there was no way that we’d ever find one because it was technically far too difficult.”

Some have argued that we do not have a protocol as to how we might react if we ever did make contact with aliens, especially if they’re an intelligent alien species far more different and superior to our human species.

In 1977, then Grenada prime minister Eric M Gairy, who believed UFO sightings may have been signs of hostile extraterrestrial life on our planet, suggested an official probe by the UN into the alien sightings. A French military dossier that was leaked in 1999 reflected fears that unexplained UFO phenomena could potentially be extraterrestrial.

Building on decades of debate on UFOs, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence group at the International Academy of Astronautics adopted a post-detection framework in 2010, recommending the creation of a forum for international coordination through the UN and its Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

For the first time, even the US Congress debated what to do about these mysterious flying objects. NASA too has relented finally and formed a panel to probe into UFO sightings.

Are we ready to receive aliens?If an alien ever visits Earth, it would certainly mean that the alien civilization has technological superiority than what we possess.

“If they can get here, as opposed to transmitting a message, they are more advanced than we are by an enormous margin,” says Seth Shostak, an astronomer for the SETI Institute, a non-profit seeking to understand and explain the origin and nature of life in the Universe.

“What are you going to do if they’re aggressive?” asks Shostak. “It’d be like Neanderthals trying to meet with the US Air Force: the Neanderthals could have all the policies they want, but it wouldn’t matter.”

Jill Stuart, specializing in outer space law at the London School of Economics, believes that humans will not make contact with extraterrestrials within our lifetimes. Nonetheless, she supports the ongoing debate.

“We search the Universe to discover ourselves, because it forces us to reflect back on how we relate to each other, how we relate to our environment, and how we relate to other species and people,” she says. “These future-focused scenarios may never happen, but the whole process has value in and of itself.”