EITHER we aren't alone, or it's nigh time NASA fixed its dodgy cameras.
For the third time this year, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has returned an image of a giant UFO hovering near, or feeding off the Sun. Maybe.
SOHO was launched in 1995 as a joint effort between NASA and the European Space Agency, with a sole aim to study the Sun. The mission was supposed to last just two years, but it is still plugging away and has approved support from ESA to continue to do so until at least December.
In recent years, SOHO has found an extended role as a predictor of solar weather activity, helping scientists on Earth prepare for radiation bursts sent our way by solar flares.
On the SOHO homepage, fans can access all sorts of Sun-related data, including images that have been built from observations from any of the dozen or so instruments onboard SOHO, and videos.
The same sort of content can be found at NASA's solo project, the Solar Dynamic Observatory. Most popular are videos that feature comet fly-bys or collisions. Others specialises in time lapse rotations of the Sun showing flare activity.
It's these that keep turning up on skywatcher websites and conspiracy theorist blogs in equal measures.
In December, one was the source of hysteria surrounding the appearance of a cloaked alien spaceship near Mercury.
In March, it was a Death Star refuelling on the sun.
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