A HuffPost/YouGov poll reveals that 48 percent of adults in the United States are open to the idea that alien spacecraft are observing our planet -- and just 35 percent outright reject the idea.
The poll was seen as vindication from the community of UFO researchers who often feel they are laughed off by government officials.
"It's always been intriguing to me how we act as though only kooks and quacks and little old ladies in tennis shoes believe in flying saucers. And it's never been true, at least for 30 or 40 years," said former nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman, who was the original civilian investigator of the events surrounding the legendary Roswell, NM, UFO crash of 1947.
Friedman is very outspoken on the idea that some UFOs are intelligently controlled extraterrestrial vehicles.
"The believers are far more quiet, but far more on the side of reality," Friedman told The Huffington Post. "When you look at the polls, it's clear. And I see the benefit of that, personally, because I've only had 11 hecklers in over 700 lectures. I've been out there, all over the place, in every state, 18 other countries, and I know that my audience is more than tolerant -- they're accepting. It's been one of the things that really has kept me going."
In the HuffPost/YouGov poll, conducted between Sept. 6-7, 1,000 adults were asked if they either believed or didn't believe that some people have witnessed UFOs that have an extraterrestrial origin.
When YouGov offered respondents the choice between "slightly disagree," "disagree" and "strongly disagree," those numbers added up to 35 percent who are skeptical of the notion that any UFOs may be alien-related.
However, nearly half of the adults surveyed (48 percent) resounded in the affirmative, leaving 16 percent who indicated that they weren't sure on either side of the ET issue.