In what could potentially be the biggest story in the history of science – two rival teams of astronomers are said to be racing to confirm the discovery of an alien civilsation

A British academic believes he has stumbled on the most world-changing piece of news in recorded history.

Professor Simon Holland, who has produced documentaries for NASA-funded projects including a project pinpointing Earth-threatening asteroids, says that two rival groups of astronomers are in a race to publish the first confirmed evidence of an extraterrestrial civilisation.

He told The Mirror: “We have found a non-human extraterrestrial intelligence in our galaxy, and people don’t know about it.” Simon explains that he has been given information by a contact within Mark Zuckerbeg’s Breakthrough Listen, a privately-funded initiative aimed at finding evidence of civilisations beyond Earth.

And the news may come within the next month to coincide with the US election, he believes. He claims that astronomers within the Oxford-based project have identified clear evidence of transmissions from another world.