One of the biggest cosmic questions in existence is, “are we alone in the Universe?” While not even NASA can definitively say for sure, some celebrities are pretty certain they already know the answer. Each of these stars has publicly professed a belief in the existence of alien life, with some even going on active searches for a close encounter of their very own.
Since the first African American surpassed Earth’s stratosphere and traveled to space in 1942, Black people have been a part of out-of-this-world processes launched in the USA. Whether serving as the brains behind the operation, to sitting in the pilot’s seat on space missions, to personally walking among the stars, these are the Black astronauts, astrophysicists, and astronomical scientists that have contributed to the exploration of space and expanded our knowledge of the cosmos.