Nearly half the population believes UFOs could be a sign of extraterrestrial visitation.

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.

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