Aliens or Terrestrial Hoaxers: Crop Circles Created Using GPS, Lasers and Microwaves (PHOTOS)

For more than a century, mysterious crop circles have baffled scientists and farmers with its complex patterns and sophisticated shapes. In the past, formations have been found in parts of Europe, Russia, North and South America, Australia, Japan and India.

With over 10,000 documented cases of this major scientific mystery, scientists and physicists were at a loss of justified and authentic answers.

While some believe it to be the result of "mowing devils", some others attribute the formations to aliens and even whirlwinds.

To the dismay of many UFO fans, the mystery seemed to be apparently solved when a number of cases were proved to be the masterminds of artists and pranksters. Although this provided a valid answer, yet it could not explain many other cases which continue to baffle people till date.

Some of the artists who have admitted in the past about their creations have said to have employed stompers, string, and garden rollers and bar stools.

A recent Physics World report by Richard Taylor, director of the Materials Science Institute at the University of Oregon, has mentioned that today, crop circle artists may resort to Global Positioning System, lasers and even microwaves for creating the formations.

Facts about Crop Circles:

* Artistic patterns created by flattening crops like wheat, rye, maize and barley.
* Although the exact date of when the crop circles first appeared is unknown, some of the first documented cases were during the 1970s.
* Formations are usually made overnight although; there have been cases of such formations during the daytime as well.
* Most of the patterns were formed using mathematical relationships like diatonic ratios.
* Evidence that some of the circles have been exposed to microwaves during their formation is the presence of swollen stalks discovered by biophysicists.