text: A conspiracy theorist claims to have found evidence that aliens have been watching our early attempts at space travel. UFO researcher Scott Waring says he has spotted an extra-terrestrial spacecraft in a 55-year-old photo from Nasa's Mercury Project. Scientists say radical claims such as this are a simple case of pareidolia, which is the psychological response to seeing significant items in random places. A close up view of what Scott Waring believes is the UFO coming into view.  The image was taken as part of Project Mercury, which was the US' first mission to put men in space. Scientists says claims such as this are a case of pareidolia, which tricks the brain into seeing familiar objects in random places . Many scientists believe UFO sightings such as this are down to a psychological phenomenon called pareidolia. Pareidolia is the response to seeing faces and other significant and items, such as UFO, in random stimulus. 'The vast majority of these images are as vague and elusive as those posted by UFO witnesses on Earth, and many have a fairly mundane explanation,' Nigel Watson author of the UFO investigations Manual told DailyMail.com . 'The problem is that the more Nasa denies such things or explains them, the more people think there is a conspiracy to hide the truth that aliens are visiting our planet.' The image was taken by unmanned space probe Mercury-Redstone 1A on December 19, 1960. 'Why wouldn't aliens be interested in watching a historical moment in human history?,' asked Waring in his blog. 'Especially since the capsule was unmanned, there were no worries that they would be seen.' The image was taken as part of Project Mercury, which was the US' first mission to put humans in space. It started in 1958 and ended in 1963. The objectives of the program were to orbit a manned spacecraft around Earth, investigate man's ability to function in space, and to recover both the astronaut and spacecraft safely. The first United States astronaut was Alan Shepard, whose suborbital flight of the Freedom 7 space capsule on May 5, 1961, was the first success of the Mercury program. 'It's actually the Earth in the background and the UFO is in space observing the Mercury capsule,' Waring said . This isn't the first time UFO hunters have scoured old Nasa images in the hope of finding evidence of alien life. Earlier this year, Waring claimed to have seen two mysterious glowing objects in a photo from a Gemini mission in 1966. And a ten-year old image of the Martian yielded what Waring believed to be a rock shaped uncannily like the President Obama's head - and that it could be part of a statue. The image was taken by unmanned space probe Mercury-Redstone 1A on December 19, 1960. 'It's actually the Earth in the background and the UFO is in space observing the Mercury capsule,' Waring said . Earlier this year, Waring claimed to have seen two glowing objects in a photo from a Gemini mission in 1966 . Many scientists believe UFO sightings such as this are down to a psychological phenomenon called pareidolia. This describes the brain's response to seeing significant objects in random places. 'The vast majority of these images are as vague and elusive as those posted by UFO witnesses on Earth, and many have a fairly mundane explanation,' Nigel Watson author of the UFO investigations Manual told DailyMail.com . 'The problem is that the more Nasa denies such things or explains them, the more people think there is a conspiracy to hide the truth that aliens are visiting our planet.'
target: Image was captured by Mercury-Redstone 1A probe in December 1960 .
  Part of Project Mercury which was US' first mission to put men in space .
  Scientists believe UFO sightings such as this are caused by pareidolia .
  Condition tricks the brain into seeing familiar objects in random places .