Churchill's space essay praised by scientist

A newly unearthed essay by Winston Churchill shows Britain's wartime leader was uncannily prescient about the possibility of alien life on planets orbiting stars other than the sun.

The 11-page article was drafted on the eve of World War II in 1939 and updated in the 1950s, decades before astronomers discovered the first extrasolar planets in the 1990s.

Yet Churchill pinpointed issues dominating today's debate about extraterrestrial life, proving that the former prime minister "reasoned like a scientist", according to an analysis of his work published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.