In August 1835 citizens in New York City received extraordinary news. According to the New York Sun, the British astronomer Sir John Herschel had found proof of life on the moon.

On the 25th August, 1835, the New York Sun newspaper published the first of six articles that collectively became known as ‘The Great Moon Hoax’. Dr Andrew Grant, a made up reporter, claimed to be a colleague of the famous astronomer Sir John Herschel who, so the article reported, had discovered alien life forms on the moon from his observatory at the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.