Researchers said that the public, using close-up photographs of the moon from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, should be allowed to participate in the search for alien life in the moon.

According to Professor Paul Davis and research technician Robert Wagner, if we are in search for alien life, we can take a little closer at the moon to see if any evidence of alien life might have been left behind.

This search for proof of alien life is the moon, according to Davis and Wagner, could be participated in by the public using pictures that are available via the Internet. Interesting "finds" could then be studied further by professionals, they suggest.

The team also suggested the possibility of using image or shape recognizing software to scan photos of the mo+on to help narrow down search areas and to alert human's when it finds something interesting.

According to the scientists in their published paper in Acta Astronautica, it makes sense to use the moon as a base camp or remote observation post in our search for aliens.

Davis and Wagner pointed out that the moon is so barren, has no atmosphere and is seldom hit with meteorites so that things that happened there are preserved for tens or even millions of years. Thus, if any aliens visited the moon during that time span, it should be possible to find traces of their activity, or their equipment, that would prove their existence, the researchers say.

The search for the existence of intelligent alien life, such as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), is an ongoing concern. According to researchers, looking for proof that we have been visited by aliens may seem farfetched but it could have a high impact if successful.

The researchers added that indirect evidence for extraterrestrial intelligence could come from any incontrovertible signatures of non-human technology, and that existing searchable databases from astronomy, biology, earth and planetary sciences can offer low-cost opportunities to seek a footprint of extraterrestrial technology.