Area 51: aliens, conspiracy plots, crashed weather balloons, experiments on alien corpses, Agent Scully... A lot of good stuff comes to mind when the name of the most famous classified base is mentioned. What else comes to mind? Agent Scully... Mmmm... let me get my head out of the gutter. What else comes to mind? Ah, yes, top secret airplanes, or "black planes."

Black planes can get really famous whenever the government reveals one of them. Think about the U-2 spyplane of the 1950s; a band's named after that plane now. Then there's the SR-71 Blackbird. The X-men's plane looks awfully similar to the SR-71. Then there's the F-117; during the first Iraq war, it literally became the poster boy for the whole war effort. The first Iraq war was around fifteen years ago. Only three aircraft have been introduced since. One was Polecat. Another was Northrop Grumman’s Tacit Blue, nicknamed "the Whale." The third was Boeing’s Bird of Prey, which tested visual stealth strategies, including shaping that minimizes shadows and contrast and, rumor has it, body illumination that allows it to blend into its background.

This does not mean, however, that the black-aircraft community is dormant. Google Earth reveals a newly constructed additional runway and multiple new hangars and buildings at the base. Increased activity? It may mostly be educated speculation but the nice folks at Popular Science have featured a list of probable planes that are currently being tested at the famous site.

Read on to see concept images of the planes and the evidence and details surrounding them (click on the Full Article link below).

And here they are: the top ten Close Encounters of the Third Kind, disproved, debunked and refuted:

Myth 10: Aliens Constructed the Great Pyramids

Fact: Construction methods used by the ancient Egyptians are well documented in National Geographic, as well as other places. Those ancients had a lot more on the ball than we often give them credit for.

Myth 9: - Cattle Mutilations Are The Work Of Extra-Terrestrials

Fact: These types of predation been going on for thousands of years. It is only in the last thirty that people have thought to attribute them to extra-terrestrials. In fact, close and objective study shows that these "mysterious" features can be attributed to natural decay and scavengers.

Myth 8: The U.S. Government is Hiding Alien Bodies and Technology In Area 51

Fact: The U.S. Government - especially recently - is secretive by nature. This is near the site of several old nuclear tests, and media reporter Leslie Stahl suggests it may be a dumping ground for toxic waste as well - a good enough reason to stay away.

Myth 7: The Mysterious "Crop Circles" Are Actually Alien Spacecraft Landing Sites

Fact: Like the Pacific Northwest's bigfoot, this has been proven to be a hoax perpetrated by people with too much time on their hands.

Myth 6: The Face On Mars Was Built By an Alien Civilization

Fact: Close-up photos from different angles show that it is no more than a natural rock formation. Geology and wishful thinking can play strange tricks on the eyes.

Myth 5: The Alien Autopsy Film

Fact: See #7. The Special Effects artist who created this film confessed earlier this year.

Myth 4: Flying Saucers Are Alien Space Vehicles

Fact: This is the result of a misprint. The original reporter described what he saw as a "crescent shaped" that "flew erratic, like a saucer if you skip it across the water"—not that what he saw resembled an actual saucer. Unfortunately, the description stuck, and (see #6) people see what they want to see...

Myth 3: Alien Implants

Fact: According to Joe Nickell, who writes for the Skeptical Inquirer: “Since 1994 alleged implants have been surgically recovered but they’ve become remarkably diverse: one looks like a shard of glass, another a triangular piece of metal, still another a carbon fiber, and so on. " See #6.

Myth 2: Alien Abductions

Fact: False memories are sometimes created in therapy by psychologists who are careless. Other research have shown that a psychological process called "sleep paralysis" can also lead to strange delusions.

Myth 1: The Roswell Incident

Fact: In the years between the end of World War II and the 40-year period of paranoia known as the "Cold War," there was a spy program called Project Mogul. The scraps recovered by the Air Force were that of a weather balloon, and eyewitness descriptions are consistent with this. The stories of alien bodies appeared much later, and seem to be related to local folklore going back a century.