A solar observatory that went into lockdown in September sparked rumours it had snapped a photo of alien craft it wasn't meant to see. Other suggested it was conducting an energy weapons test. The observatory's director was forced to go public to quash the UFO rumours. It was later revealed a janitor had been allegedly using the observatory's Wi-Fi to distribute child porn - or so says the FBI.

And in November a UFO was detected by several pilots flying above Ireland, their baffled conversation recorded for the internet's amusement.

Lost… again





It's been four-and-a-half years since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared, and theories on what happened to it and where it is continue to emerge.

In August it was claimed the doomed flight was brought down by a stowaway, hiding in the under-floor avionics bay behind the flight deck. Just why, he didn't speculate.

In September, a UK man claimed to have found the flight's wreckage in the Cambodian jungle using Google Maps. In September he put his money where his mouth is and went into the jungle, but had to abandon the search because it was too dangerous, and went back to looking at aerial imagery.

And because all good conspiracies have an Antarctica angle, how about this guy who said MH370 might have been remotely hijacked and buried in the ice? (Speaking of Antarctica, Newshub in March got to visit a site called Area 122 - kind of like Area 51, except covered in snow instead of desert.)

Nazis





Ever since Hitler shot himself as Berlin fell (or did he? Yes, he did), there have been wild conspiracy theories about the fate of the Nazi leader.

More than 70 years later, scientists in France said it was time to end the madness 'cause they'd proved once-and-for-all he was dead.

Another Nazi myth was debunked in 2018 - that one of their state-of-the-art World War II U-boats made it all the way to South America, carrying the Nazi leadership to safety in fascist-friendly Argentina. It was found at the bottom of the North Sea, a very long way from South America.

And if the Nazis' on-the-record atrocities weren't enough, it was claimed in a new book that autism research pioneer Hans Asperger handed children with disabilities over to the ghastly regime.

Time travel





2018 was a popular year for time travellers to visit, undergo dubious lie detector tests and upload videos of the results to YouTube. In February a man called Noah "from the year 2030" warned us Donald Trump would get reelected in 2020 and change his name to 'Ilana Remikee', surely the worst of his many crimes.

Noah's follow-up was even better - the 2030 version interviewed the 2070 version of himself, the latter making the stunning claim that in 50 years' time we'll have cars that can drive themselves.