A leading astrophysicist who has worked on space missions claims that he and his colleagues are in contact with extraterrestrials who are "living among us." And they don't like what they see.

Latchezar Filipov, head of the Space Research Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, is causing global ripples after researching crop circles around the world.

"We sent (the aliens) 30 questions about global problems," said Filipov, who was vague about how he actually conveyed the queries. "And now we have some answers."

The "answers" came in the form of pictograms in crop circles.

Filipov says the aliens are here, observing us, but unobservable by us for some reason.

"I feel that ... some kind of information is being taught, that they'd like to be in contact with us," Filipov said Friday in halting English from his office in Sofia.

Filipov asked the aliens about the SETI, the broad umbrella project searching for alien life, and the supposed end of the world in 2012, when the Mayan calendar expires.

He told the Star that the aliens have told him SETI doesn't work, owing to a confusion about communication through "magnetic fields."

They also said there is some truth in the 2012 predictions, having something to do with volcanoes in Mexico.

Further, more prosaic revelations include that the aliens are angry about global warming, disagree with in-vitro fertilization and don't like cosmetics. Apparently, Filipov's aliens are grumpy Republicans.

This work is only beginning, Filipov cautioned, and he is still open to the fact that he could be mistaken – "I don't yet believe that this is absolutely true information."

Filipov is no garden-variety crank. He sports an impressive CV: graduate work at Moscow State University, a variety of high-level positions studying astrophysics, work on a MIR spacecraft mission.

However, his latest preoccupation has caught his international contemporaries by surprise.

"I'm not aware of this work," said Ian Corbett, general secretary of the executive committee of the Paris-based International Astronomical Union. "But it is very hard to take seriously."

The IAU website shows Filipov as an active member.

Filipov's colleagues inside Bulgaria are more peevish. There is a move afoot to force his resignation from the Space Research Institute.

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"In Bulgaria now, we have a very strange reaction to my research," Filipov said. "The people in Bulgaria are frightened, they don't understand this.

"You must understand that this is a very complicated situation."