Roswell Sixty

Next month sees the sixtieth anniversary of what UFO-watchers worldwide know as the "Roswell incident" - when an alien spaceship was supposed to have crashed in the New Mexico desert.

CNN sends a man to Roswell - now a town which thrives on the UFO business - to report on the anniversary.

Roswell is packed with shops selling UFO-related merchandise, including inflating "little green men" and numerous bumper stickers professing belief in alien activity. There's even a UFO museum.

The official story about the Roswell Incident is that a weather balloon crashed. However, stories soon leaked out about mysterious writing on the wreckage, tiny coffins being ordered and even at least one alien "survivor" held in the top secret "Area 51" facility. The presence of government investigators turned an unusual incident into a worldwide conspiracy theory which still captures the imagination today.

The alien-themed drama "The X-Files" saw a peak in extra-terrestrial interest ten years ago: Roswell's 60th, the town's businessmen are hoping, will draw even more crowds.

Maybe even the aliens will make a return visit.