December 11, 2008 01:04pm

THE truth isn't just out there - it's apparently right near the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

A shocked Daily Telegraph reader spotted what appears to be a flying saucer hovering directly above Millers Point while checking out Google Maps this morning. See it below or click here to go to Google.

The bizarre discovery comes at the tail end of a bumper year for close enounters of the third kind with strange craft seen all over NSW, Australia and Britain.

And Apollo 14 astronaut Dr Edgar Mitchell - who knows his stuff as co-holder of the record for longest-ever moon walk - caused a storm when he insisted extra-terrestrials had paid repeated visits to our planet but the encounters were kept secret by government agencies.

Then a Turkish security guard took a series of photographs which experts insist are the "most important images of a UFO ever caught on camera", showing a saucer-like craft flying in the night sky which under scrutiny even apparently reveal alien beings inside.

Careful study of the Google picture isn't quite as enlightening. Photograph experts warned it could be a distortion - but Google didn't deny it was an alien craft.

A spokesman joked: "The interplanetary internet project is clearly gaining momentum quicker than we thought!"

He added: "Of course, as with human-owned vehicles in Google street view, the licence plates on this UFO are not identifiable."