Dave from Oceanside-
What chemical plant changes are you talking about? and do we have confirmation that such changes were found at this site as well?

ravenwyrd, Campbell Hall, USA

The crop formation is telling us that PI is incomplete, and also when complete it opens up a new math for technology.

www.PiPyramid.com

RobertB, Minnesota, USA

Nice work, boyos, but to REALLY understand these circles, you need to know that there are only 10 types of people in this world: them as understands and binary and them as don't, see?

Daniel Morgans, Merthyr, Wales

i can't believe anyone still believes these are created by aliens. There's created by a few creative souls who spend their summers camping at the Barge Inn.

The patterns follow distinct fashions, first plain circles, the next few years they has 'keys' then it moved on to geometric circles.

tallow, Pewsey, wiltshire

oh and whats' more during the summer the countryside was 'closed' due to foot and mouth there were none. odd that, didn't realise aliens repected f&m restrictions

tallow, Pewsey, wiltshire

Hey, smartypantses ... as has been suggested in this blog: Do it yourselves! Get the string, the sticks etc, a camera , and show us all how easy it is. I'm looking forward to see your work on UTUBE.

Dave, Alice Springs, Australia

And of course, the edge of the inner circle from which the whole thing expands from just so happens to lie right on the convenient pre-existing tractor-made access line.

Robert Lee, Houston, TX, USA

All this talk of "total darkness" is nonsense. At this time of year, the sun is up at 4am, so you can make a crop circle in broad daylight and be away by 6am. Just the thing to round off (sorry!) a late night drinking session.

Aliens? Give me a break! Engineering students, more like.

Martin, Newmarket, Suffolk

Its all just electromagnetic spyrograph, the HAARP system
produces millions of watts of microwave energy. If you look
at the collective research( crop circles, quest for truth) the
most logical cause of the "bent nodes" is electromagnetic
or microwave energy. Psy-ops with HAARP!

todd richardson, hadley, usa

@ D WIlson, Silver Spring MD, USA

Hope you find this.... do some Google searches of Wiltshire Crop circles in and around the Vale of Pewsey, Alton Barnes, Marlborough and Devizes, Wiltshire during the late 1980's.

There was a lot of TV coverage and study (books) done.

Don' dismiss the beer

Ann Alien-Hughie, Evian, France

Ann: They took their shoes off and trod carefully. The contrast between broken/non-broken crop circles only suggests that some humans are lazier than others.

But I am stumped by your assertion of medieval woodcuts; everyone knows that pranking was only invented during the Industrial Revolution

Sam B, Bristol,

I don't think the aliens are very bright. It must have taken them ages to do that crop circle when they could have just landed on the village green, nipped into the local and asked to be taken to our leader.

Thomas Golzen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Southampton University...not that far away..has some very bright Engineering students!!! Wonder if there's a connection?

Richard Andrew Jefferies, Castaño del Robledo, Spain

The design is clever but this coverage is garbage. It's a crop circle! There is no need for mathematicians or astrophysicists. Even IF this was a alien message what relevance would astrophysics play? It's barley that's been pushed over, not a blackhole.

D, London,

Peter "Students of the world - grow up and be responsible! "
how do know its students?, its not right to accuse students straight away. : )

Ben, London,

If this isn't proof of human cause, does it have to encode a Shakespeare sonnet?

Eric Skelton, Cardiff, Wales

Actually its not the first 10 digits of PI. Its PI rounded to 10 digits (the last digit is rounded up from 3 to 4). The first 10 digits of PI add up to 39.

John, Manchester,

What a gift, these circles are to Humanity! All we need to do is look at them, for our consciousness to shift into a higher truth.

Jennifer Edwards -Author, New South Wales, Australia

Lots of research has been done. The naysayers are just afraid of looking at it.
The crops are NEVER broken. They are "bent".

Yeah, I know, just stupid drunken college pranksters in the middle of the night. And 911 was committed by 19 hijackers too, right?

Tom Z., Chicago, USA

Given the fuss about this run of the mill (by current standards) formation, I'm wondering if it is anything to do with the rumoured acquisition of land in Wiltshire by Charles Saatchi who is, apparently, keen to add a circle to his art collection.

Weird? Tell that to Banksie's collectors!

Terry, Dorset,

Will the aliens who made this crop circle reimburse the farmer for the loss in income due to the damaged harvest?

New, Niagara Falls, Canada

314159 // 2653

It's an Iron Age puzzle: pi is a turn of 180 degrees, where 180 = 2 * 6 * 5 * 3.
Can you find @[314159] = 180 as well?

tommy kline, los angeles,

"Is it that mysterious that someone in charge of some satelites decided to "print" interesting images on the earth from orbit?"
Well, that would be possible if we had a laser that didnt burn... However, the strenght of the laser required would burn the ground in the crop circle. Can't see burnt

Jean, Karlstad, Sweden

To the people that say that this is easy to do, show us how easy it is then you can have some credibility.

Mike, Queensland,

come on now.

this is the age of google earth, lasers, and satelites that can read the brand name of a golfball sitting on a green.

Is it that mysterious that someone in charge of some satelites decided to "print" interesting images on the earth from orbit?

dave, Halifax, Canada

Just wanted to note that this circle is actually a very simple one to make, being just sectors of concentric circles. Nothing "highly complex" about it. And any number could be encoded in it.

go, berlin,

What a coincidence this appears as two different UFO's appear in the country, is there a connection ?

Just because we can't prove anything it does not mean there is nothing out there ! da da da daaaaaaaa

maggie millington, brittany, france

On further thought, has any serious journalistic investigation of these circles been done? Were any traces of people or makers found, footprints, or such? I see reports of these things but apparently no serious close up on site examination. Memo to: The Times, why don't you get going, and report your results?

D WIlson, Silver Spring MD, USA

This could only have been created by a higher form of intelligence and it conveys the simplest of messages: "We understand your way of thinking and your level of advancement." Proof? A completely new way of representing Pi. Astounding, quite right, but most of all peaceful. Open your minds :)

Ian, London,

Not only do they use the decimal system - they even have the same convention for the decimal point - another coincedence? or are they smart enough to know that is what we use? - if so then you would think they would use a more obvious form of communication - like write to the times.

Peter, Melbourne, Australia

I don't agree Andy, with a brain like this whoever it is, cannot be bored, only brilliantly clever

elsie whyte, Bangor, Down

Very attractive work.

Now, why would any thinking individual give credit to "aliens" for this cornfield art? Wishful thinking, perhaps? Suggesting "aliens" create crop circles is right up there with suggesting mankind causes global warming. (Undoubtedly, the reverse is more likely true. :-) )

Scott, Durham, NC, USA

If it were aliens, it's a bit presumptuous to assume they use pi as their means of calculating circular dimensions - they could well use some kind of far more advanced methodology. That alone proves it's a hoax in my opinion.

Alex, London,

This is a job for the Myth Busters .Give them a length of string, a plank ,and ten pints of Wiltshire ale apeice send them out in to a feild in the middle of the night and see what they come up with.

Robert Fitzgerald, London, UK

"The middle diagram 'looks' like Earth & Moon, the line possibly a 'formula' or similar to get to the three outer planets? No doubt a humble, open mind will discover the secret." Adam, Melbourne

Actually, Adam, the straight lines come form a farmer driving a tractor across the field.

Damian, London, UK

Perhaps a mathematician did it.

Kevin Straw, Leicester,

So the Aliens use base 10 arithmetic, do they? What a remarkable coincidence.

Henry, Bristol, UK

Maybe if Brown and Darling recruited the creators of the crop circle they could better disguise the stealth taxes!

Ian, Camberley,

why is some maths boffin spending his time in a field in Wiltshire when he should be teaching this stuff to the heathen offspring of Britain?? #
Come back in from the cold whoever you are, and apply for a job.
All is forgiven!

Gerry, London,

Whoever did this seems to have followed a chart pretty precisely- Our gardeners here seem to have a rough time doing that sometimes- Can we hire you guys (or women) to work on the flowers, herbs and vegetables in our garden in our backyard here? You all would probably be quite good at topiary, too!

Scott Benowitz, Rye, New York, U.S.A.

I suggest the Times ask Stephen Hawking for his opinion; it should be interesting as always. I can't buy the string, boards and a few pints theory, all in pitch darkness? Seems hardly likely.

D WIlson, Silver Spring MD, USA

I have assembled some 40 different crop circles appearing around the world, they appear to be complex messages of some kind - this one perhaps we might have a clue what it is trying to communicate. But Why? and Where do they originate? How is another question? And how are we to react to them?

Robert Tilford , McCracken, , USA, Kansas

It was a nice touch that the aliens encoded PI for our human, base-10 number system. Such considerate grays.

Sam Brown, Los Angeles, CA, US

The way the circles are made and their extreme accuracy shows that they couldnt be made by humans. Perfect geometry, undamaged plants AND actual chemical changes to the plants prove they are from advanced non-earthlings.

the dave, Oceanside, United States

I believe in aliens, but i am not convinced aliens made the crop circles. it would be cool to make one though, I'd do it! :)

shawna, OTTAWA, CANADA

Actually its not the first 10 digits of PI. Its PI rounded to 10 digits. The first 10 digits of PI add up to 39.

John, Manchester,

Frankly, I'm not impressed. A high school grad can google "pi" and get this sort of image off the internet. If the "aliens" want to impress me, they can level some crops and show us the formula for cold fusion.

Dennis, Deerfield, USA

Now you know why they call us moonrakers.

Mike L, Chippenham, Wilts

It looks to me as though the "aliens," who I believe to belong to an undiscovered civilization here on Earth and who were our ancient "gods," are trying to create designs that are impossible for hoaxers to reproduce so as to show us that they are here. I think they have succeeded with this design.

James, El Paso, Texas, USA

All the different papers use the same photo. Reckon it was knocked up in Adobe Photoshop?

Luke, London, UK

It's beautiful, baby.

But I do really worry about what an Alien GoogleMaper makes of this 'insulting' symbol , as he directs his
Photonic-Disintigrater Beam towards this planet.

dave, cumbria,

"astounding moment"...."seminal event" ..... could someone explain exactly why ??

Isn't it time we started to talk about the merit of these works in the way we talk about artists like Banksy, Hirst or Emin.......& arn't we just a little bored of maths related crop images already ??

nicholson, london, uk

What a pointless piece of journalism. Are the boffins perplexed because they do not understand how/who made the circle or the message's meaning? Apparently not. We are then told someone has established it is a geometric depiction of Pi which is actually a number not a symbol. Utter ballyioks

Gerry Corrigan, London, UK

It's just nerdy alien yobs tagging planets with their mathematical graffiti.

But what's the government going to do about this cosmosocial nuisance? Perhaps they'll take more of our civil liberties away to "protect" us from the interstellar hoodies.

Simon, Brentwood, UK

Well, at least we know that whoever made it is from a species with ten digits. Whether they have 5 hands, each with 2, or 2 hands, each with 5 may forever remain a mystery :)

Adam, Pau, France

I noticed a lighter coloration at points in the photo, where one would have had to back up a mowing vehicle in order to complete the design. Not something a visitor from outer space would be expected to do, unless all they had at hand was perhaps a Massey Fergusen.

Richard Sye, Carriere, US/Mississippi

The string-and-boards set have not explained why boards don't break corn stalks or why drunken doodlers at night leave no footprints. Mediaeval woodcuts depict crop circles, which were then called "devil's circles". Space travel was unkown at that time, so crop circles were blamed on Satan. Humans!

Ann, Lightwater, England

i`m a wiltshire lad and this crop circle bothers me because i never met anyone clever enough in wiltshire to carry this out.

simon, plymouth, england

Would have been more interesting if it was a giant apple pie, nice artwork although i think everyone reads into it to much.

humble Pi anyone?

James, Dunstable, England

Maybe somebody is trying to drive up the price of wheat bread or beer? People hoping to purchase a loaf of bread or a six-pack of beer made from the barley malt from this magical field?
Or perhaps someone is trying to drive down the price of those items; people afraid of crops from this area now?

Scott Benowitz, Rye, New York, U.S.A.

Wow - Blanche, thanks for clearing it up for everyone, no need to worry about crop cirlces no more...but ummm any reason to why this crop circle was made? and by who?

Mass Barbato, London, England

To Brian, Aberystwyth,

You certainly mad my day! Cereal Killers! LOL

Cheers. Dee

Dee, Ednbr,

I get 41,

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
8214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196
4428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273
724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941511609...

Andy, Timmins, Canada

It was Aliens.
But they were only joking
JC

John Cullen, Cork, ireland

I wish I knew what these people were talking about.

victor arram, westcliff,

It's just beautiful work whoever (or whatever) created it!

As for explanations, well perhaps the rational is too glib and the irrational...............who knows, not me!

Hopefully friendly aliens with the answers to all this sad worlds problems............

Terry, Bagneres, France

Backwards its 42. Isnt this supposed to be the answer to life, the universe and everything? The ultimate answer? Now what was the question...... Either this is the work of fans of a certain Mr Adams or he also has fans of a more unearthly nature.

Harbert Snarbert, Edinberg,

At least this finding proves that the circle was made by hoaxers and not aliens.

If you were going to print some "universal message" you wouldn't do it in an arbitrary base like decimal.

Binary next time please.

Simon, London,

The intent of this crop circle is to define the space between the line and the curve, graphically the differential between a linear and nonlinear asymptote. The next crop formation will move to the next place, or 11 digit of pi. The symbol for pi defines the paradox of wave/particle duality.

Blanche McLanahan, Troutdale, USA

Looks like a Meta-transiliatory communication from the high level powers.

Interesting that the first 10 places of PI equal 40?

What about the next 10 and the next 10?

Patrick Sullivan, Des Moines, USA

It's astounding what British people will do when bored and half--drunk. We have real crop circles here too. The closer you get to the western desert, the more there are of them. Hey, you think it could possibly be the circular patterns of irrigators? Nah. It's gotta be aliens from Planet Zog.

MJ Hoeber, Orlando, USA

I think that I am starting to agree with Tom from Utah- This might be the work of a gang of professional bank robbers and they are leaving a coded message to one of their accomplices for instructions as to how to break into a vault somewhere- Alert the MI5 at once!!!

Scott Benowitz, Rye, New York, U.S.A.

These digits give Pi to base 10,
If an ET were to send it it would be based on proportions so that it would be readable in any base.

Sazdad, Jakarta, Indonesia

How do you know the photo is authentic ? Prove it please.

Shawn, USA,

Yes I agree, I dought a person could replicate this in total darkness with rope, planks, and a pint of beer.

KG, Tucson Arizona, USA

> Interesting that these aliens employ the decimal system.
Or perhaps they're just clever enough to know that we do.

David Boring, Bangor, ME, USA

To George E. Smith, Sunnyvale, USA
Good point, unless of course 'intelligent life' was trying to communicate with US, which seems a good reason for putting it down in the first place?

Adam, Melbourne,

The middle diagram 'looks' like Earth & Moon, the line possibly a 'formula' or similar to get to the three outer planets? No doubt a humble, open mind will discover the secret.

Adam, Melbourne,

Who knows, it might be some promotional stunt for Whitley Streiber's new movie "2012."

Tessa, WX, USA

I've got the solution to finding out who did it. Put CCTV cameras with night vision on all the crops in Britain!

Nick, London, U.K

I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. It's just a big pi chart.

Yul Brewer, Los Angeles, USA

The three circles following the last digit and described as ellipses appear to be in the same proportions as the first three planets of our solar system... or close anyway. More measurements than from my naked eye would be interesting.

Mike, Clearwater, USA

Yeah, those rascally aliens must be at it again!

The alien believer folks are probably the same people who believe in manmade global warming.

Very nice cornfield artwork to whoever made it!

Scott, Durham, NC, USA

The one thing we're not being told here is whether the downed wheat was broken and crushed or if the nodes were elongated and bent over, as happens in crop circles that are really inexplicable. It was the latter, if anyone can be bothered to actually research it instead of making crass comments.

Dave, London,

Finally, conclusive proof that at least one crop circle artist has taken an algebra course.

Keith S, Winnipeg, Canada

Obviously a human made fake (idle buch of college kids).
Pi has no universal meaning at all, and is solely a product of our human invented mathematics; and that particular representation is only meaningful in a base 10 number system; and any "intelligent ET would never use 10 as a base.

George E. Smith, Sunnyvale, USA

Of course, read counter-clockwise, it's the phone number ET was looking for.

Jason, Croydon, UK

Viewed one way, it's pi. Of course.

Viewed another, it's 42.

Common knowledge that crop circlers enjoy jokes in base 13, innit?

Geoffrey, Madison Wisconsin, USA

Aliens must be morons. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the best way to communicate with us humans would be to speak to us. Or write. But no .. they travel billions of light years to get here, are clever enough never to be seen, and then make patterns in wheat fields .... mmm ....

Keith Woods, London, UK

That decimal point is oddly suspicious. How would an Alien know that!? I suspect it's a borrrrred military crew looking for something to do with a multi-trillion doillar secret craft. "Roger that Captin... launching crop circle robot now". Really?

KG, Tucson Arizona, USA

I got hit by a car while riding my bicycle one and after the accident, the rear wheel and what was left of my gears formed a pattern kind of similar to that-

Scott Benowitz, Rye, New York, U.S.A.

Alanzo from Derby- Why base 8? Why not base 7? Or base 13 perhaps?

Scott Benowitz, Rye, New York, U.S.A.

This is amazing. This is the first time we have known anything about aliens' bodies; they have 10 digits we just don't know whether they are on their hands!

Dave Riddlestone, Farnborough, England

If it is man made then the owner of the copyright could make a fortune. How come no one never claims them and exhibits? That is a mystery.

Frank Tobin, Lanchester, England

This is the work of a cereal killer.

This art form could not have been worthwhile before the age of aerial photography.

Brian, Aberystwyth, United Kingdom

Of all the countries on earth why do the aliens send their messages mostly to the UK? Until this mystery is solved we'll all be running around in circles.

Saeed Kauser, Toronto, Canada

Could hidden answer be found in directive of wind and rain?
Is the momentum lost in illusion, Possibilities now in refrain?
Are these faces in sand and stone Geometry of a hidden science? Our memory now faded Offers no reliance.
Is there simplicity in the circle And hope in the curve and line?

Blanche McLanahan, Troutdale, USA

This is straight out of a report on those phony 'Drones' everyone has been wetting themselves over, and is from a report that was released last year. I'd say a year with a graphics program is enough for a clever hoaxer to come up with it. Too bad because some circles are 'real'.

Erik Downs, Brighton,

Or maybe it's George Clinton and Parliament traveling through the southwest in the mothership...

Scott Benowitz, Rye, New York, U.S.A.

Interesting that these aliens employ the decimal system.

John, Dublin, Ireland

Amazing that so many complex circles appear in an area centred on a particular pub in Pewsey, Wilts. Just saying, like.

Dave, Axbridge, UK

RINGS OF TIME TO WITHSTAND THE AGES, MARKED THROUGH TIME BY HUMANITY'S RAGES........
We are at a point in space/time where the line can circumvent the curve........opening the heavens and giving direction to man.
An equilateral law where certainty finds man with the key to his future in hand.

Blanche McLanahan, Troutdale, USA

O' how I often wonder where these shoes will carry me Could be just round in circles But, this I'll wait to see.Do you ever feel as if the ground you tread You've walked before? So hurriedly we try to leave it But its appearance is ever more. Is what we live a circle? Might our way be on a new path?

Blanche McLanahan, Troutdale, USA

bob, if they've had said: 'complex number' instead of 'complex mathematical number' (as you suggest this removes redundancy) this would actually infer a new meaning as a complex number in mathematics is something completely different from what is actually represented by the crop circle.

Matt Hodges, Sheffield, UK

where's the mystery? Fancy crop circles are made by maths or programming students - it's a geometry puzzle to devise the way to make them - that's the whole point.
Even making a pentagon with compass and straightedge is an "occult mystery" to most folks.
And why Pi? oh come on ;-)

Bill Bennett, Watchet, England

What IanH said. Pi is a fundamental constant of the universe, but it's only 3.14...... when depicted in a decimal counting system. If these supposed aliens had an octal instead of a decimal counting system, pi would look like this: 3.110375524 and the crop circle would look very different.

Alonzo, Derby,

yes it looks great. but listen, it can be created by people using boards and string. u just tie the rope to the centre of the circle so u can can follow it round in a circular pattern.

if u take another look at the pitcure while imagining that, it really isn't that difficult to believe.

tom, Darlington, UK

Call Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones- It's the late John Bonham trying to communicate from beyond this world!!!

Scott Benowitz, Rye, New York, U.S.A.

Who pays for the damage to the farmers crops. Bring back the gin traps

Richard, Bucharesr,

Another fantasy that needs to be challenged. manmade mysteries that need to self perpetuate are the bane of our existence by falsely allowing 'sects' and other religious 'cults to derive imaginative supporters in order to gain some sort of monetary gain. The perpetrators manage brilliant artwork.

lawrence jordan, Marbella, Malaga, spain

This also looks like the interior of a 9 ring combination lock, such as you might find on a expensive safe or vault..

Tom, Holladay, Utah USA,

feel the force- close to the henge & summer solstice.

steve, exeter,

More like bored Maths or Physics students having a good chuckle at the naivety of the tree-hugging community!

Robert Clare, Haywards Heath, UK

Seems to me the primary question is how was it done? If its by people it is of very limited merit. If not, is fascinating and needs full study. Cant this be established?

JT, Leeds,

Looks like the album cover to Pendulum's album "In Silico" .. if you squint.

Charles, London, UK

Pure genius- Mysterious Wiltshire holds on to its secrets!

Mrs Maggie Snook, Wareham, Dorset UK

"WHY should something/somebody print PI into a field ?"

Because it's there.

Kevin, W-s-M,

I would love to see someone re-create this in a field in total darkness with a piece of string and a plank. Absolutely no chance I defy anyone to do it.

John bingham, Havant, Hampshire

If you want a hole repaired the formula is pi-r-squared...

Jez, Ringwood, Hants

The person who photographed it just happened to get it the right way up!
A new form of circle has been appearing recently too, a brown ring appeared on my coffee table. An astrophysicist friend pointed out that it mimics the pattern on the bottom of my cup! What are the aliens trying to tell me?

Mikey Finn, London, UK

Great piece of artwork!

joe, Glasgow, UK

What is more extraordinary than this formation in the field are the comments by many of your readers who incorrectly think that it could be constructed by people with a lot of spare time using boards and string.

Arthur Yuenger, Fairfield, Iowa, USA

Rather than a mathematical perplexity it could quite simply be be numerous teams of competing "formation dancing" field mice performing a carefully choreographed routine that are eating their way to the national championships.....who really cares!! we should be complaining about the loss of barley !

PR, Manchester,

Crop circles and the making them is one of the most undervalued and misinterpreted art movements of the late 20th century. The relationship between those who make them, and those who believe in their otherwordly origins is complex, delicately negotiated and utterly fascinating.

Rupert, Launceston, united Kingdom

Interesting.

As for why Pi would be chosen, it is one of the universal constants throughout the universe, indeed I believe we have sent versions of it out on satellites so that if they are ever found they will show that they were created by sentient life.

Freaky

Tony the Trader, Canary Wharf,

It's alllliiieeennnssss :D

haha. I love this stuff, so exciting. Only because of the mystery!

Rebecca , London,

It's incredible - there is even a dot where the decimal point is (near the centre) Oh by the way, you can calculate a planetary alignment from the digram - the date of this aligment is August 9, 2014. 5 o'clock. Stick that in yer pipe...

sid, london , london

As an astrophysicist I must say it is indeed "mind boggling".

It is mind boggling that anyone still cares about old men doodling in fields. I can confidently say that this is not an astounding development on any front, and indeed is seminal of nothing but continuing forays into aching pointlessness

Roy Poulton, Manchester,

hehe, mud PI.. that's funny.

Kath, London,

Can anyone show me a crop circle in an organic field? That is,
in a field with no crop sprayer 'tram lines' in it.

Without such walkways it is difficult for 'Alien' young farmers to create these crop circles...........

David Wright, Frome, Somerset

I think it's cool . Regardless of who did the art and the motive .
btw ... Which town would that be GJB ?

Benzo , Nr Chelmsford,

Instead of wondering who or what creates the crop circles, instead of being cynical, or debating the alien vs the tourist authority theory, we should be asking the meaning of the message. Each will have their own ideas on that. Food for thought.

Rich, Selkirk, Scotland

a complex mathematical number?

are there any numbers which arent mathematical?

the only thing that boggles my mind is that this article is really badly written and lacking in appropriate skepticism.

bob, london,

Those freak winds are clever little devils.

E J Murray, Kerry, Ireland

"baffling number known to mankind "
Nothing baffling about it and it's
currently known to more than 10 billion decimal places.
Try counting 20 segments not (arbitrarily) ten and it falls over.

Ian, Berwick, UK

If Banksy did a crop circle would be be worth money?


The field would soon be on ebay!

Ste, Wakefield,

Its done for the reason your all leaving comments now...

Rob, London,

It's amazing what some people can do on the way home from the pub.

Martin, Poole, UK

If this was made by humans - congratulations , a unique intelligent design. How on earth did you do it and how long did it take?
If not made by humans - instead of messing about in our corn fields please make "yourselves" useful and sort out the economy , global warming and Gordon Brown.

Rob Green, Braintree, Essex

Look at it for what it is.. a piece of contemporary and temporary art. A clever piece of fun that we can all enjoy.
Except the farmer who has lost crop value....he's not charging people to go and visit it is he?

Bob Brown, Bransgore, UK

It's just the aliens announcing the rate of inflation!

Stu, poole,

What a load of crop!

John , Liverpool,

What fascinates me are the series of repeating pairs of vertical lines running through the overall design. Nobody has explained these yet. It's easy fo the doubters to dismiss them as tractor lines or roads. But are they something more?

iain, bedford, uk

why not aliens, i belive more in aliens than in god, there are more galaxies in our universe than stars in our galaxy, its a bit selfish of us to think that we are alone, what a waste of time and space...

ivo, chiswick,

Can 'Mike Reed' account for his whereabouts the night that it appeared?
It would be really annoying if you spent so long creating a perfect crop circle as a clever geometric representation of the most baffling number known to mankind and no one noticed your brilliance.
You'd want to tell someone..

Daniel Herlihy, Cape Town, South Africa

This is actually the new corporate badge for BMW cars. Each segment illustrates a body colour option in the current range.
The three small circles indicate that you get 3 years warranty, with the third year (Smaller circle) being reduced cover.

Steve Chapman, Liverpool, UK

If I were asked I would say it is a post-modern bullring.
I´m afraid.

Tato Dulanci, Vitoria, Spain

You would think with the world food shortage/crisis now in full effect and food prices going up and up they would stop vandalising fields with food crops. Students of the world - grow up and be responsible!

Peter, Sutton, England

Oh and don't forget that the aliens had a copy of the publication containing this man made diagram.

I doubt very much that it is used as a television test transmission!

Paul B, Leicester,

The alien civilisation which probably created these icons would have perceived Planet Earth's presence across fifty or more light years of intergalactic space, with a corresponding time shift. The likely candidate is in the star system Beta Cassiopeiae (54.5 Light Years) correlating significantly with the heyday of Lara Ashley wallpaper designs.

Ian, Berwick, UK

i reckon aliens did this they tied string to one leg of their spacecraft then flew around in circles ,look closley at the picture you can see the skid marks .

Robert Fitzgerald, London, UK

AND ?

robert everitt, wolverhampton,

Wouldn't it be easier to think it is just someone very bright and with a lot of spare time in their hands that came up with this one? Oh, I'm sorry... this is the boring assumption, easier to think there are aliens wasting their time using crop fields to communicate with us instead of showing up.

zanchius, London, UK

It's either an alien....or a clever hoaxer. What do you think is more likely?

Dex, London,

Printing 3.141592654 in decimal notation would be far quicker and easier both to execute and understand - but of course would be more difficult done with the traditional crop circle authors' board and string. I suppose until spacehips are provisioned with something more advanced than bricklayers implements, we're stuck with these rather boring messages. - Yawn.

Ian, Berwick, UK

If you look through books on pi, you won't find this design! The first ten digits of pi as a decimal add up to 40. So this design has its series of ten discontinuous arcs go through exactly four rotations. Its based on a template of a 14-fold division of the radius of the outermost circle ...

Nick K., London, UK

Isn't pi 3.14???? Maybe it's Aliens predicting that's what the price of fuel will be by Christmas??

Sarah Jerrard-Adams, Exeter, UK

Sounds like PI in the sky to me. If the experts are stumped and the mathematicians are perplexed it's down to Joe Public to say. "Some bored guy did this..."

Andy, Töre, Sweden

The guy who invented string as a lot to answer for!

Why is it, that the crop-things are always circular, and not square? Oh, i forgot, you can do squares without string or rope, but with circules you need a central point of reference.

paul titterington, bolton, England

Er, a new design for an Ascot hat?

Mrs Maggie Snook, Wareham, Dorset UK

A friend of mine said she was impressed by crop circles until she saw one being created (she's a pilot and she flew over it as the guys were making it).

ben foster, Wokingham,

Since apparently pi is represented here as a decimal number, we now know that the aliens involved have 10 fingers.

IanH, Glasgow,

As an Astrophysicist I ought to point out my mind is far from boggled. Slightly amused perhaps *sigh*

Neil W, Redruth, Cornwall, UK

It happens to be aliens trying to communicate with us using the fundamental laws of mathematics. Do you not know this? :-p

Morc, Aberdeen,

Has anyone else noticed similarities with the Barbury Castle tetrahedron of 1991? Also near wroughton - with a similar 'ratchet' wheel like this new one. The 1991 is a hermetic symbol of Creation, also symbolic to rosicrucians and qabbalists, from theories based on Egyptian philosophy...

sid, london , london

Thanks Aliens, but we already know the value of pi to lots more places than that! How about telling us what dark matter is?

Paul, Lodon, England

Actually those vertical lines running through the circles, and I bet even the length of the field.. they give a completely different meaning. The WHOLE message translates to "Parking: 82 Oq per probability unit, management accepts no responsibility for losses or damage."

Mungo, Londond,

It doesn't say much for astrophysicists if they find this “mind-boggling”

stephen klek, stoke on trent,

which is essentially the apocalypse and which also ties in with scientific theory that we could be enrtering an area of unsafe space, where magnetic forces could change our planet dramtically. Maybe these are warnings, or even ways of preventing the end of the world. Occam's Razor, people...

sid, london , london

If Banksy did a crop circle would be be worth money?

Bill, Kent,

Surely the question should be who deserves more credit- the crop circle creator (I'm informed the other two have retired!) for thinking up and executing so well such a complex pattern or for Mr Reid for identifying it?

M, Avebury,

Seminal event ?

A plank of wood, A diagram, some string and too much cider event morelike.

Dave, Lincoln,

if it rains, is then a mud PI?

chris turner, ideford, uk

That crop circle isn't up to much. They missed out the colors and the numbers from the diagram!

Amy Brainy, San Francisco,

If this mathmatical symbol had suddenly appeared in chalk on a wall nobody would have been at all surprised - except to wonder why someone had bothered.
It is simply a town wishing to attract visitors to the locality to make money from them like with the annual appearance of the Lochness Monster.

GJB, Slough, Berkshire

"Now the next question comes up - WHY should something/somebody print PI into a field ?"

I suppose it's like another form of graffiti, with much of the same purpose attached.

Dan, Cumbria,

The sad thing is, for them, that in order to achieve maximum publicity for hours of hard work and careful planning. They aren't allowed to tell anyone that they did it.

Isn't that a shame? Creative talent gone to waste all because they need the public to believe it might have been aliens.

Jack, Lancaster,

Because they know that if they do it will be printed in a newspaper.

John, London,

My high respect. This is an intellectual achievement.

Now the next question comes up - WHY should something/somebody print PI into a field ?

Dex, london,