The plan to transmit powerful radio messages to probable extraterrestrial civilizations from distant planets has frightened some scientists, who believe that this could doom humanity to death.
Leading scientists, already 50 years running the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program with telescopes that passively listen for unnatural signals from space, now offer an active form of search, called METI, or "Messages to Extraterrestrial Intelligence."
These signals will be directed to those parts of the galaxy where habitable planets similar to our Earth can exist. We are getting more and more information about "exoplanets" outside the solar system from the Kepler space telescope, which has found many such worlds, including those located in the so-called "habitable zones" of stars, or the Goldilocks belt.
However, critics argue that the proposal undermines the fundamental principles of SETI, which is that you can only operate on receive, not transmit. They fear that by giving signals of our existence, we will attract evil aliens to our planet, determined to harm people.
Aliens can be aggressive
They also note that these plans are being developed by a close-knit group of enthusiasts from the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, who have not consulted with the general public and are annoyed that half a century of passive attempts to passively detect signals from extraterrestrial intelligence have not yielded any results.
“A small company of radio astronomers from SETI refuses to consult with the general public before humanity takes the reckless and irreversible step of launching the Messages to Extraterrestrial Intelligence program and shouting into space that we are,” said space explorer and writer David Brin. Brin). “It's all great if you only put yourself at risk. But when our children and all of humanity on Earth are in danger, it probably needs to be discussed first."
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Bryn is not alone with her fears. Cambridge cosmologist Stephen Hawking warned in 2010 that people need to be as quiet as possible, because excessive activity can attract alien civilizations to Earth that have the appropriate technology and knowledge for space flights and want to use our resources. “If aliens visit us, the result may be the same as after the discovery of America by Columbus, which did not do anything good for Native Americans,” he said.
Speaking today (written February 13) at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual conference, Brin will share the podium with Seth Shostak and Douglas Vokoch of the Californian Institute for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. They are the main supporters of the transmission of messages to alien civilizations, which have advanced technologies to detect and decode signals.
Dr. Vokoch said: “Since Earth-like planets have recently been found in the habitable zones of other stars, we now have suitable objects to transmit messages. Some might say that we should never transmit powerful signals for fear of an alien invasion. If this point of view takes root and prevails, humanity will become wary, will strive for self-isolation, avoiding space exploration and doing all it can to minimize the risk."
Due to the huge cosmic distances, it will take about nine years to send and receive messages from an extraterrestrial civilization from the nearest star system Alpha Centauri, located at a distance of 4.4 light years.
What can we tell aliens
The SETI Institute conducted research in 2009 and selected the most popular messages that people would like to send to extraterrestrial civilizations:
"We are people from planet Earth."
"You are strangers to us, but you have knowledge and technology."
Hello and welcome.
"Please, help".
"Peace, Love and Friendship".
"Transferring mathematical ideas and binary expressions."
"We feel lonely and we are afraid because of our own predisposition to violence."
"Our gods and religions greatly influence our lives."
"We recognize your cultural heritage and the civilizations it has engendered."