Friend or Foe?

Scientists searching for alien life should get governments and the UN involved lest we unwittingly contact hostile extraterrestrials, a British astronomer has warned.

The caution comes as more experts argue that the search for intelligent life should be stepped up.

Mr Marek Kukula, public astronomer at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, said: “Part of me is with the enthusiasts and I would like us to try to make proactive contact with a wiser, more peaceful civilisation.”

But he warned: “We might like to assume that if there is intelligent life out there it is wise and benevolent, but of course we have no evidence for this.

Read complete article here. {via Telegraph}

SETI's Seth Shostak

When will we find evidence of life outside our solar system? 

That was one of the many questions posed by Seth Shostak, the senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, during a presentation Saturday evening at Western Nevada College. 

And the answer he gave was probably in the next quarter century. 

The SETI Institute searches for life among the stars using radio telescopes, a mission dramatized in the movie “Contact” with Jodie Foster. But unlike Hollywood, the discovery of extraterrestrial life is likely to be less dramatic than the messages Foster heard wearing a set of headphones.

Read complete article here. {via Nevada Appeal}