Here’s a thought – if aliens aren’t more intelligent life forms than us then they’re in pretty bad shape.

Of course our fixation with aliens and extraterrestrial life has been a long-running one, and some scientists are so concerned about the possibility of imminent danger they’re proposing a drastic new plan to defend the planet.

The pair of astronomers hail from Columbia University in New York, with Yahoo spilling the beans on what they have in mind:

Alien scientists, argued David Kipping and Alex Teachey, may be trying to find habitable planets using the same technique we do — searching for a slight dip in light when a planet “transits” between the star it orbits and the telescopes watching it…

If aliens spot us using this technique, Earth would be a logical target for alien settlement…

In a paper published Thursday in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) in London, Kipping and Teachey said Earth’s Sun transits could be masked by shining huge lasers to cover the dip in light.

“Despite the timing, it’s really not an April Fool’s joke,” RAS deputy executive director Robert Massey assured AFP on Friday.

“This is a serious piece of work”…

“There is an ongoing debate as to whether we should advertise ourselves or hide from advanced civilisations potentially living on planets elsewhere in the Galaxy,” Kipping said in a statement.

“Our work offers humanity a choice, at least for transit events, and we should think about what we want to do.”

I would propose a far simpler and cheaper solution – when the aliens land we send Donald Trump to meet them. Chances are they will lose all faith in humanity on the spot and bugger off back to where they came from.

[source:yahoo]