Astrophysicist Adam Frank has warned scientists against sending signals to extra-terrestrials and trying to communicate with them, as he said that people should be cautious regarding these activities as humans are unaware of the potential of alien life out in space.
The physicist, who accepts that aliens may exist at least as microbial life beyond Earth, said that it is better to “lay low” and not try communicating with aliens which is similar to “sticking your head out the grass and saying we’re tasty”.
However, he thinks that at least microbial life present in the universe “can certainly be inhabited”.
Speaking in the 5 Live Science Podcast, the astrophysicist said: “So I do talk about METI the messaging extra-terrestrial intelligence and in general, I’m not a big fan of it. Because really, we don’t know what’s out there, and it may be that the best decision is to kind of lay low.”
“Don’t stick your head above the grass and be like, ‘hey, we’re here, we’re tasty’,” he added.
Signals sent to aliens in the universe are like ‘low hum’, says astrophysicist
Speaking about the attempts made by humans to the cosmos through “been putting out emissions”, Frank said that such efforts are similar to a “low hum” and not METI’s scream into the void, the Daily Star reported.
“When you do METI, you’re really screaming into the void,” he said and further emphasised how challenging it is to get heard in countless radio transmissions getting transferred in our galaxy.
“And unless somebody knew exactly where to look, they wouldn’t hear us. There’s all kinds of radio transmissions in the galaxy,” Frank said.
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“I think it’s going to be pretty hard to imagine that microbial life hasn’t evolved elsewhere in the universe, probably quite often. Now, animals, and then intelligence, that may be difficult for evolution to achieve, looking at Earth’s own history. But I certainly think that life in general is going to be quite common in the universe,” he said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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