A mysterious object, moving through space.
Astronomers at Haleakala Observatory in Hawaii spy it entering our solar system, and they
soon realize something is very odd.
It’s not a comet or meteor, because those travel through space in a direct line.
This strange object is tumbling through space, and moving so fast that it couldn’t have
originated from our solar system.
What is it?
What brought it to our neck of space?
And most importantly, why is it here?
Astronomers were puzzled, but before they could get their answers, it was gone.
The mysterious “Oumuamua” left our solar system as quickly as it came, sailing past
the sun into quarters unknown.
Scientists now believe Oumuamoua was a cigar-shaped interstellar rock, but its presence in our
solar system caused no small stir among scientists.
But what would happen if life from another galaxy entered our solar system?
This has been the subject of fiction for over a century, from intelligent aliens who come
in peace, evil green men who come with laser guns, and even hungry aliens looking for the
best way to “serve man”.
We’ve been thinking about first contact for a long time.
But the government has been making plans for this possibility just as long, and they want
to make sure we make a good first impression.
In 1977, the two Voyager spacecraft launched by NASA each contained a golden phonograph
record holding the sounds and images of life on Earth.
These unmanned spacecraft are heading into unknown space, including within two year’s
lightspeed distance from the star Gliese 445, where many planets exist.
If an advanced civilization - with the capacity to play the record - finds it, they’ll find
a mix of natural sounds including animal calls and the sound of wind and waves.
They’ll see music and greetings in fifty-nine languages, and messages from the US President
and UN Secretary General at the time.
NASA hopes this will let the aliens know what humanity has to offer, and either lead them
to contact us - or to preserve a record of our civilization.
After all, the Voyager 1 probe is expected to reach Gliese 445 in about forty thousand
years.
But what if the aliens find our planet first?
Does the government have a plan for if they confirm aliens exist?
As always with our government, the answer is...maybe?
Private astronomy firms staff a small group of scientists working in the controversial
field known as SETI - search for extraterrestrial life.
Their goal is to monitor radio telescopes for unusual broadcasts that could be a sign
of alien contact.
But the problem is, no one knows what form an alien broadcast would take.
It could be an alien species that’s intelligent enough to have studied our planet and is communicating
in a language we’ll understand, but it’s far more likely that an alien species would
know little about our planet and would be communicating in a language we’d have no
way to translate - if they even have something comparable to language.
In the 1990s, scientists developed new protocols for SETI scientists that indicated that they
should share any findings with scientists from other countries.
This was the tail-end of the Cold War, when it was unlikely the United States and Soviet
Union would share anything with each other.
Relations have warmed - slightly - but no national government has shown much interest
in funding SETI research and the scientists work independently.
In 1997, scientists picked up a false alarm signal that looked like a possible contact
from aliens.
The government didn’t contact them, and no one came to drag the scientists off to
Area 51.
Who did call?
Journalists from the New York Times!
The government may not be that interested in contact with other aliens, but the press
sure is.
So what would the government do if they actually did confirm aliens exist?
They briefly did fund a program called Project Cyclops in 1971 to coordinate thousands of
radio telescopes to scan the cosmos for messages, but it was shelved due to costs and government
efforts have been modest since.
But it’s likely that any discovery of actual contact with another civilization would suddenly
become VERY classified.
Our research into extrasolar planets in systems and galaxies beyond our own has discovered
many planets that could be habitable, but no conclusive proof has been found.
However, SETI scientists - and related METI specialists focusing on messaging - are concentrating
their efforts on those planets.
How the government would react to contact with alien lifeforms depends heavily on the
type of lifeform.
The majority of human space research right now is concentrated on Mars, where we’ve
sent multiple unmanned rovers like the long-lived NASA Curiosity to take samples of the soil.
There is ample evidence that there was once water and an atmosphere on Mars, making it
possible that there was life there before the cosmic upheaval that stripped away the
cocktail for life from the planet.
Finding evidence of that, like fossils, would give us our first glimpse of extraterrestrial
life, but let’s go further.
What if there was something still there, something small that had survived the cataclysm?
Many species on Earth, like the horseshoe crab, have survived for hundreds of millions
of years and multiple extinction waves.
Let’s say we found a unique arthropod on Mars - the Martian Crab, a burrowing creature
living under the surface.
How would the government respond to this discovery?
Because it’s a non-sapient form of life, the main priority would be safe study.
Our unmanned explorers would take a sample and transmit as much information as possible
back to Earth.
A program is under development to send an unmanned drone to Mars and pick up samples
of Martian soil that would return by 2032.
But getting a live sample of a Martian creature back to Earth would be trickier - and would
probably involve a manned mission to Mars, something that hasn’t been attempted by
any nation yet.
Even if possible, it would involve major risks.
We don’t know what organisms would be using a Martian creature as a host, meaning the
arrival of a sample on Earth would carry the risk of bringing a deadly pathogen back with
it.
If the US government discovered alien life on a nearby planet, we’re likely to leave
it there for safety reasons.
But what if alien life comes looking for us?
Does the government have a plan?
If they do, it’s so highly classified that none of us know about it.
If an intelligent alien species found our planet and wanted to make contact with us,
they’re likely to be so advanced that they would be setting the terms of the introduction
- and we’d be waiting to find out if they were friendly or hostile.
So how would humanity react to first contact with aliens?
If history is any indication, probably with panic.
One of the most famous “close encounters” happened in Flatwoods, West Virginia in 1952.
Two brothers saw an unknown object fall from the sky and land on a local farmer’s property.
They gathered a friend of theirs, two random children, and a local national guardsman,
and went to investigate.
They claim to have seen a very tall, man-like figure with a round, red face and an odd hood-shaped
head.
They ran for the authorities, said they had seen a monster, and tried to get the police
to chase the “alien” down.
Was it an alien?
Or was it an owl sitting on top of a tree?
The “Flatwoods Monster” was never seen again, but let’s hope if we have a first
contact, there’s a more organized response.
The SETI Permanent Committee of the International Academy of Astronautics developed a protocol
plan for first contact, but will the government put it into effect?
There are eight steps.
First, make sure that it’s of intelligent origin before announcing it.
Second, communicate this finding with all other nations who have agreed to this protocol.
Third, inform the rest of the astronomical community.
Fourth, the discovering party makes the public announcement.
Fifth, the data is released to the scientific community.
Sixth, any electromagnetic signals are shared with the relevant authority.
Seventh, no one makes direct contact individually.
Finally, the SETI Permanent Committee reviews these plans regularly to ensure their policies
are up to date.
This would be a logical and orderly approach to first contact - but would it work out that
way?
A friendly civilization might be here on a mission of exploration, scientific curiosity,
or friendship, but a hostile civilization would probably not announce themselves with
dialogue or signals.
Could humanity win a war with an unknown alien power?
Earth’s superpowers have a lot of powerful weapons, but they’re designed for combat
on Earth.
If an alien civilization from outside this galaxy had the ability to travel this far
to make contact and attack us, it’s likely they have weapons far stronger than ours and
ships made of far more durable material.
We could fight, but the odds are that any war would be over very quickly - and not in
our favor.
But how would humanity react to a friendly civilization?
The biggest problem any alien civilization would have when making contact is getting
through our security.
Most superpowers have air-defense systems that will detect any vessel entering their
airspace, and shoot it down if it doesn’t identify itself and stop when commanded.
If the air defense system can shoot down an alien vessel, that could put a very fast stop
to first contact and send the aliens back home with word not to mess with this planet.
The aliens’ best bet to have a peaceful landing might be to land in Antarctica and
make first contact with the penguins.
But if aliens successfully made peaceful first contact with humanity, or the government confirmed
they had made contact, it would cause a total upheaval in almost every area of society.
Have you ever gone shopping the day before a snowstorm?
Imagine that times ten, as everyone would be convinced that an alien invasion would
be coming and they’d better stock up.
The uncertainty of an alien civilization making contact with Earth would make many people
assume the worst was coming, and the question is whether the government would know enough
to assure them otherwise - and if they would be willing to declassify the information.
Religions would be instantly thrown into turmoil.
How many faiths believe that God created humanity in His image?
The presence of another, highly intelligent species making contact with us would throw
that concept into doubt and lead many to question their faith.
Some would leave their faith, seeking answers elsewhere.
Others would believe more fiercely than ever, insisting that the presence of aliens was
a test for the faithful.
And it’s likely that new faiths would spring up around the alien visitors - after all,
powerful and strange beings descending from the sky to make contact with us calls some
powerful visuals to mind for the faithful.
Or maybe religion would go on, business as usual.
The Vatican for instance is itself a believer in extraterrestrial life, and has even toyed
with the question of if aliens would need evangelizing should contact finally be made.
In the Koran, Muhammad spoke of other ‘brothers’ that God had made in other worlds, so maybe,
possibly, religion wouldn’t be much bothered by alien life.
Politically, the confirmation of aliens would create major changes in governments around
the world.
We would likely see closer cooperation between ally nations and even rivals, as they would
want to present a united front to any alien civilization.
After all, the fate of humanity’s future interaction with the stars could depend on
making a good first impression.
But what about enemy nations, especially those in the middle of a war?
Would it create a temporary truce, or would various parties try to play the aliens against
their enemy?
If the aliens were carrying advanced technology or weapons, it would be tempting for an ambitious
nation to try to get their hands on it before anyone else.
One field that would be booming in the aftermath of alien contact is legal scholars.
Every law on Earth is meant to apply to humans and Earth-based animals.
What rights would aliens have on Earth?
Would they be considered visitors, or invaders?
If aliens made first contact by sending radio waves, who owns the dispatches?
And then there’s the question of what the government chooses to share with us.
Open-government advocates would be fighting to release all details of what the feds knew
about aliens before first contact.
Will we finally find out what’s in Area 51?
If alien technology arrived on Earth and the aliens were willing to share it with us - or
we successfully shot down an unmanned alien probe - scientists everywhere would be pressed
into service.
Both the government and corporations would try to reverse-engineer the technology - and
if it was a technology that had use on Earth, the company that cracked the code here would
be rolling in money.
Alien technology could be a market game-changer like never seen before - which is why it’s
just as likely that the government immediately seizes it, nationalizes it, and classifies
it.
But no sector would be busier in the aftermath of first contact than the media.
This would be the biggest story in human history.
If the aliens are still a mystery, because humanity is working out the details of first
contact, every TV and movie studio would be scrambling to come up with their fictionalized
version of the aliens.
And if the aliens have made first contact with the public, the race to get the first
interview with them would be one of the biggest prizes imaginable for journalists.
Once the aliens are known by humanity, they would become massive celebrities.
Any first contact with aliens would be a massive culture shock for us - but it might be just
as big a culture shock for the aliens.
If you’re wondering if aliens have already made contact with us, check out “Evidence
that Aliens have made contact”.
For more on what happens if the aliens aren’t friendly, watch “How to defend Earth against
an alien invasion”.
Thanks for watching, and see you next time!