NASA Affiliates Explore Potential Outcomes Meeting Aliens, Recommend Protective Steps [FULL TEXT]

By now some of you must have head about a study from researchers affiliated with NASA and Pennsylvania State University called Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis.

The study, which is dated April, is published in the journal Acta Astronautica, received much publicity last week after an article about it came out in the British media. it's written by Seth Baum, a doctoral candidate, and Jacob Haqq-Misra and Shawn Domagal-Goldman, both postdoctoral scholars, who described different scenarios of meeting with aliens, which could be either good or bad for humanity.

The researchers said aliens could decide that we on Earth are a threat to interstellar order and that they must stop us before we spread. Extraterrestrials could plan to eat or enslave humans and even destroy life on earth if they sense civilization was expanding too rapidly and could harm others. But if the aliens are friendly, we could walk away learning a thing or two about advancing technology and deep space.

But since we don't know what kind of aliens we will end up meeting, there are certain steps humans should take when making contact. Those steps include not sharing details of our biology and DNA structure, and do not appear as if we are rapidly expanding life here on Earth.

One of the authros wrote a blog post on Friday stating that he doesn't believe contact with aliens was likely.

However, Domagal-Goldman said researching the possibility was fun.

Read the full research below.

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