Alien hunters have released fresh guidelines on how to handle potential signals from intelligent life beyond Earth, in the hope of avoiding an outburst of panic, misinformation and confusion if any are detected.<\/p>\n
While the idea of little green men may be a thing of the past, the possibility of intelligent civilisations elsewhere in the universe remains a serious topic among astronomers.<\/p>\n
Experts say they hope the new guidance will prevent premature announcements and provide a framework for confirming and communicating such discoveries.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we hope to avoid researchers \u2018crying alien\u2019 prematurely, and yet to let the public know we want to be as transparent and open as we can be,\u201d said Prof Michael Garrett, the director of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics and chair of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) committee for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (Seti).<\/p>\n
While some are still sceptical that alien life will ever be detected, Garrett suggested that with myriad experts scrutinising swathes of astronomical data, discovery of any detectable signal was only a matter of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s this year, next year, or the next decade, or the next century, or whatever,\u201d he said. \u201cBut eventually, someone\u2019s going to find something \u2013 probably someone who\u2019s not sitting there looking for aliens, but looking at protoplanetary disks or goodness knows what \u2013 and so these guidelines are really for that person or that group of scientists that suddenly find themselves confronted with this huge discovery and wondering: well, what does this mean and what are the implications?\u201d<\/p>\n
The new protocols<\/a> are an update on guidelines published in 2010 and, among other aims, set out how researchers should approach the verification of potential evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial beings, make announcements, and handle and store data.<\/p>\n As Garrett points out, social media has boomed in the past 15 years. As a result, rumours of an unexpected signal could quickly spiral out of control.<\/p>\n \u201c[In 2010] it seemed to be a great thing, and now we realise that you actually have to be quite careful with social media. And you have to try and control the narrative of whatever your discovery might be so that it doesn\u2019t get distorted in some way,\u201d Garrett said.<\/p>\n But, he added, transparency matters. \u201cWe know that people think that these things are being kept from them, that these are government secrets and all the rest of it. But I don\u2019t think that\u2019s correct. At least in our group of Seti scientists, we want to demonstrate that we\u2019re open and we want to be transparent, but we also want to do things carefully and to verify things before we kind of cry wolf about [them],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The protocols stress that researchers should make every possible effort to authenticate and substantiate detected signals, that verification reports should be peer-reviewed, and that verification data should be made publicly available.<\/p>\n They also advise that institutions and organisations should engage with news outlets, social media and other forms of communication and that responses should be prompt, accurate and honest.<\/p>\n But the protocols state individual researchers have the right to decline such interactions, with institutions and organisations advised to take action to keep their researchers safe.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone really thought about the personal safety of scientists back in 2010, but I suspect that\u2019s more of an issue now because it\u2019s pretty easy to pinpoint the location of people, where people work, where they live,\u201d Garrett said.<\/p>\n While the guidelines are not enforceable, Garrett said they mattered \u2013 not least as there have been tantalising signals<\/a>, as well as outright hoaxes<\/a>, before.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s still a bit of a giggle factor if you say you\u2019re looking for alien civilisations, even amongst your colleagues, other astronomers,\u201d Garett said. \u201cSo I think we want to make sure that we try and be as serious as possible and treat things in a proper way and so reduce the number of these false claims of having detected something. We think that\u2019s particularly important for the credibility of what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n