News of an extraterrestrial ambassador from the United Nations spread Sunday on the internet. The Malaysian astrophysicist Mazlan Othman was expected to take the job as the head of the U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs. Othman said on record that it would only happen if it were in response to alien visitors already come. Rapidly increasing discoveries of planets outside the solar system make the possibility of extraterrestrial contact less outrageous than in the recent past. There are a lot of individuals worried about extraterrestrial life including Stephen Hawking who has given a warning to Earth. But the alien ambassador story turned out to be nothing but the latest Web-spawned wildfire, when Othman doused the flames with a denial via e-mail to a British newspaper.
Why would aliens get to hear from the U.N.?
The rumor flew around the world as it “broke” in the Sunday Times that Othman would be the ambassador appointed by the United Nations to visit aliens. Othman was quoted by the Sunday Times talking about the search for transmission from aliens. Othman thinks the U.N. should be the ones making the response that earth needs to have ready. Othman was said by the Australian to be in Britain next week for a scientific conference sponsored by the Royal Society. It said she might be speaking on contacting the aliens at that time.
Planning to find out if other life forms exist
An extra-solar planet is also called an exoplanet. In 1992, this was first discovered to really exist. Hundreds of exoplanets were discovered in the NASA outer space observatory launched in 2009 called the Kepler Mission. There hardly any extraterrestrial existence to exist. Of course, that didn’t stop Stephen Hawking from giving his own personal warning. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Hawking said that rather than seeking the aliens out, humanity should be trying to stay away from getting noticed. Aliens would probably be looking for somewhere they can get more resources from. He knows that this is something all of us can imagine. Just looking within the mirror can show us the consequences. “We only have to check out ourselves to view how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet.”
Is Earth playing host to aliens?
The story about the U.N. extraterrestrial ambassador didn’t just come out of the blue. Othman started the rumor. Rather than jump on the bandwagon, the Guardian decided to really check the facts. The Royal Society got a call from the British newspaper that asked about the speech on alien contact made by Othman. No one there knew anything over it. The Office for Outer Space Affairs questions were all referred someplace else by the United Nations A switchboard in Vienna is where they went. Finally, Othman responded to a Guardian e-mail and burst the U.N. alien ambassador bubble. She explained, “It sounds really cool, however, I have to deny it.” There is a real problem that needs to be solved in her speech at the Royal Society. Earth may be colliding with some objects in its rotation soon which can be discussed.
Discover more info on this subject
The Australian
theaustralian.com.au/news/world/the-un-is-to-appoint-an-astrophysicist-to-be-the-first-contact-for-any-aliens/story-e6frg6so-1225929540635
Sunday Times
timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/space/article7107207.ece
The Guardian
guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2010/sep/27/un-alien-ambassador-mazlan-othman
