The galaxy is filled with other Earths – now astronomers have found one [Wikimedia]
Exobiologists think newly discovered planet Kepler-22b may have oceans, continents and life. Now the US military wants to know if it’s intelligent life…
Astronomers: Amazing earthlike planet Kepler 22b may have life [NASA]
Potential threats come in all forms: that kid’s roller skate on the stairs, that drunk driver on the road that had one beer too many…or that earthlike planet orbiting another star that even now may be preparing a fleet of spaceships—armed to the teeth—as part of a diabolical plan to conquer Earth.
Alien starship approaches Earth [Wikimedia]
Space situational awareness
For many years the Pentagon has funded and managed a program called Space situational awareness.
While most of its resources have gone into tracking near-Earth orbiting satellites, lately the managers of the program have begun shifting some of their attention towards the potential threat of alien intelligences from beyond the solar system.
What if they come here?
Pentagon conducting alien space attack wargames [Wikimedia]
As orbiting space telescopes continue to discover and catalog thousands of exoplanets—some capable of sustaining life—the military mind sees any planet capable of harboring life as potentially sustaining intelligent life.
Intelligent alien life could also be a potential threat.
What kind of creatures will humans encounter? [Wikimedia]
So the Pentagon is helping to fund the civilian scientific organization the Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and wants them to particularly monitor planets that might have life. [See US military pays SETI to check Kepler-22b for aliens]
Stephen Hawking and heaven [Wikimedia]
Famous physicist Stephen Hawking agrees – aliens might be enemies
Wheelchair bound Stephen Hawking, the Einstein-like physicist who’s paralyzed by a progressive form of neuro-muscular dystrophy, has pronounced that intelligent aliens do exist and contacting them may be very dangerous. He warns that rather than seek them out, we should do anything we must to avoid contact.
This position places him squarely in opposition to the mission of those astronomers that have supported SETI, the Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence project supported for decades by such legendary astronomers as Frank Drake and the late Carl Sagan.
Aliens ‘may look to conquer and colonize’
On the nature of this alien threat, Hawking speculates, “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.” [See Stephen Hawking argues against the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence]
Chart showing how far ships traveling at one-gee can go [Wikimedia]
Military wargames shift to alien space threat
As more attention turns towards intelligent life “out there” the leading military forces of the Earth are intensifying their interstellar war games.
The Pentagon—always forward-looking—has set its sights on finding alien intelligences before they can find us.
Maybe that’s not such a bad idea.