Remember the “Storm Area 51” meme?
Millions of people signed up for the event, but only about a thousand curious people showed up. They, like me, were wondering why aliens haven’t contacted us yet. After all, there are billions of earth-like planets in our galaxy, so you’d think at least one of them should have developed life that’s intelligent enough to make contact with us.
Yet they still haven’t done so.
Maybe they’re avoiding us because we’ve scared them by inventing bubble gum ice cream or letting Kanye release Donda. Whatever the reason may be, if the aliens won’t contact us first, maybe we should make the first move.
Many people say that this is a bad idea. Their argument is that aliens could be stronger than us, which would put us in danger. Even Stephen Hawking argued that if we find aliens, “the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans.”
Thankfully, Hawking might have been a bit late with this warning, because aliens may have already found us first. In August of 1977, the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University received a strange signal coming from the Sagittarius constellation.
The signal lasted for over a minute, with the radio string reading “6EQUJ5”. Known as the “Wow!” signal, it was never heard again, and to this day it remains the strongest evidence yet for extraterrestrial life.
Aside from the fact that there is no point in hiding anymore, we can also benefit from contacting aliens, by trading technology and establishing friendly relations early on.
On the other hand, what if they are scared by our contact? Imagine if aliens make their way to earth and the first thing they hear is one of Drake’s albums? We’ll be destroyed instantly.
And in 2016, astronomers discovered the closest planet to our solar system that may sustain life, Proxima Centauri B. It’s only 4.2 light years away from Earth, which means that based on our most recent technology, it would take us about 73,000 years to get there. A small price to pay to live on a planet free of Cardi B.
In December of 2021, NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope with the hopes that it would help us with the search for extraterrestrial life. If we’re lucky, the Webb Telescope will discover artificial lights on other planets, which would indicate the existence of cities and the aliens who built those cities.
It’s no surprise that after decades of alien invasion movies, people are freaked out about the idea of contacting aliens. But realistically, the pros outweigh the cons.
The discovery of aliens will finally satisfy our curiosity, and it will provide us with valuable information. This may in turn help us solve our own problems here on Earth, like global warming, or the terrible drivers in LA.
I want to believe, Nitros!
