There were rumors of the United Nations appointing an alien ambassador spread on the web. Sunday was when all of these begun flying. The Malaysian astrophysicist Mazlan Othman was expected to take the job as the head of the U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs. It would only really happen in response to extraterrestrial visitors, say Othman. The thought of extraterrestrial contact is not that absurd thinking about all of the planets outside of the solar system being discovered more lately. Earth was given a warning about alien life because of all the concerns. This warning originated from Stephen Hawking. But the alien ambassador story turned out to be nothing however the latest Web-spawned wildfire, when Othman doused the flames with a denial via e-mail to a British newspaper.
The United Nations will be the ones talking to the aliens?
The story that Mazlan Othman would be appointed the U.N. alien ambassador “broke” within the Sunday Times and spread like a super bug all over the world. The Sunday Times quoted Othman from a speech at a recent seminar in which she talked about the search for alien transmissions from space. Othman thinks the United Nations should be the ones making the response that earth needs to have ready. Newspapers like the Australian took the bait, mentioning that Othman would be talking more about imminent contact with aliens at a scientific conference sponsored by the Royal Society in Britain in the near future.
The quest for alien life
The first extrasolar planet, or exoplanet, was confirmed to exist in 1992. The Kepler Mission, a NASA space observatory launched in 2009, has identified hundreds of possible exoplanets. There will most likely be hardly any alien life 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, mankind should be trying to keep away from getting noticed. Aliens would probably be searching for planets to exploit for their resources. He states we can all imagine the consequences of this by simply looking within the mirror. “We only have to check out ourselves to determine how intelligent existence might develop into something we would not want to meet.”
Ambassadors from space actively playing on the planet already
Othman was the one who begun the United Nations extraterrestrial ambassador story. The Guardian was likely tempted to just throw out some articles like every person else’s. Instead, it looked for facts of the story. The Royal Society got a call from the British newspaper that asked about the speech on alien contact made by Othman. It was news to them. Nobody knew about it. A switchboard in Vienna is where the U.N. referred inquiries about the Office for Outer Space Affairs. Othman told the Guardian the truth after an e-mail sent to her. She said the U.N. alien ambassador story was just a hoax. She wrote “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 will be discussed.
More on this topic
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
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