Scientists suggest hiding from aliens with lasers

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    Scientists from Columbia University (New York) have developed a way to hide the location of our planet from unfriendly aliens. At the same time, the same method can be used to signal the presence of intelligent life on the planet. The proposal of scientists is to use high-power lasers.

    Recently, astrophysics from the University. Max Planck, based on the assumption that the methods of searching for other civilizations of our brothers in mind will be similar to ours, offered to look for signals from those areas of the Universe where they could detect our planet. Since most of the exoplanets were found using the transit method, they suggested searching for life in those areas of the galaxy where this method would work for our solar system.

    But Professor David Kipping and his student Alex Tichy [Alex Teachey] from Columbia University decided to proceed from the pessimistic assumptions that are shared by some other physicists, including Stephen Hawking himself . They believe that aliens may be unfriendly and can scour the cosmos in search of planets where you can get hold of resources.

    And if so, then you need to invent protection against the discovery of our planet by the transit method. Since the method is based on detecting a decrease in the apparent brightness of a star as it passes through its disk on our planet, it is sufficient to supplement the missing brightness with powerful lasers emitting rays in the direction of a star, in the system of which intelligent life can be present.

    According to the calculations, a 30 MW laser emission once a year for 10 hours, during which the Earth travels across the solar disk from the point of view of a particular star system, will allow the transit signal to be reduced to zero. However, it will be effective only in the visible range - to cover the maximum range of wavelengths, you need a whole battery of lasers with a total power of 250 MW.

    As an energy-saving alternative, scientists propose to emit a signal that masks the presence of oxygen in the atmosphere, which will reduce the laser power to 160 MW.

    Naturally, instead of masking, lasers can be used to signal the presence of intelligent life on our planet, and at the same time transmit information encoded in the beam. It all depends on whether humanity agrees on whether we need to hide our presence in the Universe or advertise it in every possible way.

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    Do we need to hide from evil aliens


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