Hollywood movies and sci-fi literary authors have been handling subjects related to alien existence for ages. In most of these works, aliens visit earth to invade humans, thus creating catastrophe on the blue planet.
But now, a new study report published in the journal Space Policy has suggested that a potential alien first contact or discovery could lead to geopolitical tensions within earth than an interstellar war.
The possibility of a geopolitical tension
According to Jason T. Wright, author of the space policy paper and professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the Penn State Extra-terrestrial Intelligence Center, it is quite impossible to predict how governments and people react following the discovery of an alien civilization.
"We argue to prevent that we need to make sure policymakers and government officials are aware of what SETI is and understand the nature of any signal that gets detected early," Wright told Newsweek.
He added: "There are some protocols in place that Search for Extra-terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) practitioners know and generally try to follow, and these include widely sharing the details of any detected signal to make sure there are no misunderstandings."
It should be noted that SETI and Messaging Extra-terrestrial Intelligence (METI) are organizations dedicated to finding and communicating, respectively, with potential alien civilizations that may be thriving in the deep nooks of the universe.
Is alien existence real?
Douglas Vakoch, president of METI International, told Newsweek that alien existence could be most probably real considering the vastness of this universe.
"There are billions of stars in our own Milky Way galaxy, and the vast majority are orbited by planets. And there are billions of galaxies in the universe. It would be a miracle if Earth is the only planet in the entire cosmos that has life, and I don't believe in miracles. So life is almost certainly out there," said Vakoch.
Meanwhile, there are several speculations that state that a country which picks alien signals from deep space will make use of it for their own benefit. However, experts believe that this is unlikely to happen due to the nature of interstellar communication.
