New SETI Aliens Statements About Shocking Protocols

Show Transcript

What if, right now, a faint signal from a distant star held the key to proving we're not alone in the universe? But when these scientists think they found something, they don't announce it right away. They go silent. And according to the co-founder of SETI, if news of aliens becomes public, the ethics will depend on the religious entities on Earth.

Hey, UFOlogers, I'm Cristina Gomez, and welcome to this episode of UFO News Updates. I'm here to report the information without bias, leaving you to decide what to believe. And as always, you can find the sources in my detailed articles at ufonews.co, along with in the description box below.

Listen to Dr. Jill Tarter, one of the founders of SETI, explain just how little we actually know about what we're searching for in space. And she mentioned this on Star Talk with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Clip - Dr. Jill Tarter on Star Talk: "My reply is that we've hardly begun to look. At one point when SETI turned 50 years old, as a discipline, I did a calculation that indicated that all the searching we'd done to date was as if we said, oh, we're going to look for fish in the ocean. And what we did was take one eight-ounce glass and dip it in the ocean and take a look and say, oh, are there fish in there? Well, there are fish small enough to have fit in that glass, but if you didn't see any, you'd hardly make the conclusion that there were no fish in the ocean."

So according to her, we've barely started looking. Yet scientists still have strict rules about what to do if they find anything. Why the secrecy? Dr. Tarter says she will tell the world, but there's a catch. SETI operates under official rules created back in 1989, and these rules require scientists to be absolutely certain before making any public announcement.

Clip - Neil deGrasse Tyson and Dr. Jill Tarter on Star Talk: "Betty from Maine has asked, if you find life outside of Earth, what are you going to do with it? Yeah, Jill, you're going to conquer it and enslave it and colonize it? What are you going to do?" "Me? I'm going to tell the world about what we found, and at least my interpretation of what that means. But the world is going to decide how they're going to react. It's not going to be me that makes that kind of decision." "And what confidence do you have that that response would be what you would consider appropriate?" "I don't know, Neil. Just not very hopeful. Come on, Jill. Oh, come on. Given the politics of our country, I don't know, but all I can say is that... You'll know what I know. You'll know what I know."

Hmm, is that true? What do you think? Well, here's what the rules say. Before you tell anyone about a potential alien signal, you must verify it using at least two different radio telescopes in different locations around the world. And this helps confirm the signal is real and not just equipment malfunction.

Here is how SETI wants you to look at it. If you heard a strange noise in your house at night, you'd probably check multiple rooms and maybe ask someone else if they heard it too before calling the police. Scientists do the same thing, but with alien signals.

And this waiting game proved crucial in 2019 when something incredible happened. Scientists detected a signal they called the BLC-1, short for the Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1. And this radio signal was coming from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our sun.

Now, Proxima Centauri is not just any star. It hosts a planet called Proxima B that sits what scientists call in the habitable zone. And this planet is about 30% more massive than Earth and races around its star in just 11 days. But here's the problem. Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star that throws massive solar flares, some 100 times more powerful than anything our sun produces. And these flares could strip away any atmosphere on the planet, according to scientists.

But what made the BLC signal special? It was extremely narrow. Imagine trying to tune in to one specific radio station among millions of possible frequencies. Natural sources like stars or planets usually broadcast across many frequencies at once, kind of like static. But this signal was laser focused on one specific frequency, 982.001 mega. And for context, this star is about 25 trillion miles away from Earth. And the signals appeared in multiple observations over several months. To scientists, this looked exactly like what they'd expect from an alien civilization, which I did a whole show on it, and I will place that link in the description box below for you.

Clip - Neil deGrasse Tyson and Dr. Jill Tarter on Star Talk: "So Jill, is there sort of an ethical standards that you guys, like a manifesto that plastered up on your walls at the SETI Institute?" "Yes, a long time ago, back in the '80s, we worked with the International Institute of Space Law to create a declaration of principles for dealing with the detection of extraterrestrial technologies. And one of the important bullets in that protocol is make sure you got it right. Make sure that whatever you're going to announce is not some flaw in your detection system."

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Here's what SETI wants you to imagine. Imagine if scientists announced they found aliens and then a week later had to say, sorry guys, false alarm. The embarrassment would be huge, but worse, people might not believe them when they actually find the real thing. And if you were a scientist and you detected what looked like an alien signal, would you announce it right away or spend months trying to verify it first? Let me know in the comments.

Clip - Neil deGrasse Tyson and Dr. Jill Tarter on Star Talk: "But if we come upon aliens, Is there some code of how we would treat them?" "You're talking about ethics, and I was talking about a declaration of principles. The ethics are going to come from probably the religious entities across the planet, and those are different, and they have different perspectives."

What? Religious entities? What does religion have to do with this? What do priests, rabbis, or imams have to do with the ethics of ET? I found that answer very strange and kind of out of character for a co-founder of SETI. Can religion play a role? Sure, but should it? No, because it can be so quickly demonized or glorified with a blanket of bias instead of healthy skepticism.

Anyways, the waiting protocols serves another purpose. It prevents panic or false hope. Discovering alien life would be one of the most important events in human history. And when that announcement finally comes, scientists want to be absolutely certain it's real. The current rules state that scientists should verify any potential alien signals, announcing it to the world only after confirmation, and not attempt to communicate back with aliens until world governments can discuss what to say.

But until then, we wait. And as Dr. Tarter reminds us, we're still just getting started in our search of that cosmic ocean. Do you think scientists should share potential alien discoveries early in the process? Or is their careful approach the right way to go? What do you think we'll discover when we finally do make contact? Let me know, as always, in the comments below. I'm Cristina Gomez. That is it for today, and I will see you next time. Be safe, and remember, keep your eyes on the skies.

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