Scientists ponder if aliens already close

THEY MAY come in peace, or on a mission to invade Earth – either way, the possibility that aliens may be already in our neighbourhood is being taken seriously by scientists.

Prompted by the recent discovery of a visiting interstellar asteroid, a team of radio astronomers has for the first time started looking for evidence of a real-life ET, inset, within the boundaries of the solar system.

It began with speculation, later proved wrong, that an asteroid ‘Oumuamua might be an alien artefact. Scientists used a radio telescope in Australia to check for intelligent radio signals in the FM range between 72 and 102 megahertz (MHz).

They found nothing, but ‘Oumuamua inspired the team to expand the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (Seti) much closer to home. Lead scientist Professor Steven Tingay, from Curtin University, Western Australia, said: “If advanced civilisations do exist elsewhere in our galaxy, we can speculate that they might develop the capability to launch spacecraft over interstellar distances and that these spacecraft may use radio waves to communicate. “Whilst the possibility of this is extremely low, possibly even zero, as scientists it’s important that we avoid complacency and examine observations and evidence without bias. ‘Oumuamua has given us an interesting opportunity to expand the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence from traditional targets such as stars and galaxies to objects much closer to Earth.”