Astronomers Discover Tatooine

What does this look like?

If you are a Star Wars fan it looks like Tatooine, a planet with two suns. But this is real. It's Kepler 16b, discovered by a NASA team using the Kepler space telescope.

Beware of Alien Invaders

Stephen Hawking points out what has long been obvious to every fan of science fiction.

He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on: “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.”

He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too risky”. He said: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

That type of situation is probably far more likely than benevolent visitors who assist us by curing cancer and giving us all sorts of advanced technology. But we don't really need Stephen Hawking to tell us that. Just read science fiction, which has covered just about every permutation and outcome of first contact with aliens.