We Can Run, but Can We Hide to Escape the Aliens?

(Photo courtesy of BBC News)

The media continuously shows the same pattern of society befriending the aliens but it always
ends in some type of epic war. According to LexiNews, scientists have technology such as the
Kepler telescope and transit signals that could possibly help us interact with aliens.
If we have the opportunity to track extraterrestrial beings then we have to consider they might
have the same type of technology as well. The media has brought up an alternative that we might
be able to hide from them. It is vital that society understands how this technology functions, what
the results of the data mean, and if we really can hide from aliens.
According to astronomer, Alex Teachey when the Kepler telescope was looking for its primary
objective it took data from 150,000 or so stars and then measured how much light each one puts
out. When a planet passes in front of a star from our point of view the intensity of the starlight
dips, so if we see regular dips in the star light it's a good bet there's a planet orbiting there.
According to NASA, planetary transits or passages are how a planet moves across the disk of a
sun.
Teachey explains how the process to observe planetary transits is actually simple. Transits are
measured by using a good sized telescope and a quality sensor that records small changes in the
intensity of starlight. According to Teachey, The first such detection was in 2000, and that
effectively started the transit boom. Today the transit method is probably the most successful
method for detecting planets.
According to LexiNews, the data helps us understand how large a planet is and how long it takes
the planet to orbit. From there we can find out if the planet has Earth-like qualities. One example
is if it is close enough it would have liquid water and that determines if a life form could survive
there.

According to Teachey, even with the help of listening to signals, the distance between stars is too
massive and since the speed of light is restricted. It is impossible to have two-way
communication on any short time scale. Any message we receive here on the Earth would have
been emitted long before we started trying to communicate with them, unless they're very
nearby.
How aliens are able to hide themselves influenced Columbia University professor David Kipping
about how to hide a planet, certain features, and how to make a transit look unreal. After a lot of
calculating Kipping discovered lasers are the most efficient way.
According to Teachey We were primarily interested in thinking about what other civilizations
might be doing, but the media (understandably) focused on the idea that you could cloak the
Earth. To actually hide requires many detection methods. The device Teachey and Kipping
brought up is more for broadcasting. Thats why if another civilization ever hid from us wed be
unaware.
For centuries we have fantasized about crossing paths with beings from another planet, and
those fantasies have ranged from dreams to nightmares. According to Teachey, Steven
Hawking uses the example of the settlers and the Native Americans to show the negative side of
when groups with different levels of technology interact for the first time. Teachey discusses how
this should make us be careful how we approach extraterrestrials.
But we can always look and listen to see if we can detect other civilizations out there. I think we
should do more of it. If we dont continue to try we will be in a standstill and never know what
really is occurring in our world.