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Earth 'noise' could attract alien invaders

30 April 2008

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

The Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico bounces radio waves off of asteroids

(Image: NAIC/Arecibo/NSF)

No matter how quiet we try to be now it’s too late to prevent alien invaders. So says Alexander Zaitsev of the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics in Moscow, Russia, who points the finger at astronomers.

For 40 years, astronomers have fired microwaves off objects to chart near-Earth space and track the movement of close asteroids – and these signals are traceable back to us.

By comparison, Zaitsev says, dedicated transmissions – often described as “shouting into an unknown jungle” – are a mere whisper. He…

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