Scientists have warned that messages sent by aliens from space could destroy life on Earth if we are not careful about how we read them. For those of you who are wondering how a message can be so dangerous; the two researchers from the University of Hawaii and Sonneberg Observatory in Germany have an accurate explanation. As per the study, aliens could destroy the life on the planet merely through their messages and they do not even have to be present on the planet.

As space agencies around the world are putting in effort to search for alien life, these two scientists in the academic paper titled, ‘Interstellar Communication IX Message decontamination is possible,’ discussed the way we might read and understand the messages. They discovered that the messages sent by aliens could be impossible to figure out how dangerous the content might be without opening it. Therefore, it will be safe to simply discard them without ever reading them. According to a leading journal Independent, Researches Michale Hipke and John G. Learned described in a new study that it is unlikely that any alien civilisation scientists have come into contact could be harmful. But since it is impossible to know what the message would say before we read it, the recommended way will be to avoid doing so.

The researchers further stated that the message could come in the form of a computer virus that infect networks on Earth after it is decoded or an artificial intelligence that will be able to take over our computing systems. However, scientists also suggest that the message if opened, the risk is relatively small, and the reward is potentially huge. They say that the content can give us a way into networks with aliens that could offer us unimaginable new knowledge and resources. The conclusions should help decide what messages we sent out. The researcher’s conclusion was quoted in Independent, “We should certainly not transmit any code. Instead, a plain text encyclopaedia, images, music etc. in a simple format are adequate. No advanced computer should be required to decrypt our message.”

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 16, 2018 11:53 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).