Scientists have warned Earth to plan for an alien encounter.
Earth should be preparing for an alien encounter
A new group at the University of St Andrews in Scotland is putting together ideas for what to do when the human race meets extraterrestrials.
Assisted by experts from across the world, they will be forming robust protocols and treaties and will assess evidence of intelligent civilisations on other planets.
The work will take place at a new research hub in the university that will be dedicated to the hunt for aliens.
Dr. John Elliott, a computer scientist and coordinator at the hub, said: "Science fiction is awash with explorations of the impact on human society following the discovery of, and even encounters with, life or intelligence elsewhere.
"But we need to go beyond thinking about the impact of humanity."
He added: "We need to coordinate our expert knowledge, not only for assessing the evidence, but also for considering the human social response as our understanding progresses and what we know and what we don't know is communicated.
"And the time to do this is now."