Professor Stephen Hawking fears aliens could ‘plunder, conquer and colonise’ Earth if we contact them

STEPHEN Hawking has once again opened up about his fears that aliens could conquer our planet.

He said planet Gliese 832c had the potential to be home to alien life but humans needed to be very wary of getting in touch, news.com.au reports.

“One day, we might receive a signal from a planet like this, but we should be wary of answering back,” he said in the documentary Stephen Hawking’s Favourite Places.

“Meeting an advanced civilisation could be like Native Americans encountering Columbus. That didn’t turn out so well.”

He claimed alien life could be “rapacious marauders roaming the cosmos in search of resources to plunder, and planets to conquer and colonise”.

His fears have not changed since he first spoke out about it on the Discovery Channel in 2010.

He said as he grew older he became more convinced humans were not alone.

“After a lifetime of wondering, I am helping to lead a new global effort to find out,” he said.

Planet Gliese 832c has five times the mass of earth and a similar temperature.

It’s been described as an inhabitable super earth, that’s 16 light-years from our planet.

A light-year is about 9.5 trillion kilometres, which sounds like a lot, but in the perspective of space it’s not that far.

Mr Hawking has also warned earth could become as hot as Venus as a result of climate change.

He told the BBC climate change could turn the planet into a hothouse, and Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate agreement to reduce CO2 levels could accelerate the threat.

“We are close to the tipping point, where global warming becomes irreversible,” he said.

“Trump’s action could push the earth over the brink, to become like Venus, with a temperature of 250C, and raining sulfuric acid.”

Hawking also said humans may have to consider living on a different planet elsewhere if climate change ravages our own world.

 

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