China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), the world's largest telescope, is now operational and ready to hunt for aliens. The country is hoping to hear any message from another intelligent life living in another planet.
The telescope measures 500 meters across (that is where it got its name). It is bigger than the former record holder, the Arecibo Observatory of Puerto Rico, which measures 300 meters. FAST is said to be more sensitive and way times faster than the previous telescopes.
Its goal is to detect gravitational waves and radio emissions from stars and galaxies, and seek for any kind of intelligent extraterrestrial lives coming from the deep space. During the testing, the telescope had already heard a pulsar as far as 1,351 light years away from Earth, Independent reported.
Meanwhile, Stephen Hawking warned humans about contacting aliens. In his online film "Stephen Haking's favorite places," he talked about an exoplanet called the Gliese 832c that could host intelligent life. The planet can be easily reached by FAST since it is just 16 light years away from Earth.
According to Hawking, it is possible for humans to detect intelligent life on Gliese 832c if it has evolved on that exoplanet. However, we should be cautious on responding to any signal as humans might meet an advanced civilization, as reported by Science World Report.
Hawking had warned humans before about exposing our presence to aliens. He compared the advance aliens to nomads who are in search of new planets to conquer and colonize. If these aliens reached Earth, they can use the Earth's resources in creating more spaceships that they can use to search for more planets to conquer.
Moreover, aliens, according to Hawking, could wipe out humanity easily in their quest to use our planet's resources. He also mentioned that in human history, cultures with less technological advancement have been mistreated and massacred by those who were more advanced, and aliens are more likely to do that as well.
