20:36 01 April 2016
Professors David Kipping and Alex Teachey from Columbia University in New York said that we could shine lasers into space to hide our presence from aliens. They explained that the beams will compensate for the dip in light the Earth creates when it passes the sun, as viewed from far-off worlds.
Prof Kipping said: "It doesn't have to be one huge laser; it could be an array positioned around the Earth. Or you could put it in space as a satellite, and we've calculated that the International Space Station already collects exactly the amount of energy we would need.”
"If we just cloaked out those biosignatures then another civilisation might detect our planet through a transit, everything would add up, but Earth would appear as a dead world and they'd soon lose interest.”
A number of researchers have previously questioned the safety of advertising our existence to the galaxy. They fear that aliens could bring disease and even danger to life on Earth.