2026-08-04 13:01:00
Scientists tasked with searching for alien life have issued new guidance on what to do if you spot a UFO.
Professor Michael Garrett, who is the director of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics and chair of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) committee for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (Seti), has revealed how to make sure genuine sightings are taken seriously and how experts try to avoid being duped by hoaxes.
He told the Guardian: “[In 2010] it [social media] seemed to be a great thing, and now we realise that you actually have to be quite careful with social media.
“And you have to try and control the narrative of whatever your discovery might be so that it doesn’t get distorted in some way …
“We know that people think that these things are being kept from them, that these are government secrets and all the rest of it. But I don’t think that’s correct.
“At least in our group of Seti scientists, we want to demonstrate that we’re open and we want to be transparent, but we also want to do things carefully and to verify things before we kind of cry wolf about [them].”
He added: “There’s still a bit of a giggle factor if you say you’re looking for alien civilisations, even amongst your colleagues, other astronomers.
“So I think we want to make sure that we try and be as serious as possible and treat things in a proper way and so reduce the number of these false claims of having detected something. We think that’s particularly important for the credibility of what we do.”
Professor Michael Garrett also insisted he’s sure proof of extraterrestrial life will be found and he’s convinced it will be by someone who is not actively looking for it.
He told the publication: “I don’t know if it’s this year, next year, or the next decade, or the next century, or whatever.
“But eventually, someone’s going to find something – probably someone who’s not sitting there looking for aliens, but looking at protoplanetary disks or goodness knows what – and so these guidelines are really for that person or that group of scientists that suddenly find themselves confronted with this huge discovery and wondering: well, what does this mean and what are the implications?”
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