What Should We Do If Extraterrestrials Show Up?
I forget where I read it, but I remember reading that we can tell some information about E.T.s based on how they approach us. The consensus reported by what I read was that if they stop at some distance like Jupiter or at most the asteroid belt, then they are less likely to be aggressive. It&#x27;s the equivalent of stopping on the porch and ringing the doorbell vs. just walking into the house, which is what showing up in our planet&#x27;s orbit would be.<p>Realistically, fighting them is out of the question. If they have a superluminal drive there&#x27;s a good chance they could accelerate things to just under the speed of light and steer them to the Earth.  The effects of a 5kg  steel ball hitting the Earth&#x27;s atmosphere at 99% the speed of light are debatable [1], but all the opinions agree the devastation would be massive, with probably heavy to total casualties within 300 miles, and possibly massive seismic activity if it drilled into the Earth&#x27;s crust instead of being converted into X-Rays and a fireball by the atmosphere.<p>I suspect at some point we will advance enough to get to the Oort cloud at the edge of our solar system, find a beacon warning all ships away from the nascent primitive sentients, and figure out how to turn off the beacon. If we survive as a species that long and then are able to do that it could serve as passing a basic racial intelligence test, and allow us to interact with other species. Until then, only approved researchers agreeing to secrecy would be allowed to visit us and observe.  This is all conjecture though, there is no evidence as far as I can tell.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quora.com&#x2F;What-would-happen-to-Earth-if-a-5kg-metal-ball-from-space-is-thrown-toward-it-at-99-99-of-the-speed-of-light" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quora.com&#x2F;What-would-happen-to-Earth-if-a-5kg-me...</a>
[2]<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quora.com&#x2F;What-would-happen-to-the-Earth-if-it-were-hit-by-a-1-kg-steel-ball-going-at-99-the-speed-of-light" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.quora.com&#x2F;What-would-happen-to-the-Earth-if-it-w...</a>