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U.N. Denies Appointing ‘First Contact’ for Visiting Space Aliens
When aliens finally land on Earth and utter those five fateful words "Take me to your leader," the United Nations will know just who to call. Or will they?
According to some British news reports, the U.N. is set to appoint Malaysian astrophysicist Mazlan Othman as the world organization's space ambassador forextraterrestrial contact affairs.
This would make Othman the first point of contact if aliens ever reached out. But it seems there may be some confusion as to whether these reports are real.
In response to an email inquiry by The Guardian, a U.K. newspaper, Othman wrote: "It sounds really cool but I have to deny it."
Othman currently serves as the director of the U.N.'s Office for Outer Space Affairs, which is a branch of the General Assembly that is "responsible for promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space," as stated on the official website.
Continue reading www.space.com/news/united-nations-alien-ambassador-100927.html
More on the denial
Is the United Nations set to appoint an obscure Malaysian astrophysicist to act as Earth's first contact for any aliens that may come visiting? Nonsense, said the U.N.
Mazlan Othman, the head of the U.N.'s little-known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), is set to describe her potential new role as chief alien ambassador next week at a scientific conference at the Royal Society's Kavli conference center in Buckinghamshire, England, reported London's Sunday Times. "Nonsense," responded the U.N.
"The mandate of the Office for Outer Space Affairs is defined by the United Nations General Assembly and there are no plans to change the current mandate," Jamshid Gaziyev, a spokesman for the agency, told FoxNews.com.
The Times article claimed that Othman would tell delegates that the recent discovery of hundreds of planets around other stars has made the detection of extraterrestrial life more likely than ever before — and that means the U.N. must be ready to coordinate humanity's response to any "first contact."
Instead, she will use the conference to discuss the problems posed by "space debris mitigation, near-Earth objects (asteroids) and the coordination mechanism for the use of space technology in the United Nations system," Gaziyev said.
