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Talk about irony. At a time when many astronomers are trying hard to find evidence of alien life, a pair of astronomers at Columbia University are exploring what we might do to keep aliens from finding us.

David Freeman www.huffingtonpost.com 4-2-16

Professor David M. Kipping and graduate student Alan Teachey say in a new paper that lasers could be used as a sort of cloaking device to conceal our planet from aliens’ prying eyes.

By directing laser beams at star systems where aliens might live at just the right time, the astronomers argue, we could compensate for the slight dimming of light that occurs when the Earth crosses in front of, or transits, the sun. (Any aliens who observed a periodic diminution of starlight from our sun could infer the presence of our planet — just as we have used transits to detect the presence of exoplanets around other stars.)

“It’s surprisingly feasible to do this, energywise,” Teachey told The Huffington Post. “We could do it this year if we wanted to. We have the technology.” [...]
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