Now scientists say they will send out an invitation to aliens by the year 2018! 

An organisation called METI, Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence, has announced that they will be sending out invitations to the closest earth-like planets out there in hopes of getting a response.

I may well add that humanity has been engaged in trying to discover intelligent life earlier through projects like the SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, but this initiative has been taken a step further by this new group who intend to not just listen to signals coming our way but are going to be directly messaging the aliens now!

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<center>https://i.imgsafe.org/4658f323d5.jpg</center>
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<center>**Could a planet outside our solar system be filled with life just waiting for a sign from others?** [[Photo Source]](http://www.indiatimes.com/news/world/scientists-will-soon-begin-sending-messages-to-aliens-even-if-it-means-our-total-destruction-268326.html)</center>
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But this is being done at a time when scientists have been warning against initiating message sending to aliens as it holds risks of entire humanity's destruction. 

And among those scientists has been Stephen Hawkings, the famous scientist, who has warned against signaling to aliens and alerting them to our existence, as he is of the opinion that humans should be cautious in sending any messages to aliens as they may be much more advanced than us.

He has given the example of Christopher Columbus when he first met the Native Americans and has said that things "did not turn out to so well" for the Natives.
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<center>**Sources for the news and further reading**</center>
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1. https://www.rt.com/usa/372068-meti-alien-project-contact/
2. http://www.indiatimes.com/news/world/scientists-will-soon-begin-sending-messages-to-aliens-even-if-it-means-our-total-destruction-268326.html
3. http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-a-plan-to-send-greetings-to-other-planets
4. http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/scientists-planning-say-hello-aliens-2018/
5. http://bgr.com/2016/12/26/do-aliens-exist-messaging-meti/
6. http://www.latinoshealth.com/articles/21509/20161228/will-talk-aliens-meti-launched-major-program-despites-warnings-humans.htm
7. http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/tired-of-listening-scientists-plan-to-send-greetings-out-to-other-worlds-20161226-gthyel.html
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