Humans could end up wiping out aliens by taking our germs into space, boffins fear.
They say space tourism and colonising planets without extensive research on how our bacteria could effect extraterrestrials may lead to us making little green men extinct before we can get the chance to interact with them.
Astrophysicist Erika Nesvold, who recently released the book Off-Earth: Ethical Questions And Quandaries For Living In Outer Space, said: “No sterilisation procedure is able to completely eradicate all chance of contamination.
“Private space companies hoping to profit off space tourism or mining are motivated by their obligations to their shareholders, not by future astrobiological research, so it will be tempting for them to cut corners on expensive or slow procedures like sterilising equipment or documenting organic payloads.
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