--- title: What Scientists Think About Aliens description: While Hollywood suggests we should expect to battle aliens, science tells a different story canonical: https://time.com/4766642/why-aliens-would-probably-come-in-peace/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-04T10:51:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:54:21.193Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why Real Scientists Think Aliens Would Never Eat Humans og:description: And 4 other extraterrestrial ideas og:url: https://time.com/4766642/why-aliens-would-probably-come-in-peace/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt376281b66aaf2b75/6988cbe7196cf4065a03ff75/why-aliens-would-probably-come-peace.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1938 og:image:height: 1090 og:image:alt: why-aliens-would-probably-come-peace og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Real Scientists Think Aliens Would Never Eat Humans twitter:description: And 4 other extraterrestrial ideas twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt376281b66aaf2b75/6988cbe7196cf4065a03ff75/why-aliens-would-probably-come-peace.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Real Scientists Think Aliens Would Never Eat Humans > Sponsored content. 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Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Unseen Apollo: Going To The Moon Through Astronaut's Eyes [Watch (HLS stream): Unseen Apollo: Going To The Moon Through Astronaut's Eyes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/c43u4clG.m3u8) (3:13)  _Published 2017-03-30. Nobody ever accused the Apollo program of failing to deliver the goods. There were the 842 pounds of moon rocks and the raft of scientific spinoffs and the deep thrills that every one of the 11 missions delivered. And then, there were the pictures._ by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley May 4, 2017 10:51 AM UTC  A new book posits that alien encounters would be far more benign than they appear in the movies; Arrival, above, is more realistic than most A new book posits that alien encounters would be far more benign than they appear in the movies; Arrival, above, is more realistic than most Courtesy Paramount Pictures and Hybride Technologies by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley May 4, 2017 10:51 AM UTC When the Martians first land on Earth in the 1996 sci-fi comedy _Mars Attacks!_, for a moment it appears all will be fine. “We come in peace,” says their leader, as the music swells and a dove soars overhead. Seconds later the Martian pulls out a laser gun and opens fire on a crowd of human onlookers. Yet another blockbuster alien invasion has begun. That’s Hollywood, of course. But the melodrama underscores one of humanity’s most widely held fears: that if and when we do encounter extraterrestrial beings, they will wreak all kinds of havoc, much as they do in the movies. Or will they? For his new book, [_Aliens: The World’s Leading Scientists on the Search for Extraterrestrial Life_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250109639/?tag=timecom-20), quantum physicist Jim Al-Khalili asked a series of experts to explore how humans might actually make contact with aliens. The possibility is not as far-fetched as it once seemed: since NASA launched its Kepler mission in 2009, researchers have discovered thousands of new planets and “revolutionized our concept of how many habitable worlds could exist,” writes astrobiologist Nathalie Cabrol in one of the book’s essays. But while Hollywood suggests we should expect to battle their inhabitants, science tells a different story. Here, five popular alien myths that _Aliens_ debunks. **MYTH NO. 1: Aliens would eat us** Movies like _The Blob_ and _Critters_ imagine aliens harvesting humans for food, an unpleasant prospect. But it doesn’t track with the science of nutrition, writes astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell. In order for aliens to get nourishment from eating us, their bodies would have to be capable of processing our molecules (like amino acids and sugars). And that requires having a similar biochemistry–a long shot for a species that hails from a different world. **MYTH NO. 2: Aliens would breed with us** Both of this summer’s extraterrestrial blockbusters, [_Alien: Covenant_](http://time.com/4617863/alien-covenant-trailer-ridley-scott/) and [_Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2_](http://time.com/4754483/guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2/), involve human-alien hybrids. But given that we can’t even reproduce with our nearest evolutionary relative, the chimpanzee, it’s “overwhelmingly improbable” we could do so with aliens, according to Dartnell. **MYTH NO. 3: Aliens would look like us** Human evolution depended on so many unique and unpredictable factors, it’s near impossible that an extraterrestrial species would have human-like features, like the aliens in _The Day the Earth Stood Still_ and [_Star Trek_](http://time.com/4482775/5-things-star-trek/). It’s far likelier, writes neuroscientist Anil Seth, that they’d be as different as the octopus, “our very own terrestrial alien,” which has a high level of intelligence, a decentralized nervous system and an alternative style of consciousness. **MYTH NO. 4: Aliens would be “living” creatures** Even restrained films like [_Arrival_](http://time.com/4475748/arrival-movie-review-denis-villeneuve/) get this one wrong, according to some scientists. Should aliens contact us, cosmologist Martin Rees believes we will hear not from fellow organic creatures, but from the robots they produced, who can, in theory, live forever. **MYTH NO. 5: Aliens would steal our water and metal** The aliens in Independence Day famously arrive to strip Earth of its resources. But again, that logic doesn’t add up, writes Dartnell. Most of our metal is in the Earth’s core, not its crust; asteroids would be far better targets for mining. And icy moons, like Jupiter’s Europa, would be easier places to stock up on water. They’re uninhabited, and they don’t have Earth’s strong gravitational pull. So if aliens aren’t interested in harvesting our lands or our bodies, why would they make contact? Dartnell suspects a purer motive: curiosity. “If aliens did come to Earth,” he writes, it would probably be “as researchers: biologists, anthropologists, linguists, keen to understand the peculiar workings of life on Earth, to meet humanity and learn of our art, music, culture, languages, philosophies and religions.” Presumably, we would hide our alien movies. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4766642/why-aliens-would-probably-come-in-peace/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4766642/why-aliens-would-probably-come-in-peace/"},"headline":"Why Real Scientists Think Aliens Would Never Eat Humans","datePublished":"2017-05-04T10:51:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:54:21.193Z","description":"And 4 other extraterrestrial myths debunked","url":"https://time.com/4766642/why-aliens-would-probably-come-in-peace/","keywords":["Books","aliens"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt376281b66aaf2b75/6988cbe7196cf4065a03ff75/why-aliens-would-probably-come-peace.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt376281b66aaf2b75/6988cbe7196cf4065a03ff75/why-aliens-would-probably-come-peace.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"why-aliens-would-probably-come-peace","caption":"why-aliens-would-probably-come-peace","creditText":"Courtesy Paramount Pictures and Hybride Technologies","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4766642/why-aliens-would-probably-come-in-peace/","name":"Why Real Scientists Think Aliens Would Never Eat Humans"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Unseen Apollo: Going To The Moon Through Astronaut's Eyes","description":"Nobody ever accused the Apollo program of failing to deliver the goods. 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