A space ambassador could be appointed by the United Nations to act as the first point of contact for aliens trying to communicate with Earth.

联合国将任命首位“星际外交官”，代表人类与试图和地球联系的外星人进行最初接触。

Mazlan Othman, a Malaysian astrophysicist（天体物理学家） , is set to be tasked with co-ordinating humanity’s response if and when extraterrestrials（天外来客） make contact.

Aliens who landed on earth and asked: “Take me to your leader” would be directed to Mrs Othman.

She will set out the details of her proposed new role at a Royal Society conference in Buckinghamshire next week.

The 58-year-old is expected to tell delegates that the proposal has been prompted by the recent discovery of hundreds of planets orbiting other stars, which is thought to make the discovery of extraterrestrial life more probable than ever before.

Mrs Othman is currently head of the UN’s little known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa).

In a recent talk to fellow scientists, she said: “The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities¹, sustains the hope that some day human kind will receive signals from extraterrestrials.

“When we do, we should have in place a coordinated² response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The UN is a ready-made mechanism³ for such coordination⁴.”

Opinion is divided about how future extraterrestrial visitors should be greeted. Under the Outer Space Treaty on 1967, which Unoosa oversees⁵, UN members agreed to protect Earth against contamination（污染） by alien species by “sterilising” them.

Mrs Othman is understood to support a more tolerant approach.

But Professor Stephen Hawking⁶ has warned that alien interlopers（闯入者） should be treated with caution.

He said: “I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. The outcome for us would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”