Oldham’s council leader has said she is available to meet visiting aliens.
It comes after a tweet by physicist Professor Brian Cox.
In a tweet on Saturday, July 29, Cox shared his thoughts on the possibility of "life beyond Earth".
He concluded his thoughts by saying he “wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if a UFO landed in Oldham town centre tomorrow morning and the captain said 'Take me to the leader of Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council’.”
An Oldhamer himself, Cox was educated at Oldham Hulme Grammar School.
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Clarifying that his thoughts are guesses, Cox discussed the Fermi Paradox – the contradiction between the high probability of extraterrestrial civilizations existing in the vast universe, and the lack of evidence or contact with these civilizations.
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In response to the 465-word tweet, council leader Cllr Arooj Shah said: “Like any visiting dignitaries I’m available for meetings with alien life forms as long as they come in peace.”
Cox referred to recent discussions of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) in the US Congress in his tweet.
The US House of Representatives convened a panel on the phenomena on Wednesday, July 26.
David Grusch, an ex-intelligence officer, claimed the US government has "intact and partially intact" alien vehicles.
The hearing was prompted by claims from Grusch in June that the government was secretly harbouring alien spacecraft.
On Wednesday, Grusch repeated some of those claims – although not all – under oath.
In one incredible exchange, Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, asked Mr Grusch to elaborate on what he knew about non-terrestrial bodies.
She asked him if "biologics" were recovered from any crafts retrieved by the government.
Referencing his previous media interviews, Mr Grusch responded that "biologics came with some of these recoveries".
Were they human or non-human? Ms Mace asked.
"Non-human, and that was the assessment of people with direct knowledge on the programme I talked to," Mr Grusch responded. During a different line of questioning, he confirmed he had never personally seen an alien body.
In another tweet on Thursday, July 27, Professor Cox described the hearing as “some people who seemed to believe stuff saying extraordinary things without presenting extraordinary evidence,” adding “It would be great if true - it would take a bit of the pressure off our civilisation if we weren’t the only means within the Milky Way by which the universe understands itself.”
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