Meet the UN's special representative for aliens!

In a strange initiative from the United Nations, it is set to appoint an obscure Malaysian astrophysicist to act as Earth's first contact for any aliens that may come visiting.

Mazlan Othman, the head of the UN's little-known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), will describe her potential new role at a scientific conference at the Royal Society's Kavli conference centre in Buckinghamshire.

"The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that some day humankind will receive signals from extraterrestrials," the Courier Mail quoted Mazlan as saying.

"When we do, we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The UN is a ready-made mechanism for such coordination," she added.

Professor Richard Crowther, an expert in space law and governance at the United Kingdom Space Agency, who leads British delegations to the UN on such matters, said, "Othman is absolutely the nearest thing we have to a 'take me to your leader' person."

However, he believes humanity's first encounter with any aliens is more likely to be via radio or light signals than by beings arriving on Earth.

Image: A file photo of then International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei  with Mazlan Othman, vice president of Malaysia's Academy of Sciences | Photograph: Zainal Abd Hali/Reuters