NEW YORK — Astronomers at Columbia University this week suggested in a new study that the Earth could be hidden from extraterrestrial civilizations through the use of space-based laser technology.

The idea borrows from how work NASA's space telescope Kepler detects planets — through dips in starlight as they orbit in front of stars. The Columbia researchers suggest using lasers to fill in Earth's missing starlight.

"To make it look like the planet is not there at all, you've got to get rid of that dip. You've got to fill in the missing starlight," Space.com noted Columbia graduate student Chris Teachey as saying in a YouTube video.

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