Worse still, should their be a sufficiently advanced civilization living there for us to notice, they likely have a greater space-faring capability than we do AND greater military capability.
Should we spot them first before they spot us, we had better put all of our resources into revolutionary space access and bigger badder weapons than they are likely to have. Don't want to bring a laser to a phaser fight. ;)
...what are we going to do about it?Study it. And all other systems like it. We don't have to go there to do that.
Don't want to bring a laser to a phaser fight.That's why you can count me among those who sincerely hope we do not encounter other intelligences out there for a billion years (and even that won't necessarily guarantee us a leg up on them); i.e., I hope that intelligent life in the cosmos is exceedingly rare or even non-existent, except here on Earth.