Pairan

The Pairans are a sapient, spacefaring civilization from the Earth-like planet Paira. They appear like bipedal, human-sized starfish with a single eye at the center, and the eye seems to glow when they speak. Their concept of beauty naturally differs from Humans, and they consider Human beings remarkably ugly.

The Pairans are a benevolent species and seem to follow a galactic code that instructs them to protect other species from destruction whenever possible.

Biology
While they have described their world as having similar conditions to Earth, it has also been speculated that Paira's gravitational pull may be considerably stronger, given the Pairans' ability to jump extremely high on Earth. It also appears that their blood contains a higher percentage of white cells compared to Humans. Their ability to materialize and dematerialize at will isn't properly explained, but it's reasonable to suppose it probably derives from some sort of technology, rather than a natural teleporting ability they possess.

History
The Pairans came to Earth in flying saucers in the year 1956 in order to warn humanity of the approach of a large asteroid, dubbed "Planet R", which was in collision course towards the Earth. Their first attempts at contacting Humans proved futile, as people would invariably run away, terrified by their monstrous appearance. This led them to adopt a different tactic, assuming an illusory Human appearance to disguise themselves.

After contacting a group of Japanese astronomers, the Pairans hoped to convince all the world's nations to use their nuclear weapons against the asteroid. The reason the Pairans couldn't destroy the asteroid themselves seems to be that they lack this kind of weaponry. Several generations ago they used to possess advanced nuclear and Urium-based weapons, but this technology has since been lost to them, as they switched to safer and more effective energy sources. After several futile attempts, the United Nations finally agreed in directing the world's nuclear bombs against the asteroid, which was at this point extremely close and seriously affecting the Earth's weather.

Their efforts were unsuccessful, however, as even the entire world's nuclear armament proved insufficient to destroy the asteroid. The Pairans then turned to the Japanese scientist Dr. Eisuke Matsuda, discoverer of the Urium 101 - a chemical that could generate far more destructive power than even regular atomic bombs. Dr. Matsuda had never intended the Urium to be used to make bombs, and claimed that it couldn't be synthesized on Japan anyway, but the aliens managed to fabricate the Urium bomb aboard their starship and used it to annihilate the asteroid, thus saving the Earth from destruction.

Appearances

 * Warning from Space, a.k.a. Mysterious Satellite; Japanese: Uchūjin Tokyo ni arawaru (1956)