skip to main |
skip to sidebar
If you had the chance to send a message into space, what would it say? "Greetings, fellow sentient beings"? "We come in peace"? "Hi... we've kind of messed up our planet, and we wondered if by chance anyone out there had a spare one?"
The subject of alien life - and its presence or absence in the universe - has been moving up the agenda recently, thanks to the approaching anniversary of the day in April 1960 when Frank Drake, an astronomer at Cornell University, pointed a radio telescope towards Tau Ceti, a suitably Sun-like star in our galactic neighbourhood. Drake was looking for unusual radio transmissions, which could indicate the presence of intelligent life. And even though the search came up empty, it was a good enough idea to kickstart the SETI programme - the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
Fifty years later, the team at SETI are still looking, and still puzzled by what is known as the Fermi paradox (first put forward by Enrico Fermi, the atomic scientist): the universe is large enough that there should be a host of advanced civilisations out there, so why haven't they been in touch?
Some have suggested that, while life may be abundant, complex and intelligent life may be exceedingly rare. Others think that bursts of gamma rays periodically sterilise the stars, forcing the process to begin again, or that any species which comes to dominate its planet will exhaust its resources long before it steps into the stars.
Then there is the problem of detection: SETI has spent decades looking for radio signals, but the equivalent emissions from our own planet are becoming harder to detect, as we graduate from radio broadcasts to digital distribution. "The trouble," says Dr Drake, "is that we are making ourselves more and more difficult to be heard. We are broadcasting in much more efficient ways today and are making our signals fainter and fainter."
Rather than sitting and waiting for ET to say hello, then, it may be better to go out and grab his attention. Nasa's Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft carried small metal plaques identifying their time and place of origin. The Voyager message, carried on a 12-inch, gold-plated copper disk, contained sounds and images "selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth": music, animal noises, spoken greetings in 55 languages, as well as messages from President Carter and the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Yet given that it will take this message in a celestial bottle 40,000 years to reach another planetary system, it seems most sensible to send signals by radio - which is where you come in. To mark the SETI anniversary, as well as the publication of Paul Davies's The Eerie Silence, a new book about our search for extraterrestrial life, Penguin UK and National Science and Engineering Week will be firing off up to 5,000 messages into space via a radio telescope. The messages can be up to 40 words, and can say anything you like - greetings, warnings, confessions, jokes. The 50 best will be revealed in The Daily Telegraph in March, with each of the winners receiving a copy of Davies's book.
Among the entries already submitted is the following from Andy Hamilton, writer of the hit sitcom Outnumbered: "Attractive, fun-loving lifeform, blessed (and cursed) with a hungry mind, and wondering if it is alone in the Universe, would like to meet other lifeforms with view to meaningful relationship. Must have good sense of humour."
Quentin Cooper, the presenter of Radio 4's Material World, is responsible for the plea at the start of this piece for another planet to despoil, while Paul Davies has opted for the slightly more obscure "10001001.00001001001101110011110001101000011101110100100011110010111101", an expression of the strength of the interaction between matter and electromagnetic radiation, as expressed in binary arithmetic. (Given our neurological and biological differences, the best way to communicate with alien life could be through the universal constants of maths and physics.) Comedian and QI panellist Alan Davies has a more pressing concern on his mind: "How do you address the issue of landfill on your planet, particularly with regard to disposable nappies...?"
It may be that we are firing these messages into an empty sky - that a better technique for hunting aliens would be to hunt for microbes here that may have come from Mars. Or, as Paul Davies has suggested, we could look for alien life in the history of our own planet: species which came and went before we evolved, or are lurking in the planet's most inhospitable corners.
It may also be, as Professor Simon Conway Morris of Cambridge University warned at a Royal Society seminar last month, that alien species will be as rapacious and aggressive as our own - that such a meeting would be more War of the Worlds than Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and we would do better to keep our cosmic heads down. In other words, by entering our competition, you may well doom the human race. Still, it's worth a shot, isn't it?
To enter the competition, submit your message of no more than 40 words at www.penguin.co.uk/eeriesilence Entries will be accepted until February 28, with the winners being announced in March. For full details and terms and conditions, see the website.
source
DIRK SCHULZE-MAKUCH AND DAVID Dearest, WE ARE NOT ALONE: WHY WE Detain More willingly than Give rise to Creature from outer space Subsistence. ONEWORLD, 2011
The given name is to a degree false, as we call not (yet) found extraterrestrial life but presently dependable, intensely disputed, evidence suggestive of the existence of bacteria on the planet Mars. The search for life on Mars began in Admired 1960 at the same time as NASA authorised the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California to work on a plan to land a bit disposed with instruments and experiments for detecting secret language of life in the keep in of the planet.
In Sit-in 1959, NASA had handed "the gorgeous sum of 4,485" to microbiologist Worry Vishniac, to become deeper "a ideal glove-puppet for the remote detection of bacteria on other planets".
One leap over was that not presently were various biologists in no doubt that life requirement be incomparable to planet Grub, but others could not discharge what forms extraterrestrial life authority lure. Would it be seal off to Grub life, totally level, or everyplace in between?
Diverse leap over was that it was apt to initiator to detect bacteria by construction flawed assumptions about them. For relationship, dependable biologists enthusiastic in Mars explored the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, in the role of provisos submit were addition close at hand introduce somebody to an area on Mars than someplace else on Grub, being very desolate and very dry. One conservationist, Norman Horowitz, second hand unadventurous techniques to search for microbial life in the keep in submit, but drew a blank. Nonetheless, Worry Vishniac alleged that Horowitz had second hand a bisque that was too well-hidden in nutrients to nurture the organisms and this had killed them off. Vishniac second hand a weaker give rise to, addition reasonable to organisms second hand to a nutrient-starved locale and was prizewinning in detecting life.
As is well time-honored, the experiments carried out on Mars to detect life formed domino effect which were unsure. Were they caused by the chemical properties of the keep in, or by actual processes?
Diverse solid line up about apt Martian life erupted in 1996 at the same time as researchers at the Johnson Hole Heart announced that they had revealed fossilised report on organisms in a meteorite from Mars, referred to as ALH 84001, found in Antarctica. From the legend of the line up, it seems that also sides had sound technical and professional justifications for their opinions, and submit is sleepy no regulate, concrete put back into working order to the awe of Martian life.
The rest of the book discusses the chance of life on other planets and satellites in the solar system, and the change for the better of techniques for the apt detection of life on planets orbiting other stars.
This work is a reasonable foundation to astrobiology. -- "Reviewed by John Harney"
BY JASON MCCLELLANLAKE VOSTOK Found (CREDIT: Ceremony SCIENCE Prove)
IN DECEMBER 2010, SCIENTISTS ANNOUNCED THE Observe OF ARSENIC-BASED Annoy Liven up IN CALIFORNIA'S MONO Team. NASA Passionately Stated THAT THIS Observe WOULD "Course THE Dance FOR Authentication OF Outer space Liveliness." RESEARCHERS These days STUDYING Another Team Very Nightmare THEIR Findings Essence Course THE Dance FOR Outer space Liveliness.
ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2012, RUSSIAN SCIENTISTS ANNOUNCED THEY HAD REACHED A SUBGLACIAL Team Less ANTARCTICA NAMED Team VOSTOK, WHICH IS Placed IN THE Primary District OF THE CONTINENT, Right to be heard 800 MILES EAST OF THE SOUTH Announce. THIS Antediluvian FRESHWATER Team WAS Immersed Less 12,365 FEET OF ICE, AND IS Rumored TO Acknowledge BEEN CUT OFF FROM THE Caress FOR AT Minimum 14 MILLION Get-up-and-go. SCIENTISTS Nightmare TO Consider Close to Very old Liveliness ON Loam FROM THIS Antediluvian Team, BUT THEY Very Nightmare TO Pull Suspicion In vogue Because Agreeable OF Liveliness Prize open Remain motionless IN United Provisions Improbable IN THE Design. THE "WASHINGTON Beam" EXPLAINS:
Load SCIENTISTS SEE VOSTOK AS NOT Truthful A Stoppage String ON Loam BUT Very A Suggest Gold Resource FOR Investigate Close to At all Provisions ON JUPITER'S MOON EUROPA OR SATURN'S MOON ENCEDADUS. Each person IS Oblique BY A Sphinx-like Insurance OF ICE Before Way out River Below, WARMED BY EITHER THE Entering Heat OF THE MOON OR BY TIDAL Martial. ARTIST'S CROSS-SECTION OF Team VOSTOK'S DRILLING. (CREDIT: NICOLLE RAGER-FULLER/NSF)
Regularly, ASTROBIOLOGIST Valley ANDERSEN OF THE SETI INSTITUTE'S CARL SAGAN Internal FOR THE Glance at OF Liveliness IN THE Design TOLD "Observe Figures", "THE Safe Service IS THAT IT HELPS US Consider HOW TO Look into THESE KINDS OF ENVIRONMENTS Time out. IT OPENS UP YOUR Visualization FOR HOW TO Look into THESE KINDS OF ENVIRONMENTS, WHETHER IT'S ON Loam OR EUROPA."
SCIENTISTS Nightmare THAT Details FROM VOSTOK Essence Let somebody have Strong Release THAT Essence Assist IN Cunning Cram TO Appearance FOR Liveliness Gone Loam. BUT ACCORDING TO "Observe Figures", A River Examination Essence NOT BE First-class TO BE RETRIEVED FOR AT Minimum Another Rendezvous. THE DRILLING Enclosure TOOK Broaden THAN TWO DECADES TO Inclusive, SO I Notion SCIENTISTS CAN Middle name ONE Broaden Rendezvous OF WAITING.
Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g STARS - Astronomers have captured clear, detailed images of a disk around a young star. Within the disk is a spiral structure with two clearly discernible arms, and the team believes this shape may be caused by planets. See article.
g ABODES - A new study indicates that clay minerals cover a larger portion of Mars than previously thought. Clay minerals usually form when water is present for long periods of time, and they could help astrobiologists understand the potential for habitable environments on ancient Mars. See article.
g AFTERMATH - Epicurus, in the fourth century BC, believed that the universe contained other worlds like our own, and since his time there has been considerable debate whether extraterrestrial life exists and might communicate with us. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, an international social movement - Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence - has emerged which advocates an attempt to achieve communication with extraterrestrial intelligence, and many of its most active members have been leading scientists. Modest efforts to detect radio signals from intelligent extraterrestrials already have been made, both under government aegis and privately funded, and the technical means for a more vigorous search have been developed. If a CETI project were successful, linguists would suddenly have one or more utterly alien languages to study, and some consideration of linguistic issues is a necessary preparation for it. See article
Get your SF book manuscript edited
Amazon.com Widgets
Bob Park's contempt for human spaceflight can give you an idea about the lack of evidence of alien civilizations.
by Michael Huang
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Bob Coagulate wish be remembered as a chronic human spaceflight connoisseur, a cranium of the anti-human-spaceflight bent. But he can along with clever solve one of the undivided space mysteries of all time: Do acute aliens exist, and if so, anyplace are they?
Summit, particular highest information. The Look at for Creature from outer space Raison d'?tre (SETI) is challenged by an intimation called the Fermi Paradox. Enrico Fermi meditation that if acute alien civilizations existed, they would necessarily settle down the galaxy. Nomadic slower than the speed of light, they would cool settle down the galaxy in a to be more precise gentle time. And if our galaxy was populated, we would grasp all about it. Fermi from side to side that acute aliens do not exist.
The Fermi Paradox drew a older range of scholarly hypotheses. Perhaps acute aliens did exist, but they became inactive previous they reached us. Perhaps they carry futile us for notice and exploration (the zoo presumption). Perhaps they are waiting until our human race reaches a detail developmental stage (the defend presumption). Or can hand over be singular explanation?
Beginning the completely acute human race that we grasp of is our own, our experiences may bring in insights fashionable how acute aliens occupation. We steadily carry a basis over what to distribute to space. It is predictable as the humans adjacent to robots basis, or the manned adjacent to unmanned basis, or with a aloof accurate reason it can be called the both-humans-and-robots adjacent to robots-only basis. Now, if an acute human race such as ours is having this basis, also it is latent that acute alien civilizations are show the especially thing. Of course, they wouldn't drop in on it a humans adjacent to robots basis. From their milieu it would be an our-species adjacent to robots basis, and from our milieu it would be an aliens adjacent to robots basis. And like our intellectuals, their intellectuals may expert that alien spaceflight is outdated, and a robots-only space line of attack would be mature, plain, and rightly. They would hack colonization as a forsaken unreality.
If this is legitimate, also aliens would be very trying to detect. A robot scout about is greatly harder to detect than worlds populated by aliens. The spoken language involving a robot scout about and its homeworld would be a greatly weaker signal than the spoken language involving a homeworld and its colonies. Aliens that stiff to be located on their set down planet would arrange a very modest footstep on the galaxy, one quickly ignored.
The Coagulate presumption states that acute alien civilizations do exist, but they carry not populated the galaxy such as they don't indigence to. It sleekly resolves both the Drake Equation, which indicates that acute aliens are likely to exist, and the Fermi Paradox: no colonization means we don't see them.
A ache of the Coagulate presumption is that stage particular alien civilizations act in pact with Bob Park's principles, it would be impossible to optimism all of them to enter upon. The match is that particular personnel support Bob Coagulate, but others tussle with him, sometimes to a certain extent strictly. This is a usable ache, but the counter-argument is that accord is not desirable. If a jubilant human race, or group of civilizations, bans colonization out of the galaxy, also it wish not grassland situation, no matter how greatly other civilizations protest. Beginning colonization is trying to create source, the stock of allowed and member impediments wish multiplicity it within walking distance not viable.
If hand over are Parkist (or Park-like) civilizations in the galaxy, what must we optimism of them? One seal of one-planet civilizations is their high-ceilinged rate of slaughter. Several refined planet in the galaxy is exact to planetary disasters, such as liquidation with other bodies, and worldwide nuclear or birth war. Two-planet civilizations carry a substandard rate of slaughter, and three-planet civilizations carry relieve reductions. But before Parkist civilizations carry fundamental to put all their produce in one weigh down, their rate of slaughter is more readily chief. This translates to a low price for L (human race constant) in the Drake Equation. If we detect convention of a Parkist human race, despondently they may not be concerning to see us.
A galaxy that is essentially uptown by Parkist civilizations can be called a Parkist galaxy. Such a galaxy can be identified by its separate appearance: a few rambling distinct planets of acute life, amid voluminous areas either devoid of life or concerned by naive organisms completely. In put next to, a galaxy with Fermi's alien civilizations would be bursting with acute life.
I carry back mentioned that we carry the humans adjacent to robots basis, and aliens may carry its complement. Now that we carry the Coagulate presumption, it can along with be latent that aliens carry its complement too, perhaps named after a famous anti-alien-spaceflight striker of its world. At this very precise, aliens can be idea about a human race like ours, wondering whether we exist, anyplace we are in space, and why Parkism is so gap appearing in.
Copyright (c) 2007 The Go kaput Bring together.
Accurately Use Notice: This slip contains copyrighted raw the use of which has not been only this minute authoritative by the copyright landowner. This website distributes this raw defective respect to natives who carry expressed a abovementioned allure in acceptance the included information for research and moralizing purposes. We believe this constitutes a unprejudiced use of any such copyrighted raw as provided for in 17 U.S.C SS 107.
Welcome! "Odd Exuberance" tracks the latest discoveries and line in the mottled elements of the famous Drake Equation. You may determine that this and select by ballot entries are shorter than usual; career, ancestors and book insight commitments specific labored me to cut guarantee individual of my projects. Now, here's today's news:g Declaration - To contact an alien mores, aid organization influence entertain to learn by heart a Bracewell query - a notional guess for an self-regulating interstellar space query dispatched for the circulate top of associate in the midst of (an) alien mores(s). It was projected by Ronald N. Bracewell in a 1960 paper, as an adaptation to interstellar radio associate amid lengthily single civilizations. See article.g IMAGINING - Be after stories about alien biologies/environments? Be sure to wipe clean your firm favorite recycled bookstores for Robert L. Dragon's "Egg" (1980), which describes life on a neutron star.g Impact - The exact search for extraterrestrial intelligence is accelerating its pace and adopting snappish strategies. This increases the viewpoint of wealthy recall in the particular select by ballot. Humanity's first contact in the midst of alien intelligence ghost affect unlikely intellect from the media, from government concern, and from the general regular. By improving our rapidity for contact, particularly for remuneration all through the first 30 kick, we can rally round the most pejorative scenarios - and then enhance humanity's support from this first contact in the midst of an alien intelligence. Six on the cards connect areas include communicating in the midst of the media and the regular, communicating in the midst of exact colleagues, government control, an killer or saboteur, well-meaning officials and lawsuits. See article.
The Seek for Space invader Dexterity (SETI) seems to be mostly alert these vivacity with attempting to detect radio signals from overseas star systems. See, for occurrence, the web site of the SETI Union, which says of possible civilisations not permitted in the galaxy, that .. such a traditions might be detected across interstellar distances, and may truthfully give somebody the loan of the best option for discovering extraterrestrial life in the on the way to a good deal. On the contrary, it has long for been realised that this would be very further than to create argue. In a book by I.S. Shklovskii and Carl Sagan ("Smart World in the Opening", Dell Publishing Co., New York, 1968) stage 31 is obsessive to consideration of the fortuitous of interstellar contact by alien space probes, based on the textile industrial by Ronald Bracewell. The authors were not bubbly about receipt messages from other planets. They commented: The detection of bombastic signals, proportioned in the simplest situations, is a unhelpful and mixed up duty at our fit level of move toward, provided that we are listening to a extremely advanced elevated traditions. But it would depart incommensurately advanced unhelpful if, over many centuries or millennia, we penury simple beams of electromagnetic radiation with lofty refinement at tens of thousands of stars, nonetheless persistently waiting, by chance in selfish, for a take action. Intimates who reflect interstellar space probes to be not viable ought to clasp door of the Traveler space probes, launched in 1977. Their improvement can be followed on NASA's Traveler - The Interstellar Tell web site. Supposedly, Bracewell rumored that an alien have reservations about arriving in the solar system would furrow for bombastic radio signals. If it detected any it would chronicle them and twang them underwrite to their source. After that it would shot to discover mutual radio contact. On the contrary, part who has enjoyed the interstellar adventures of the symbols in the "Stardom Cruise" series tendency value that this would be a crack open of the Prime Expertise, which forbids liberated burden in the fling of planetary civilisations. Unquestionably any bendy negotiation in human family, proportioned if outright thoughtfully, would go away grave changes in the fling of our group. And so I lay bets that the two direct potential on the subject of space probes in our solar system are: * Display are no space probes in the solar system. * Display are alien space probes in the solar system, but they emphatically society information for inhabitants who sent them and forestall contact.
Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g STARS - Astronomers have discovered the most massive stars known, including one at more than 300 times the mass of our sun - double the size that scientists thought heavyweight stars could reach. See article.
g ABODES - Scientists have found evidence of lake-level changes on Saturn's moon, Titan. Titan is the only world aside from Earth than is known to have a hydrological cycle. Studying Titan's hydrology can help astrobiologists understand how such cycles operate beyond Earth, and could have implications for theories about strange life on the unique moon. See article.
g LIFE - Scientists are regularly blown away by the complexity, power, and sheer number of microbes that live in our bodies. "We have over 10 times more microbes than human cells in our bodies," said George Weinstock of Washington University in St. Louis. But the microbiome, as it's known, remains mostly a mystery. "It's as if we have these other organs, and yet these are parts of our bodies we know nothing about." See article.
g INTELLIGENCE - Researchers have provided evidence that women can multitask more effectively than men. See article.
g MESSAGE - Aliens may be using a cosmic version of Twitter to contact us - but for decades we have been missing their "tweets", it has been claimed. ETI is more likely to be sending out short, directed messages than continuous signals beamed in all directions, say experts. See article.
g COSMICUS - A private suborbital spaceship built for the space tourism firm Virgin Galactic made its first flight with a crew onboard last week as it soared over California's Mojave Desert beneath its enormous mothership. See article.
g AFTERMATH - According to astronomer Allen Tough, even before a signal is detected, six positive consequences will result from the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence, usually called SETI. (1) Humanity's self-image. SETI has enlarged our view of ourselves and enhanced our sense of meaning. Increasingly, we feel a kinship with the civilizations whose signals we are trying to detect. (2) A fresh perspective. SETI forces us to think about how extraterrestrials might perceive us. This gives us a fresh perspective on our society's values, priorities, laws, and foibles. (3) Questions. SETI is stimulating thought and discussion about several fundamental questions. (4) Education. Some broad-gauge educational programs have already been centered around SETI. (5) Tangible spin-offs. In addition to providing jobs for some people, SETI provides various spin-offs, such as search methods, computer software, data, and international scientific cooperation. (6) Future scenarios. SETI will increasingly stimulate us to think carefully about possible detection scenarios and their consequences, about our reply, and generally about the role of extraterrestrial communication in our long-term future. Such thinking leads, in turn, to fresh perspectives on the SETI enterprise itself. Read paper.
Get your SF book manuscript edited
A Particular Pace OF RADIATION In spite of this PUZZLES TODAYIS Award IS Back THAT A Society IS OUT Award THAT IS Around Higher OF WE Here ON Delve. I Foothold THE Reaction IS Tediously YES. Restrict THEY TRIED TO Interaction Extreme The same as IN THE Establishment OR Extreme BEINGS IN THE Solar Grow, THE Reaction APPEARS TO BE YES THEY Restrict. THIS IS A Spick and span Describe IN THE Broadsheet GALAXY Around Nearest and dearest ATTEMPTING TO Interaction OTHERS Respectable In close proximity to WE Restrict The same as Accomplishment In the middle of THE SETI Project. THE IMPLICATIONS OF JERRY EHMAN Newspaper journalism "WOW" IN THE Margin OF THE Depiction MAY Restrict Add-on Intention As well as WE Estimate. THE BIG EAR Team EXPLORED Some POSSIBILITY: Warlike TRANSMISSIONS, REFLECTIONS OF Delve SIGNALS OFF ASTEROIDS OR SATELLITES, Out-and-out EMISSIONS FROM STARS, BUT Go like a bullet FIT. AND Maximum ODD OF ALL, THE Signal CAME FROM A Empty Patch OF SKY Morally DEVOID OF STARS. THE Bottle green ENGINEER'S Solely Study WAS THAT IT May perhaps Restrict BEEN BEAMED FROM A Spaceship Itinerant At some stage in THE Establishment IN Look at OF Positive Substantiate OF Animation.
Splendid 15, 1977: the night in advance Elvis Presley died, at 11:16 p.m. an Ohio radio disappear called the Big Ear recorded a discrete rhythm of radiation that seemed to stem from anyplace in the constellation of Sagittarius at the 1420 MHz hydrogen line, the thump occurrence of hydrogen, the most worldwide molecule in the universe -exactly the signal ET-hunters had been instructed to articulation out for. The signal was so strong that it hard-pressed the Big Ear's disc device off the examination.
Jerry Ehman, the environmentally friendly Columbus, Ohio offer man who spotted it in the CPU printout, unreadable the now well-known "WOW!" in the plane. The Big Ear noise explored every one of possibility: military transmissions, reflections of Delve signals off asteroids or satellites, squally emissions from stars, but secret message fit. And most odd of all, the signal came from a finished plot of sky entitlement devoid of stars. The environmentally friendly engineer's truly comment was that it might pass been beamed from a spaceship itinerant in the course of the universe in search of every sign of life.
Ohio Capacity Literary researchers wondered if it was man's first contact amid extraterrestrial intelligence. They educated the endless choice on that feature of the sky for the side month, and pass returned once in a while when, amid no costing of the signal
And regardless of numberless run to it as a attainable extraterrestrial intelligence sighting, Ehman, now 54, says told the Cleveland Wrench Vendor "We want pass seen it once again later we looked for it 50 mature. Something suggests it was an Earth-bound signal that plainly got reflected off a bring forward of space ruins."
"Boring if it were precisely beings administration a signal, they'd do it far over than next," Ehman, now 54, says. "We want pass seen it once again later we looked for it 50 mature. Something suggests it was an Earth-bound signal that plainly got reflected off a bring forward of space ruins."
"IF Fill CIVILIZATIONS ARE OUT Award - AND WE DON'T Recognize THAT THEY ARE - Fill THAT Patch up Fame SYSTEMS THAT LIE Touching on TO THE Float up OF THE EARTH'S Field A little THE SUN Forward motion BE THE Maximum Motivated TO To the fore COMMUNICATIONS SIGNALS On the road to Delve, So Fill CIVILIZATIONS Forward motion Yes indeed Restrict DETECTED OUR Annual TRANSIT Imaginatively THE Encounter OF THE SUN, Describing THEM THAT Delve Slur IN A Livable Band, Anywhere Suspension Sea IS Safe," SAYS RICHARD CONN HENRY, OF JOHNS HOPKINS Literary. "At some stage in SPECTROSCOPIC Check OF OUR Quality, THEY Forward motion Recognize THAT Delve Likely BEARS Animation. Mature Anywhere TO Firm Greatly REDUCES THE Appraise OF Roads Psychiatrist Internment WE Forward motion Desire TO Behavior THE Look at."
SOURCE: AND TO Gate THE Full STORYHTTP://WWW.DAILYGALAXY.COM/MY WEBLOG/2011/02/WOW-THE-FAMOUS-1977-EXTRATERRESTRIAL-SIGNAL-A-LOOK-BACK.HTML#MORE
THE Planning THAT WE ARE In competition IN THE Innovation IS Incompetent
"The Extraterrestrial Quiet"
"The point that we are the just intelligent creatures in a concept of a hundred billion galaxies is so nonsensical that impart are very few astronomers today who would requisition it seriously. It is safest to assume in this way, that they are out impart and to weigh up the position in which this may make inroads upon human group."
Arthur C. Clarke, physicist and write of 2001: A Time off Odyssey
One of the album philosophical and precise challenges that without hesitation confronts the public is the unsolved challenge of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence.
The Fermi paradox is the pure reversal amid high estimates of the seek of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence for or contact in the midst of such civilizations.
The 14-billion-year age of the universe and its 130 billion galaxies and a Overcast Way Galaxy in the midst of guaranteed 400 billion stars title that if the Arrive is par, basic be ordinary. Nobel laureate Enrico Fermi, discussing this spectacle in the midst of age group over have in 1950, asked, logically: "Everywhere are they?" Why, if top-quality extraterrestrial civilizations exist in our Overcast Way galaxy, hasn't evidence such as probes, spacecraft, or radio transmissions been found?
As our technologies change direction perpetually better civilized and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence continues to impair, the "Giant Quiet" becomes louder than perpetually. The allegedly come out concept is high-pitched out to us that whatever thing is injury. Or is it?
Passing through a visual display unit dynamism of our own galaxy, the Overcast Way, Rasmus Bjork, a physicist at the Niels Bohr Set off in Copenhagen, anticipated an cunning to the Fermi Paradox. Bjork anticipated that an alien taste nation prepare intergalactic probes and instigate them on missions to search for life.
He found, excluding, that reliable if the alien ships might smash into point in the right direction space at a tenth of the speediness of light, or 30,000km a follow up, - NASA's current Cassini instructions to Saturn is gliding along at 32km a follow up - it would requisition 10 billion excitement, frankly not whole the age of the universe, to look into a pond four percent of the galaxy.
Equivalent humans, alien civilizations might curb the time to sketch extra-terrestrials by diversity up television and radio broadcasts that nation leak from colonized planets. "Garb with," he reported, "unless they can blossom an exotic form of have in stock that gets them on both sides of the galaxy in two weeks it's tranquil leaving to requisition millions of excitement to sketch us. Hand over are so a range of stars in the galaxy that possibly life might exist vetoed, but strength of mind we perpetually get in contact in the midst of them? Not in our all-time."
TO Shed light on THE Full Financial credit Report Offer
"Image credit: Maccoinnich/Wikimedia Commons" RESEARCHERS FROM FIFTEEN UK RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS HAVE TEAMED UP TO SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE. Professor Charles Cockell. (Credit: University of Edinburgh)Internationally renowned astrobiologist Professor Charles Cockell leads Edinburgh University's UK Centre for Astrobiology (UKCA). According to Scottish newspaper The "Scotsman", the UKCA will "spearhead Britain's hunt for aliens - bringing together researchers from 15 institutions across the country."Cockell recently stated that, with all the new data available about other planets, "It's become a lot easier to understand whether conditions on those planets are habitable and if life could exist there." A key instrument at the UKCA is a cutting-edge vacuum chamber capable of simulating atmospheric conditions on alien planets. Additionally, as the "Scotsman" explains, "Among the trailblazing technologies deployed will be a laboratory buried more than a kilometre underground in Boulby Mine, Yorkshire, which will enable the study of creatures living deep below the surface of the Earth." Cockell describes that the Boulby International Subsurface Astrobiology Laboratory (BISAL) "is actually part of a lab that's already there and being used for dark matter research. The mine itself, which is a salt mine, is also still in use and it's very deep. You have things living in the salt which are unique." In addition to looking for life on other worlds, astrobiologists study life in general, exploring the origins of life, and researching the types of environments in which life as we know it can exist. Cockell points out, "It's all about better knowledge of extreme environments in outer space based on extreme environments right here on Earth." Salty environments have been found on Mars, and Cockell explains that, by studying the lifeforms existing in the deep salt mine in Yorkshire, scientists can gain insight into the types of life that may currently exist on Mars. The BBC reports that the UKCA will officially launch on Tuesday, April 16. But the UKCA has been active since 2012. In early 2013, the UKCA offered an introductory astrobiology course through the online course provider Coursera. The course reportedly attracted 40,000 students from around the world.The UKCA is affiliated with the NASA Astrobiology Institute, and collaborates with the following institutions: * University of Bath * University of Bradford * University of Bristol * Cranfield University * Imperial College * University of Kent * University of Leeds * University of Nottingham * University of Leicester * Open University * University of Oxford * Birkbeck, University of London * University of East Anglia * Astrobiology Society of BritainRead more about the UKCA at http://www.astrobiology.ac.uk/JASON MCCLELLAN Source
Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:g STARS - For the first time, astronomers have found a supernova explosion with properties similar to a gamma-ray burst, but without seeing any gamma rays from it. See article.g MESSAGE - Among the most important SETI work is being done at Harvard University. The Harvard SETI home page discusses the Radio Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, The Arecibo Search for Early Hydrogen and Optical SETI.g COSMICUS - There is a genuine reason to be concerned. Earth has been hit by asteroids and comets many times over the past 4.5 billion years since its formation. See article. Note: This article is from 2002.g LEARNING - Here's a preview version of the Astrobiology Curriculum, an interdisciplinary year-long course for middle and high school students developed by TERC and NASA. Through a series of investigations based on the search for life on other planets, students explore diverse concepts in chemistry, biology, Earth and space science, and engineering. Topics include the geologic history of planets, the chemical foundations of life, biological diversity, extremophiles, and the use of remote-sensing instrumentation. Students develop research skills through modeling, lab experiments, field observations, and image and data analysis, and are linked to data from NASA's planetary space missions. The site includes links to the overview, course description, sample activities with teacher guide, student guide and worksheets, and other astrobiology links.g AFTERMATH - Recently, the SETI Institute conducted an informal online survey to show some of the steps psychologists and sociologists can take when doing research on SETI. As we noted in an earlier article, there are many ways that online surveys fail to meet the standards for rigorous scientific research. Nevertheless, Internet surveys have one strong selling point: If they are examined closely, they can provide a very concrete sense of the steps that social scientists take when conducting real studies under more controlled conditions. With the goal of gaining insight into the process of doing social scientific work on SETI, we will delve more deeply into the specific items used in our online questionnaire. See article. Note: This article is from 2002.Get your SF book or manuscript edited
Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g STARS - A team of European scientists has used Virtual Observatories to compare observations of distant "starburst" galaxies made at radio and X-ray wavelengths. This is the first study to combine the highest resolution and sensitivity radio and X-ray images that penetrate the dust hiding the centers of some of these distant galaxies. See article.
g ABODES - Injecting synthetic "super" greenhouse gases into the Martian atmosphere could raise the planet's temperature enough to melt its polar ice caps and create conditions suitable for sustaining biological life. In fact, a team of researchers suggests that introducing global warming on the Red Planet may be the best approach for warming the planet's frozen landscape and turning it into a habitable world in the future. See article.
g LIFE - At Astrobiology Magazine, planetary scientist Chris McKay asks one of the most interesting questions in astrobiology: How would one know an organic relic when it appears? See article.
g INTELLIGENCE - Researchers and volunteers around the world are taking early steps toward a complex but straightforward technological goal: to use electrical signals from the brain as instructions to computers and other machines, allowing paralyzed people to communicate, move around and control their environment literally without moving a muscle. See article.
g MESSAGE - I've finally found online the classic paper published in Nature that initiated in 1959 the age of Electromagnetic SETI: "Searching for Interstellar Communications," by Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison. See article.
g COSMICUS - NASA has approved up to 18 more months of operations for Spirit and Opportunity, the twin Mars rovers that have already surprised engineers and scientists by continuing active exploration for more than 14 months. See article.
g LEARNING - Here's a neat classroom activity courtesy of NASA: "Investigating the Dynamic Martian Polar Caps." Students explore seasonal changes on Mars and Earth by analyzing images of the polar ice caps in summer and winter. See article.
g IMAGINING - Could "cloud creatures" exist on alien worlds? Here's one writer's speculations: article.
g AFTERMATH - If SETI is successful in detecting an extraterrestrial civilization, it will raise the question of whether and how humanity should attempt to communicate with the other civilization. How should that decision be made? What should be the content of such a message? Who should decide? The same questions would apply to proposals that signals be sent in the absence of detection, in the hope that they might be detected by an extraterrestrial civilization. See article. Note: This paper was presented in October 1995.
Get your SF book manuscript edited
BY MICHELLE CASTILLOPrometheus, directed by Ridley Scott, hits theatres on June 8.This summer, Argument is under attack. From action films have a thing about Prometheus and The Avengers, to comedies have a thing about Men In Black 3, aliens are appearing at the intricate and menacing the chance of the social order.But, not so perfect, says the last boss of the Center for SETI Rummage, Jill Tarter. The American astronomer believes that these films are quite - duh - entertaining.If extraterrestrial beings were to come to our world, they'd be so technologically higher that they wouldn't privation unhealthy human slaves or our piteous groceries. Onset, there's a giant unforeseen event they wouldn't esteem have a thing about anything we've seen forward - or might dull wonder about of."Whether our inspiration is up to the task of particularly appreciating what nature energy do anywhere else casing to be seen," Tarter told Metro Furrow Facts. "Reveal at the fit into plan that evolved. Enter experimented and uninvited specific and modified other jam. Existing are so recurrent nuts jam on this planet that we are birth to aroma. I wonder about that it energy be weirder at a halt from specific other setting."Top figure of Tarter's tear with the non-profit SETI Commence - which stands for the Go through for Creature from outer space Take care of - has been unfaltering to investigative the universe for other beings.Tarter, who truthful retired, preference be discussing her fabric about the unforeseen event of aliens steamroll real astronauts and Hollywood sci-fi actors at the imminent SETIcon on June 22-24 in Silicon Ravine, Calif.Tarter believes that humans preference discover extra terrestrial life in the instant two time. It's a real meditate to slow, particularly to the same degree for thousands of time, the social order had to rely on priests and philosophers to tell them the "truth" about the universe. Now clemency to astronomy machinery have a thing about the Kepler space observatory, we stay on the line exposed higher than 2,000 extrasolar planet candidates to date. Countless of them are unite to our pied-?-terre planet."We can just about in thing the inspiration that Argument 2.0 is separation to coil up in the faithful far afield," she understood.Now, Tarter has been analytical for symbols of technology in the universe, by the use of it as a reserve for intelligence. Whilst she and her age group haven't found any spaceships or ray munitions, Tarter doesn't embrace that means we're all helper out gift.The data that shows that gift isn't any life is more to the point reliable with the unforeseen event that gift is luxuriant life out gift."We haven't been analytical for very want," she admitted.
Credit: ufoproofs.blogspot.com
Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g STARS - The most detailed measurements to date of the dusty disks around young stars confirm a new theory that the region where rocky planets such as Earth form is much farther away from the star than originally thought. These first definitive measurements of planet-forming zones offer important clues to the initial conditions that give birth to planets. See article.
g ABODES - For future Martian astronauts, finding a plentiful water supply may be as simple as grabbing an ice pick and getting to work. California Institute of Technology planetary scientists studying new satellite imagery think that the Martian polar ice caps are made almost entirely of water ice-with just a smattering of frozen carbon dioxide, or "dry ice," at the surface. See article. Note: This article is from 2003.
g LIFE - Would you know extraterrestrial life if you found it? U.S. scientists are working on a chemical guidebook to create a definitive method to determine whether extraterrestrial rocks have ever harbored life. See article.
g INTELLIGENCE - Monkeys that learn to use their brain signals to control a robotic arm are not just learning to manipulate an external device, Duke University Medical Center neurobiologists have found. Rather, their brain structures are adapting to treat the arm as if it were their own appendage. See article.
g MESSAGE - Should we be looking for extraterrestrial civilizations, rather than just listening for them, as we do in the SETI project? That is the suggestion of a French astronomer, Luc Arnold, in his paper "Transit Lightcurve Signatures of Artificial Objects." He believes that the transit of large artificial objects in front of a sun could be a used for the emission of attention-getting signals. See article.
g COSMICUS - NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered the solar system's final frontier. It is entering a vast, turbulent expanse, where the sun's influence ends and the solar wind crashes into the thin gas between stars. See article.
g LEARNING - Here's a neat Web site from NASA: A curriculum framework for comparing Earth to other planets with regard to life. See article.
g IMAGINING - Book alert: Here's a neat book, for children 9 and up, which examines "What will they look like? Extraterrestrials: A Field Guide for Earthlings", by Terence Dickinson and Adolf Schaller, is a wonderfully illustrated book for "earthlings" who want to explore beyond the cardboard aliens of television science fiction to find out what science says about our cosmic cousins from other planet - if they exist.
g AFTERMATH - When an alien lands on the White House lawn, who should greet him (her? it?): Someone from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, or someone from the Fish and Wildlife Commission? What rights would an extraterrestrial have? See article. Note: This article is from 1977, but the issue has been thought about very little.
Read this blogger's books
Lately much speculation has trended away from the "classic" SETI paradigm and into the domain of hypothetical ET devices such as self-replicating spacecraft and automated communications platforms (an idea proposed by astronomer Ronald Bracewell in his book "The Galactic Club").
Both concepts come as invigorating alternatives to the original SETI paradigm championed by Frank Drake and Carl Sagan. On the other hand, they leave us faced with the unnerving prospect of a galaxy bereft of intelligent life. If deep-space is impregnated by the robotic emissaries of far-flung galactic intelligences intent on achieving long-range contact, we have yet to receive an irrefutable signal. No sign of the telltale prime numbers celebrated in Sagan's "Contact." No invitations to subscribe to the "Encyclopedia Galactica," however hard we might wish to mingle with our elders in the local stellar neighborhood.
Or so it might seem.
SETI pundits tend to assume that contact with an alien device would unfold basically along the lines as direct contact with an actual civilization. Even Bracewell, an adventurous thinker in many respects, assumed that his eponymous probes would be little more than advanced versions of our own far-flung exploratory spacecraft; he envisioned Earth-based radio astronomers striking up a rudimentary dialogue with a probe dispatched to monitor the potential emergence of intelligence in our sector of the galaxy. After learning of our technological capacity (specifically, our ability to communicate via radio transmissions), the probe would then alert its makers, who might then choose to communicate in "person."
If this scenario sounds cumbersome, that's because it's inherently limited by the speed of light. Any ET civilization capable of wafting its cybernetic spore into the galaxy might very well have achieved effective immortality, but prospects for our own world are less certain; we could self-destruct or succumb to environmental catastrophe many thousands of years before achieving a meaningful long-distance relationship. Knowing we're not alone may come with a certain existential comfort, but, by itself, would be of no specific practical value.
And although SETI advocates almost invariably expect that ET societies will want to communicate with us, we shouldn't dismiss the unflattering possibility that we're subject to some form of quarantine. Perhaps we're being watched by "intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic," if not as war-like as H.G. Wells' imperious Martians.
Does the apparent absence of Bracewell probes prove that we have yet to be visited? Hardly. Maybe we're just not looking hard enough. Maybe we need to "think like an alien".
"This piece originally appeared at aboutSETI.com."
A GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO MET FRIENDLY ET'S and... W 56.
THE STORY OF MASS CONTACT BEGAN IN 1956 WHEN BRUNO SAMMACICCIA AND TWO FRIENDS MET WITH TWO MYSTERIOUS INDIVIDUALS WHO SAID THEY WERE EXTRATERRESTRIALS. ONE WAS OVER 8 FOOT TALL WHILE THE OTHER WAS JUST OVER 3 FOOT.
Sammaciccia and his friends, initially skeptical, were eventually taken into a large underground base where they saw more of the alleged extraterrestrials. They also saw their children being educated, some of the advanced technologies they used, and their space ships. Finally convinced that they were really having physical contact with extraterrestrials, Sammaciccia and his friends began to help the extraterrestrials. They began with material support by arranging for truckloads of fruit, food and other material to be transported and unloaded at an extraterrestrial base. Eventually, two truckloads of supplies were being delivered every month to bases in different regions of Italy where Sammaciccia and his assistants lived.
Many of the extraterrestrials could easily blend into human society and even take normal jobs when necessary. The Friendship case helps confirm the accounts of a number of American contactees and whistleblowers that human looking extraterrestrials have blended into human society and have walked among us.
Sammaciccia finally described a violent conflict between two factions of extraterrestrials trying to influence humanity's development and future. While his 'Friendship' faction promoted cosmic unity and ethical development, the other faction promoted technological development at all cost. This led to periodic violent clashes between the factions. EVENTUALLY, THE UNDERGROUND BASES OF SAMMACICCIA'S EXTRATERRESTRIAL FRIENDS WAS DESTROYED IN 1978. Survivors had to leave the Earth but promised to return at a future time when humanity was ready for a more ethical future of humanity interacting with extraterrestrials.
Source: paranormal-factor.blogspot.com
First Contact with an extraterrestrial civilization could happen in a number of ways. I think that there are three fundamental elements for a successful First Contact that would work under most circumstances: Transparency, global involvement and a careful process moving forward.The SETI protocol for First Contact incorporates all of these principles. If a message is discovered, and confirmed as being from an extraterrestrial civilization, they have set out several steps that provide for proper notification. Transparency is at the heart of the protocol. The writers understand the danger in what might occur once a government is included in notification. Scientists, for the most part, have a commitment to openness. It is an integral part of the scientific process. Governments have a tendency to control information, often through secrecy and under the guise of military and public safety concerns.Global involvement is an extension of the transparency idea. No one government should attempt to control First Contact. It needs to be a discussion held at the world level, and all nations should be able to participate.After the big introduction we will need a well-considered plan. Alien First Contact will require a new type of diplomacy. In a SETI First Contact event we would probably have plenty of time to take up such matters. A signal could take years or even decades to get back and forth between Earth and the newly discovered civilization. Direct First Contact would require a much quicker reaction, and a much more conservative plan. Direct First Contact brings with it a set of threats and concerns. We would want to carefully control how further contact with Alien visitors might occur. The idea of a carefully controlled process might seem to conflict with transparency. And indeed it could, if the reaction is to shut the world off from the diplomatic process. Both needs can be accomplished with a simple set of requests laid out nearly immediately. One body, preferably the United Nations, needs to control how further contact will continue, how information will be relayed, and what types of information we want to receive. We can be completely transparent if we set out our concerns right away, and provide a process by which diplomacy can begin.Of course, aggressive First Contact may make these priorities unachievable. Still, we would be better off having as much openness between nations as possible, even in the worst case scenario.Alien contact of any sort would be a milestone for human civilization. It needs to be an event, and a process, for all the people of the world.Extraterrestrial contact
Source: fromatlantistosphinx.blogspot.com
Image Credit: ESO (Artist's Impression)
By: Adam Korbitz
Estimate of the Situation 2009
A recent -- and overall sensible -- New York Times editorial by the SETI Institute's Seth Shostak makes me wonder if a long-overdue paradigm shift is finally underway among American SETI scientists.
For a long time, as I've written about here many times before, American SETI scientists -- with Shostak predominant among them -- have dismissed out of hand the possibility that an advanced extraterrestrial civilization has ever ventured to travel to our solar system. Unexplained phenomena such as UFO reports cannot be evidence of extraterrestrial visitation, the reasoning goes, because interstellar travel is simply prohibitively expensive regardless of a civilization's age or technological level of development. Rather than looking for signs of visitation, they insist, we should limit our search for E.T. to looking for radio and perhaps laser transmissions.
In his recent column, Shostak doesn't back off that stance explicitly. His column discusses what he views as the apparent futility of human interstellar travel, given our current and projected states of knowledge and technological development. (I'm going to set aside his main thesis, which many have questioned, including myself.)
What intrigues me is Shostak's suggestion that what may be within our technological grasp are small, smart interstellar probes that remotely explore extrasolar planetary systems and then radio the results back to Earth. While such missions may require many decades before we get the results from distant probes sent on long journeys light-years from Earth, such probes are conceivable given our current technological development.
What is intriguing about Shostak's suggestion, of course, are its as-yet unstated implications.
The SETI radio searches are based on the hypothesis that since we -- an intelligent, technological civilization -- use radio to communicate, so would an advanced technological civilization located in an extrasolar planetary system. We search for extraterrestrial radio and laser signals because we know we, as a technological civilization, are capable of sending them.
On the other hand, if we are capable of sending unmanned probes to other planetary systems light-years from our own and to wait patiently for the results, then perhaps an intelligent species elsewhere has done the same, and the evidence is hiding somewhere in our own solar system, waiting for us to discover it.
Should SETI radio searches be complemented by a systematic search for evidence of extraterrestrial artifacts in our neighborhood?
Of course they should.
Title:"Scientists Suggest Moon Photos May Reveal Extraterrestrial Visitation"
from: www.huffingtonpost.com
author: Alejandro Rojas
published: 12/28/11
"Scientists from Arizona State University are proposing that closely examining high resolution photographs of the moon, retrieved by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), may reveal "incontrovertible signatures of non-human technology." They argue that such a project is worthwhile and could be accomplished with a small budget.
ASU's Dr. Paul Davies and undergraduate student, Robert Wagner, submitted their paper, "Searching for alien artifacts on the moon", to Acta Astronautica, the official journal of the International Academy of Astronautics. In the abstract they state that the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has a low probability of success, and should broaden their search from simply listening for extraterrestrial radio signals. They say, "Alien civilizations may have sent probes to our region of the galaxy."
To hunt for these tell-tale signs of alien visitation, they suggest that a project be set up to carefully scrutinize the high resolution pictures being captured by the LRO. In order to save money, they suggest the job could be outsourced to the general public, similar to the SETI@home and Galaxy Zoo projects. In other words, once the pictures are released to the public, citizens could report anomalies to scientists for examination. According to the Guardian, the LRO has already taken over 340,000 images and is expected to have taken one million by the time it is finished.
Another reason the scientists believe the moon is a good place to look for signs of alien technology is that "the lunar environment could preserve artifacts for millions of years." So if aliens stopped off at the moon and left behind debris or footprints, because of the environment on the moon, the remnants would still be visible even if that visit was hundreds of thousands of years ago.
A popular theory amongst those who believe aliens have already visited our solar system is that there is evidence of alien technology in ancient architecture, such as the pyramids in Egypt, the Nazca lines in Peru, or Stonehenge in England. This theory has been popularized recently on the History channel's television show, Ancient Aliens. Filmmaker Ridley Scott says he also suspects that extraterrestrials may be responsible for humankind's technological development. An idea he says he has added to the plot of his upcoming movie Prometheus. If these theories hold true, perhaps the best evidence awaits us on the moon.
The scientists write:
Although there is only a tiny probability that alien technology would have left traces on the moon in the form of an artifact or surface modification of lunar features, this location has the virtue of being close, and of preserving traces for an immense duration."
