Earth: no longer the lonely planet

SpaceRef ^ | 9/26/03

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for your post!

Indeed, Einstein first proposed the cosmological constant and then ditched it because he felt it was 'kluged.'

But recently, scientists have brought the factor back into the equations because it was discovered that the universe is accelerating. Originally, the term dark energy was used interchangeably with dark matter. But now, they are defined separately. Dark matter has positive gravity - black holes and massive neutrinos (if any) whereas dark energy has negative gravity and thus, causes acceleration.

AIP 651: The Big Rip

AIP 479: Dark Energy and the Microwave Background

[f.Christian]

So you post nonsense to show that evolution doesn't make sense?

I post evo nonsense to show that evolution doesn't make sense?

[Orion78]

Ok, but you have to admit, your posts are very cryptic. While you might understand why you post what you do, I would take a guess and say most here on FR don't really have a clue what point you are trying to get across when they read your posts. I know I dont.

[scouse]

Are Venus and Mars "Earth-like?"

Only if they have low rent housing!

[f.Christian]

Do you want a list of what evolutionists say and believe and proselytize on the FR ... I can update it !

[Orion78]

No, I just want to know why your posts are so cryptic.

[Orion78]

It seems to me if you wanted to fix the problem of people being 'brain soul dead' you would want people to understand what you were trying to say in your posts so as to convince them that evolution is wrong.

[f.Christian]

w / o thinking - understanding ... 2nd hand information is counter productive --- cultic - damaging !

[Ahban]

I'd take that bet.

The numbers in the article are off. For one thing, the science book I teach out of says there are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, with 200 billion as the upper limit. Many of those are in the Galactic Bulge, or in the middle of a globular cluster, and so can be taken off of the board right away.

The 2000 stars they have looked at are all prime candidates to have planets in the first place. It is not a random sample of stars. The Sun has a higher metallicity than 90% or more of the stars its age. It has many other "odd" characteristics, such as excessive stability.

This does not begin to address the factors that restrict the number of possible Earth-like planets. The orignial Drake equation listed six narrowing limitations. We now know about 118 limitations, and some of them are very limiting.

I have studied the matter in great depth and have come to the conclusion that if it is all by chance, then we should not even be here.

[Orion78]

Well I've looked at your homepage every time I have seen a post from you and I think about what it could mean. Frankly, I don't understand the information you have on your homepage so therefore it must be cultic, damaging and counter productive....think about that one for a while. I have to go I'll be back around later if you want to talk some more.

Orion78

[f.Christian]

If you want to see anti - thinking on the FR mocking - hating anything thinking ... philosophy - methodology --- research the posts of Patrick Henry and Right Wing Professor !

It (( thinking - analysis )) 's all anti science (( religion - logic )) to them (( MATERIALSTS -- reductio ad absurdists )) !

Bolshevik monopoly ... dictatorship --- quacks too !

Main Entry: re·duc·tio ad ab·sur·dum
Pronunciation: ri-'d&k-tE-"O-"ad-&b-'s&r-d&m, -'d&k-sE-O-, -shE-, -'z&r-
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin, literally, reduction to the absurd
Date: 1741
1 : disproof of a proposition by showing an absurdity to which it leads when carried to its logical conclusion
2 : the carrying of something to an absurd extreme

[BlazingArizona]

The wonders - blessings - joys of evolution ...

Sorry, but I'm a lot more proud of being among the highest of the apes than the lowest of the angels. It's just the way I am.

[f.Christian]

If you are a female I think vaperetroll is looking for you --- jane ... you believe exactly a like --- in the jungle - holler !

[Prodigal Son]

I'll have to second an earlier poster's comments- Good luck!

(although I don't rate your chances too high of getting a response in normal terms out of Fletch)

[Joe Hadenuf]

Our television signals have been bombarding the stars since we first began broadcasting. I say we have already bothered them to distraction.

Actually that's not quite true. Our signals have barely made it into space, so to speak.

Only civilizations within about 50 light years of the Earth would be able to "see" us, since the first strong radio broadcasts in the VHF band started only about 50 years ago.

In the movie "Contact" aliens only 20 light years away received early TV broadcasts and beamed them back to us as a beacon signal. In real life, that hasn't happened ... yet

[Publius6961]

Uh, that's GENERAL Hammond. The Colonel is O'Neal.

Uh... sorry.

My memory symbiote is acting up again.

[William Tell]

What a fascinating topic.

Estimates of the Earth's age are around 5 billion years. Many earth-like planets will be much older, but bounded by the apparent age of the universe itself ( 20 billion years now?).

It is probably technologically less expensive to listen or look for intelligent life on other planets than to attempt to signal such planets ourselves.

Easiest to hear will be planets on which effective efforts to signal others are taking place.

Lets examine for a moment what might be possible on Earth in the next thousand years for signaling other planets.

The first two hundred years or so of the industrial revolution has given us an understanding of nuclear weapons, DNA operation, laser signalling, television, and jet aircraft.

All of these things would seem like magic to someone from two hundred years ago. Similarly, technology from two hundred years from now will seem to us like magic. Even more so, technology from four hundred years or a thousand years.

A thousand years from now, we may have the ability to inhabit Mars with artificial self-replicating robots with the sole mission of signalling other planets. Why would we do this? To relieve the boredom which otherwise results from lack of war, famine, and pestilence.

The question now arises, how will these robots on Mars signal other planets? Assuming that large nuclear airblasts can be seen from other planets, that will be the beacon. The position and the timing of the blasts will be such that Mars is in the same position in its orbit, and the blast will be at exactly midnight.

Let's go back now to the exercise NASA proposes, to look for planets that are detectable because they transit the star around which they orbit. Once NASA detects such planets, we will want to examine the intensity of the signals during the transit, attempting to detect slight, brief brightenings during the transit. The "brightening" might just be sprectral content which is sufficiently different from that of the transited star.

If we detect such slight, brief brightenings, then we may indeed be looking at a signal from a distant intelligence. Given that many earth-like planets might be a billion years ahead of us in development, the number of such signals might be very large.

The beacon signals might be some form of laser action rather than nuclear blasts. I have read other descriptions of how such beacons might be used to convey messages. Initially, just sending a repeating pattern whose bit length is the product of two prime numbers might serve to convince others that the signal is not a natural occurrence. This might be a kind of "test pattern" whose meaning is "watch this space for future developments."

[Publius6961]

pervert!

[f.Christian]

"If the Christ of God, in His sorrowful life below, be but a specimen of suffering humanity, or a model of patient calmness under wrong, not one of these things is manifested or secured. He is but one fragment more of a confused and disordered world, where everything has broken loose from its anchorage, and each is dashing against the other in unmanageable chaos, without any prospect of a holy or tranquil issue. He is an example of the complete triumph of evil over goodness, of wrong over right, of Satan over God,-one from whose history we can draw only this terrific conclusion, that God has lost the control of His own world; that sin has become too great a power for God either to regulate or extirpate; that the utmost that God can do is to produce a rare example of suffering holiness, which He allows the world to tread upon without being able effectually to interfere; that righteousness, after ages of buffeting and scorn, must retire from the field in utter helplessness, and permit the unchecked reign of evil. If the cross be the mere exhibition of self-sacrifice and patient meekness, then the hope of the world is gone. We had always thought that there was a potent purpose of God at work in connection with the sin- bearing work of the holy Sufferer, which, allowing sin for a season to develop itself, was ... preparing and evolving a power --- which would utterly overthrow it, and sweep earth clean of evil, moral and physical. But if the crucified Christ be the mere self-denying man, we have nothing more at work for the overthrow of evil than has again and again been witnessed, when some hero or martyr rose above the level of his age to protest against evils which he could not eradicate, and to bear witness in life and death for truth and righteousness,-in vain ... (( not ! // link )) --- . "

[Robert_Paulson2]

we have been told religiously that there is at least one other habitable planet with features similar to earth....
heaven is clearly described as a planet. Biblically we are told It has mountains, water, stones, sea and polar directions like NORTH.

According to the writer of Hebrews, the jewish temple was modelled after the on on the planet where God's presence dwells...

And the weird creatures in the Book of Revelation and other prophetic scriptures, if they exist at all, probably would have home worlds, and methods of propagation, governance and trade.

Maybe the creature with four faces, or the one with multiple wings, isn't an religious allegory by some stoned religious nut on an island.. maybe he saw some other non earth living "zoe" or creatures, and was reporting on their appearance from his limited human context.

Maybe "Angels" are "energy" based life forms that can appear, disappear and assume different forms. Who really KNOWS?

Just speculation.
But life on other planets.. you better believe it.
God is out there, and wherever He is, I would suspect LIFE in some format, has been created, evolved or planted.

To be consistent, his command to "multiply and replenish" as a principle would very likely be one that he has applied to his entire domain.