Posted on 05/21/2020 4:46:49 PM PDT by Kaslin
In an article over at Space.com, Leonard David describes a new development in the efforts by humans to contact extraterrestrial life elsewhere in the galaxy. While the SETI program (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) has been in operation for decades, the results thus far have been mostly disappointing. There was a brief flurry of excitement in 1977 when “the WOW signal” was received, but in later years even that one has been called into question. Now, however, there’s a new player in the game. China has constructed the largest single-dish radio telescope in the world and they are reportedly gearing up to hunt for potential alien signals from space. So are we headed toward a 21st-century arms race to see who can get E.T. to phone home first?
According to the experts they spoke with, this one of those rare areas where there really won’t be much in the way of geopolitics messing up the process, so a “new space race” isn’t in the cards. The reason is that the process of acquiring signals at such low levels across such a vast target area requires the cooperation of nations with large radio telescopes around the world. The odds are good that if we do finally hear something interesting, no single country will claim all the “credit” for it as it will likely involve scientists from multiple nations.
The interesting word in their analysis, however, is the word “contact.” Up until now, most of what we’ve done has just involved listening in the hopes of detecting some sort of radio waves from an alien intelligence. But the new FAST dish in China is capable of more than passive detection. They can actually broadcast powerful, targeted signals out into space that might eventually be detected by another civilization.
So is that really a good idea? Scientists from Carl Sagan to Stephen Hawking have warned us against such a move over the years. Sure, everyone wants to be the first to discover another intelligent species, but what if these signals attract undesirable attention from a potentially hostile race? If they’ve got the technology to make it all the way to Earth, they’ve probably got weapons we haven’t even imagined yet.
Of course, the odds of any signals sent from China today reaching another civilization and getting an answer in our lifetimes are pretty slim. Even a signal sent to the closest star to ours would take more than four years to arrive and another for years for the reply to reach us. And most of the really interesting exoplanets discovered during the Kepler mission were much further away than that.
But all of this leaves what should by now, be an obvious question dangling in front of us. What if we don’t need to hook up a phone call with someone that’s light-years away from us to contact E.T.? What if they’re already within cell tower distance? Let’s face it… somebody had to build those Tic Tacs that our Navy has been chasing around. And somebody might even be flying them. I’d be a lot more interested in seeing them dial-up someone’s smartphone and let us know what’s going on. (Hey… aliens. I’ll give you my digits. I’m available.)
But at least so far, whoever or whatever is directing the movements of those things doesn’t seem interested in talking to us. Unless, of course, they’re already talking to our government and we’re being left in the dark about it. But that’s a conspiracy theory for another column.
Active seti was a pretty big controversy, if I recall. They just started beaming stuff out at interesting things, a bunch of the board quit over it.
Freegards
I think her name is Joan Taylor
I wasn’t sure if E.T. meant Extra Terrestrial, or Extra Terrestrial’s. I assumed the plural.
the Chinese best leave it to the US - space aliens don’t speak Chinese...
She sure is pretty.
Maybe they want to keep it a secret.
Awfully bold statement when there's a few hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone.
I believe I have 40 ton of gold bars.
I’ve looked everywhere humanly possible with every tool I had available to me for the last 60 years or so, and haven’t located any portion of it...
Do you believe that I have 40 tons of gold?
(We actually know that gold exists)
Or are you more likely to believe that the gold is just a fantasy of mine?
What you’re saying that not believing that something exists is exactly the same as believing that something exists.
>>ETs are maintaining social distance and won’t come closer than 6 lightyears
They heard that the War of the Worlds martian invasion was stopped by the common cold. Take THAT, ACHOO!!!
Schrödinger’s alien?
No. I’m saying the specific words that I type.
If you want to be a typical FR troll and argue about what you wanted me to mean, go right ahead.
I’m saying this: There is nobody out there.
Literally everyone has been looking for “them”, literally forever without a single verifiable shred of evidence that “they” exist.
I’m saying that there isn’t just an absence of evidence; but there is overwhelming evidence of absence.
Careful, you don't want to be the guy who looked under a thousand rocks for a whale and not finding one proclaimed they don't exist.
Flying saucers are interesting subjects.
There is one thing I cannot understand. If you traveled to a galaxy or whatever which was billions of light years away. Einstein said that if you were flying at light speed you would get there instantly. How can that be?
He would be right. Whales don’t exist under rocks.
No, your equating your belief that somewhere on the Earth you have gold with your claim that there is no one out there — it is grossly illogical. You can call that trolling all you want, it merely makes you look even more stupid when you double down.
I saw a map for it once.
>>
<<(.)
>> HERE
>>
>>
>>
>> YOU
>> ARE
You can say it but the fact is, you have no clue. Btw, we have not come close to searching the entire universe for life. Therefore, saying there is "Overwhelming" lack of evidence life exists outside earth, is ridicules.
An good analogy or comparison would be, in all the beaches of the world, we've searched one handful of sand. The universe is a really big place.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.