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.
The atheist - Uh Uh... No way in the entire universe God even could exists!
If you believe in God, or in the possibility Gods existence, you are a dangerois threat to society, a public enemy of humanity.
Now where were we...?
Oh yes, with your taxpayer dollars, we intend to spend hundreds of billions dollars in search of what we believe must be out there somewhere, and hopefully find intelligent life on other planets, or in other galaxies! Maybe even an intelligent being who put us here!
Standing ovations...
Or how about “exist”
Sod off troll
Yeah, you go ahead and find life out there in the void, and I’ll just sit here being wrong, okay?
So far my team is ahead by a mile.
Hey, it’s 2020. Now it would be “ET, phone homo.”
“Why bother. If there were really aliens why have we never seen any indication of them except for 1950s flying saucer movies.”
I don’t think we should bother either because they would likely just kill us.
Why haven’t we seen them? The distances are just too great. I doubt our civilization will ever explore much of the Milky Way and we will certainly never explore our nearest galaxy which 2.5 million light years away.
The distances are so great there is no point in even looking at anything beyond a few dozen LY away.
“ Literally everyone has been looking for “them”, literally forever without a single verifiable shred of evidence that “they” exist. “
Do you know what ‘literally’ means?
Relativistic length contraction. The closer you get to the speed of light, the shorter you appear to be to an outsider in the direction you’re traveling. Conversely, the closer things appear to be to you in that direction. If you could get arbitrarily close to the speed of light the closer your destination would be to you; e.g., if you could go 0.9999999999999999999999...% the speed of light, your destination would literally be inches away, even if it was clear across the universe. You’d arrive in seconds.
Okay!
Btw, if your, "Team" thinks like you, they're all wrong as well.
Yes, I literally do.
That’s some convincing evidence you got there...
I like that poster. That is one very plausible (to me) explanation for the various stories and sightings. However - Satan usually disguises his actions in “good” things. The “apple” from the tree of knowledge for example. “Why knowledge is good!”
So I’ll have to think on that use of the hideous face of the “gray” alien. Although I guess that alien in the Twilight Zone “To Serve Man” was pretty scary at first.
That photo looks like something out of an old sci-fly movie. 55 gallon drums bolted to a snow saucer. And how come the one in the foreground has a concrete footing, and all the others are in the dirt?
What a cutie!
I had to do more “research” on her. I do seem to recall her in “The Rifleman” and having a childhood crush on her.
She was also in the following movie “20 Million Miles from Earth”
https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2696085785?playlistId=tt0050084&ref_=tt_ov_vi
About one of our space rockets returning from Venus with a stowaway on board!
Its fun to remember our adolescent crushes.A certain freshness.
She retired from acting in 1963 to raise her three children ( thee daughters).
Passed away in March 2012.
I do remember her appearance4s in the Rifleman back in the 1962 as an 10 year old.
This is what I said; 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.
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I don't know where ya get the bit about me providing "convincing evidence"...I would guess it's just your ignorant way of dodging and ducking...Kicking up the dust of distraction. The Internet makes a great witnesses. Anyone can read back and confirm what was said.
Nobody is being disingenuous here, except you, and SunkenCiv.
Yep, I read what you wrote, stupid insult included.
Also note that I don’t care that you can’t comprehend written English. The FACT that all evidence uncovered so far DOES NOT point to life outside our tiny little insignificant planet is the very definition of “Overwhelming lack of evidence.” LACK= Absence, dearth, insufficiency.
EVIDENCE = signs, indications, corroboration, etc.
If you find that “ridicules”, (and clearly cannot comprehend sarcasm) then I don’t know what to tell you...
But anyway, if you think there’s life out there, it’s up to you to find some evidence that it exists before claiming someone has “no clue” for holding a differing opinion.
You behave as if the preponderance of the scientific evidence supports your theory that alien life exists somewhere (maybe even several somewheres) else in the universe, and that I’m the outlier for claiming that there’s no indication that your theory is correct.
I hate to break it to you, but the exact opposite is true.
As to the rest of your smarmy, meaningless, childish name calling; Ha, Ha.
I’m sick of idiots who have to stick their own warped incoherent meaning into other people’s words in order to create an argument.
Say what *you* mean. Defend *your* point of view. Use your own words and thoughts.
I’ll do just fine saying what I mean without any help from you.
If you have to resort to telling me what *I* said, in order to support your argument; you’ve already shown yourself to be ABSOLUTELY BEREFT OF EVIDENCE.
You’re right, the internet does make a great witness, anyone can confirm back and see that you’re trying too hard.
You probably also think that socialism hasn’t worked because nobody has tried hard enough to make it work, or it wasn’t “real” socialism... or that they “only looked for socialism under rocks, and not out in the universe where it would clearly work”...
LOL @ you.
Yet another disingenuous comment. I never stated my theory is that alien life exists outside earth. If ya disagree, quote me.
You seem to have a real issue being told we haven't scratched the search for life in this universe or our own galaxy for that matter.
You probably also think that socialism hasn’t worked because nobody has tried hard enough to make it bla, bla, bla
There ya go again, with baseless, reckless, knee jerk comments that have zip to do with this issue.
See the tagline? You defined it perfecto.☺
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