News Proof of Aliens Could Come Within 25 Years, Scientist Says

[dougkeenan]

A good starting place would be the rear of the moon. All that lovely rock would shield you from the radio noise of Earth. You'd get some awesome radio astronomy done there and could have a SETI environment as well.

Pluto would be perfect for an infrared imaging telescope. it's so cold on Pluto that you should be able to detect the faint heat coming from extrasolar planets and be able to analyse the atmosphere and, if it's big enough, directly image the planet.

Colder on the moon, is it not?

 

[garyw]

Colder on the moon, is it not?

Not all the time, no. For two weeks every month temps are above 120c

 

[dougkeenan]

Not everywhere. FYI: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17810-moon-is-coldest-known-place-in-the-solar-system.html

 

[garyw]

True but South pole only gives you a limited view of the sky. If you want to do radio astronomy you need a much bigger view which is why pluto wins out.

 

[T.Neo]

What would the advantage of Pluto be vs. open space + a sunshade and a refrigeration system?

 

[garyw]

Your refrigeration system can fail/run out. Open space requires thrusters to keep several satellites aligned in perfect placement if you want to do something like have 6 or so scopes acting together to give you one big scope.

On the surface of Pluto you've got a fixed point on the ground. Pluto rotates to give you a nice big sky view, you've got the lovely cold to keep the scopes chilled and you've got distance from Earth to allow parallax measurements.

 

[T.Neo]

Sure your refrigerant can run out, but that's hardly a reason to trek tens of astronomical units across the solar system. If it's closer to Earth, it might actually be easier to replace or repair.

Same goes for aligning multiple sats in space. It'd be an utter pain, but putting them on Pluto demands other things like landers and whatnot.

Allowing for better parallax measurements is rather attractive though. :hmm:

 

[Polaris]

If the aliens do come, who will be the first ambassador? Nominees include:

Sigourney Weaver

Rick Moranis

Bill Murray

Chevy Chase

Harold Ramis

or anyone who wants to risk their lives doing so.

P.S: What will they think of humans?

 

[vonneuman]

http://xkcd.com/638/

 

[Izack]

If the aliens do come, who will be the first ambassador? Nominees include:

Sigourney Weaver

Rick Moranis

Bill Murray

Chevy Chase

Harold Ramis

or anyone who wants to risk their lives doing so.

Bill Freaking Murray. :yes:

 

[computerex]

You guys forgot the most important person on the planet: Chuck Norris

 

[johan]

You guys forgot the most important person on the planet: Chuck Norris

At least that would remove one variable: he wouldn't be risking his life!

 

[jedidia]

Bill Freaking Murray.

they killed him, remember?

 

[orbitingpluto]

I nominate MacGyver. His experience with the Stargate Program should be handy with talking to them and if worst comes to worse he's got that Swiss army knife.:lol:

We should be aware that aliens might know we're out here but may be sending missiles or relativistic asteroids instead of diplomatic manned ships.
That's proof of aliens I don't want to see.

 

[Artlav]

I wonder why everyone consider extremely arrogant the idea that we might be the first intelligent species to emerge in this universe? Someone got to be the first, right?

 

[Lucy]

It's not arrogance to postulate that we might be the first. It's arrogance to assume it on the basis of no more evidence than our oh-so-fantastic mastery of this tiny speck in the cosmos we call home. There's a difference.

 

[garyw]

It's not arrogance to postulate that we might be the first. It's arrogance to assume it on the basis of no more evidence than our oh-so-fantastic mastery of this tiny speck in the cosmos we call home. There's a difference.

But we ARE the first.

For now. :lol:

Seriously though, We may well be the first and it seems that exo planets around are near neighbours aren't exactly friendly so I feel it safe to assume that we are the first sentient species in this corner of the Galaxy. Past that, who knows? In other galaxies? Well, I don't think we will ever know.

I truly expect life to show up on a lot of other worlds but sentient life requires a bit of time and it's a hostile universe out there.

 

[Enjo]

Just because there is no "Evidence" does not take away the fact that it could or could not have happended; we just simply do not know for sure, but that doesn't take away from teh fact that it MIGHT have happended.

Were is the "evidence" that it didn't happen ???

That's my logic. It's probably even named somehow.

What was the evidence that radio waves had been existing before they were discovered? Were they non-existent before because there was no evidence? Remember: if yer ain't seein' it, it ain't there.

 

[Urwumpe]

I wonder why everyone consider extremely arrogant the idea that we might be the first intelligent species to emerge in this universe? Someone got to be the first, right?

Exactly. And we did have very favorable conditions for life as we know it, from our current knowledge.

 

[T.Neo]

Seriously though, We may well be the first and it seems that exo planets around are near neighbours aren't exactly friendly so I feel it safe to assume that we are the first sentient species in this corner of the Galaxy.

The exoplanets we've discovered. We can't even detect Earth mass planets yet (other than via the transit method with Kepler, and that is pretty limiting since only a small fraction of exoplanets transit their parents stars). And we might have some potential homes for alien life- Gliese 581 d is an example of a potential "ocean planet", although probably only simple organisms could survive there. And we've discovered several gas giants in the habitable zones, which, if they had massive enough moons, could harbour life.

Another minor detail, is that it's usually referred to as a "sapient" life, denoting knowledge and intelligence (Homo Sapiens etc). Sentience is the ability to feel and percieve, which organisms far simpler than humans posess.

I think it's safe to say that there aren't any advanced civilisations in our near neighborhood, but it's quite possible that there could be sapient species quite near us. There could even be a planet 100 light years away that harbours a civilisation not unlike our own, and we wouldn't be able to detect it. But it could be quite likely that certain factors stunt technological growth, such as geography, or even that particular organism's biology or anatomy.

And we did have very favorable conditions for life as we know it, from our current knowledge.

Not always... we also had things like the icehouse Earth periods.