Kepler, SETI and Ancient Probes

Centauri Dreams ^ | 3/5/09

[muir_redwoods]

for later

[omega4179]

We could be the least intelligent too! look at the last Election.

[cripplecreek]

Intelligence isn’t really what we need to find. If you think about it what we need to find is water to drink, air to breathe and life we can eat.

[SunkenCiv]

Charles Magee, Jr.'s Fermi paradox meets the timescale, where this field geologist sees the question through the lens of deep time. "As a geochronologist, I don't wonder where and why, I wonder when," writes Magee, who goes on to generate fifty random alien arrival times within the approximately 4.5 billion year window since the Solar System emerged from its accretion disk. He lists them in order, the most recent of them being 125 million years ago in the era of the dinosaurs. That appearance in the Cretaceous is preceded by an alien visit at 270 million years ago at a time of Gondwanan glaciers, and a 352 million year old visit in the Carboniferous era of swamps and giant insects... Keep going back in time and you realize what a tiny veneer our own species' existence represents over the deep time that encrusts planet Earth.

This is one of those rare topics which can fit in all four of the ping lists I manage. Thanks go to LibWhacker for posting it.

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[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks LibWhacker. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks LibWhacker.

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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks LibWhacker.

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Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar ·

[Monkey Face]

I’ve always wondered why Earthlings think they live on the ONLY INHABITIBAL WORLD. How arrogant IS that?

I mean, we’re only one planet in a universe of billions of galaxies. The possibilities are *ahem* astronomically enormous!

[Quix]

Hmmmmm . . .

supposedly we’ve already visited some such planets . . . and civilizations.

I don’t know what’s true.

I do know that God said . . .

yea though you build your nests amongst the stars, yet will I bring you down.

[coconutt2000]

Heck, you could probably start up a collection online and raise the necessary money in 10 years.

I call dibs on the first alien hottie... j/k

[BigSkyVic]

“I’ve always wondered why Earthlings think they live on the ONLY INHABITIBAL WORLD. How arrogant IS that?

I mean, we’re only one planet in a universe of billions of galaxies. The possibilities are *ahem* astronomically enormous”
I agree! Gee whiz...arrogance is the word I would use

[zeugma]

Anyone wishing to get a small feel for the incredible vastness of space, should download a copy of Celestia, a high-quality universe simulator. Yes, that's right I said "universe simulator", at least it's the closest thing to that, that I've ever seen. The interface is a little weird to get used to, but once you do, you can use it to tour the solar system at just about any speed you like.

I would highly recommend though, that you set it to travel at the speed of light, and get a feel for how long, even at C, it takes to go anywhere in the solar system. Here's a handy table that lists the current distances to various objects in the solar system from Earth as of the current time.

Mercury	0h 10m 20s
Venus	0h 2m 50s
Mars	0h 18m 46s
Jupiter	0h 49m 7s
Saturn	1h 9m 49s
Uranus	2h 55m 21s
Neptune	4h 17m27s
Pluto	4h 25m 26s
Voyager I	15h 8m 11s
Voyager II	12h 19m 22s
Sol	0h 8m 15s

That's just within the Solar System. When you start thinking about stars, even in our immediate vicinity, you start talking real distances. There are only 15 stars within 10 light years of us, and of those several are a part of binary/trinary systems (which I kinda doubt would have earth-like planets), so you're really only looking at 8 distinct star groups within 10 light years of us. The closest that is not a part of a multiple star system is 5  light years out. So, even if you have a ship that travels as fast as light, you're looking at a 5 year voyage, one way.

Things only get manageble when you throw out C as a cosmic speed limit. Travelling at the incredible speed of 1 AU (the distance between the Earth and Sun - approximately 93 million miles) per second, the trip to Proxima Centauri (4.26 light years distant) is still 187 days away. Of course, if we get to throw Einstein out and exceed the speed of light, we could propose possible speeds of light years/sec, which would at least make many places within the galaxy obtainable. Certainly enough to keep us busy for a while.

I bring all this up mainly because people really don't realize how vast space really is. If somehow we eventually are able to explore it though, we're going to see some amazing things.

One last note I'll leave you with... Using celestia, you can cruise out to Pluto and look back at the Sun. It's kinda cool. The Sun is barely a disk at a distance of 31.6 AU, but it does stand out from the rest of the background stars. Now, go to Betelgeuse, then zoom in to about the same distance. The star is huge. If you were standing on a planet as far from Betelgeuse as Pluto is from our Sun, you would be looking up at a star that is the size of an old silver dollar held about a foot away from your face. If you were on a planet as far away from the star as Jupiter, the star would stretch almost from horizon to horizon before you.

Pretty cool stuff.

I recommend Celestia to children from 5 to 95. It's awesome.

[uglybiker]

Intelligence isn’t really what we need to find. If you think about it what we need to find is water to drink, air to breathe and life we can eat.

We have discovered alien life!

And it's delicious!

[LibWhacker]

Good recommendation. I have that program and used to play with it quite a bit. One of the little “games” I used to play was to “journey” way out into the Local Group of Galaxies on a more or less random trajectory, then turn around and re-enter the Milky Way and try to find my way back to Earth (with all labels turned off). Tough, but you get better at it with practice.

I ought to download the latest version and see what changes have been made. Thanks for reminding me!

[mowowie]

I used to use Starry Night Pro.
It was pretty cool.
The program stopped working about a year ago and i dont have the install disc anymore.
I’ll try out Celestia.

[Monkey Face]

Thanks!

Yah. What I said!

;o]

[pabianice]

[pabianice]

[Monkey Face]

LOL!!

I certainly wasn’t looking when you took that photo, or I would have given you my best side!