Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Aliens Are Almost Definitely Out There, SETI Astronomers Tell Congress
huffingtonpost.com ^ | 22 May 2014 | Dominique Mosbergen

Posted on 05/22/2014 11:55:42 AM PDT by Las Vegas Dave

Aliens almost definitely exist.

At least, that's what two astronomers told Congress this week, as they appealed for continued funding to research life beyond Earth.

According to ABC News, Dan Werthimer, director of the SETI [search for extraterrestrial intelligence] Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, told the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology Wednesday that the possibility of extraterrestrial microbial life is "close to 100 percent."

"In the last 50 years, evidence has steadily mounted that the components and conditions we believe necessary for life are common and perhaps ubiquitous in our galaxy," said Werthimer in his written testimony, adding: "The possibility that life has arisen elsewhere, and perhaps evolved intelligence, is plausible and warrants scientific inquiry."

Werthimer's colleague Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, also told Congress that he believes our chances of finding extraterrestrial life are high.

“The chances of finding it I think are good and if that happens it will happen in the next 20 years depending on the financing,” Shostak told the committee.

(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: gibusmoremoney; lobbying4aliens; obamafone4scientists; ufo
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 141-152 next last
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/22/aliens-congress-seti-astronomers_n_5370315.html
1 posted on 05/22/2014 11:55:42 AM PDT by Las Vegas Dave
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Las Vegas Dave

Shouldn’t SETI refer to them, not as Aliens, but as undocumented travelors?


2 posted on 05/22/2014 11:56:42 AM PDT by C210N (When people fear government there is tyranny; when government fears people there is liberty)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Las Vegas Dave

Look at the DEM leadership in CONgre$$.. They been here for years.


3 posted on 05/22/2014 11:56:53 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi - Revolution is a'brewin!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Las Vegas Dave

Is congress looking for more aliens to give benefits to?


4 posted on 05/22/2014 11:57:12 AM PDT by Jagdgewehr (It will take blood.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Las Vegas Dave

maybe there ARE out there, but the real question is do we really want them to know that WE are HERE? a whole planet of potential slaves/food ripe for the taking?


5 posted on 05/22/2014 11:58:06 AM PDT by camle (keep an open mind and someone will fill it full of something for you)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Las Vegas Dave
Dr. Hans Zarkov: We are only interested in friendship. Why do you attack us?
The Emperor Ming: Why not? Pathetic earthlings. Hurling your bodies out into the void, without the slightest inkling of who or what is out here. If you had known anything about the true nature of the universe, anything at all, you would've hidden from it in terror.


6 posted on 05/22/2014 11:58:08 AM PDT by DannyTN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ALASKA; ActionNewsBill; A knight without armor; albertp; aragorn; areafiftyone; aruanan; ...

Pinging the unidentified aerial phenomena list (as a FYI).


7 posted on 05/22/2014 11:58:19 AM PDT by Las Vegas Dave (The democRATic party preys on the ignorant..!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: C210N

“Undocumented Astronauts of Extra-Solar Origin-Americans”


8 posted on 05/22/2014 11:59:05 AM PDT by GraceG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Las Vegas Dave

Haven’t we been looking for radio signals from alien civilizations for something like forty years?


9 posted on 05/22/2014 11:59:25 AM PDT by Steely Tom (How do you feel about robbing Peter's robot?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Las Vegas Dave

That’s probably what they’re saying too.


10 posted on 05/22/2014 12:00:13 PM PDT by redhawk.44mag
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Steely Tom

11 posted on 05/22/2014 12:01:47 PM PDT by dfwgator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Las Vegas Dave

Astronomers have NO DATA to support this assertion.

Its all statistical guess work, based upon their “faith” in evolution.

“If we cooked up from the soup here, then with all of the trillions of planetary opportunities out there, somebody’s probably bubbled up somewhere’s else!”


12 posted on 05/22/2014 12:01:49 PM PDT by G Larry (Which of Obama's policies do you think I'd support if he were white?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Las Vegas Dave
Aliens Are Almost Definitely Out There, and Obama is an anchor baby.
13 posted on 05/22/2014 12:02:33 PM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Las Vegas Dave

I am sure there are space aliens out there but what good are they? Unless they did something useful like lowered the price of gas or cleaned up Fukushima or hurled all of Washington, D.C., the District of Criminals, into another dimension these space aliens can go jump in a lake.


14 posted on 05/22/2014 12:03:33 PM PDT by Count of Monte Fisto (The foundation of modern society is the denial of reality.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Las Vegas Dave
Aliens Are Almost Definitely Out There
If so, why haven't any of them visited here or at least had the courtesy to send an email?
None are as "advanced" as humans? That would mean we're the smartest ones in the universe.
Scary, indeed.
15 posted on 05/22/2014 12:03:40 PM PDT by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Las Vegas Dave

Seth Shostak?

He sounds like an alien life form............


16 posted on 05/22/2014 12:03:45 PM PDT by Red Badger (Soon there will be another American Civil War. Will make the first one seem like a Tea Party........)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Las Vegas Dave
The chances of finding it I think are good and if that happens it will happen in the next 20 years depending on the financing,” Shostak told the committee.

The aliens obviously have sharp agents.

17 posted on 05/22/2014 12:03:59 PM PDT by Night Hides Not (For every Ted Cruz we send to DC, I can endure 2-3 "unviable" candidates that beat incumbents.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Las Vegas Dave
the possibility of extraterrestrial microbial life is "close to 100 percent."

Microbial life is the hard part. Once there's DNA, the sky's the limit.

18 posted on 05/22/2014 12:04:05 PM PDT by MUDDOG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: oh8eleven

Someone had to be first. It might as well be us......................


19 posted on 05/22/2014 12:04:43 PM PDT by Red Badger (Soon there will be another American Civil War. Will make the first one seem like a Tea Party........)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Las Vegas Dave

I’m trying to remember the scale given in “A Short History of Nearly Everything.” If the Earth were the size of a pea then Pluto would be the size of a one-celled bacterium and would be a mile distant. The universe is big. Bigger than Obama’s ego.

If you disallow magical means of transport as envisioned in Star Trek the chance that we would ever meet an alien is vanishingly small. The odds would make winning the Florida lottery seem to be a virtual given for everybody who buys a ticket.

I have zero doubt there are other intelligences out there. But even if they froze themselves and launched towards us billions of years ago, by the time they got here their civilization would be long dead.

Species on Earth live an average of only 10 million years.

Oh, and why would they come here? Even if our radio signals can be understood at the colossal distances we’re talking about, they haven’t yet gotten to a suitable candidate star.


20 posted on 05/22/2014 12:05:05 PM PDT by Gen.Blather
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 141-152 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson