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Queen's astronomer says aliens 'like us'
heraldsun ^ | Feb. 22, 2010

Posted on 02/22/2010 2:05:36 PM PST by JoeProBono

ALIENS could be among us - but we just cannot recognize them, Britain's top astronomer has said. The Sun reported that Lord Martin Rees said the visitors might be in a form beyond human understanding.

Lord Rees, president of the Royal Society academy of science and also astronomer to the Queen, said: "They could be staring us in the face and we just don't recognize them."

The respected professor went on: "The problem is that we're looking for something very much like us, assuming that they at least have something like the same mathematics and technology.

"I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms that we can't conceive. "Just as a chimpanzee can't understand quantum theory, it could be there are aspects of reality which are beyond the capacity of our brains."

Lord Rees' comments raise the possibility of aliens being here - in the shape of anyone or anything.

He spoke out shortly after hosting the first conference on the possibility of alien life in the Royal Society's 350-year-history.

He also told highbrow Prospect magazine better telescopes meant the chance of finding life on other planets was "greater than ever."


TOPICS: Sports; UFO's; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: alien; jpb; ufo; xplanets
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To: JoeProBono
Queen's astronomer couldn't tell the difference between Mercury and Uranus...


41 posted on 02/22/2010 2:58:48 PM PST by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: JoeProBono
ALIENS could be among us - but we just cannot recognize them

I am not.

42 posted on 02/22/2010 3:03:38 PM PST by paulycy (Demand Constitutionality.)
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To: Joe 6-pack

Actually Brian May has a PhD in Astrophysics, so that who I thought the article was referring to.


43 posted on 02/22/2010 3:04:03 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: blackbart.223

The kids take after their mother anyway!


44 posted on 02/22/2010 3:06:11 PM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (THE SECOND AMENDMENT, A MATTER OF FACT, NOT A MATTER OF OPINION)
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To: Cletus.D.Yokel

Well if any life has made it to our planet, they are clearly of a higher intelligence. I believe there are planets out there with all kinds of life, but most will never have the technology to reach or contact us.


45 posted on 02/22/2010 3:14:30 PM PST by MiltonFriedmanFan
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To: SWAMPSNIPER
"The kids take after their mother anyway!"

True.

46 posted on 02/22/2010 3:14:45 PM PST by blackbart.223 (I live in Northern Nevada. Reid doesn't represent me.)
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To: GeronL

“Open the borders to real aliens? Anyone seen District 13??”

Just watched it Saturday. I really didn’t care that much for it. Too many blatantly political messages which get old after awhile.


47 posted on 02/22/2010 3:38:16 PM PST by dljordan (Psalm 109:8 "Let his days be few; and let another take his office. ")
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To: shibumi

Uhhhhhh . . . .

LOL. Someone very bored or with some extra overflowing creativity ???


48 posted on 02/22/2010 3:40:22 PM PST by Quix ( POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 TRAITORS http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: Cletus.D.Yokel
The assumption is they are flying here - Having that ability would lead most to believe they are smarter.
49 posted on 02/22/2010 3:41:16 PM PST by KSCITYBOY
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To: dljordan

I was just happy to see a movie that actually had a few ‘conservative’ ideas in it. Did you notice the alien population kept rising throughout the movie? lol


50 posted on 02/22/2010 3:44:10 PM PST by GeronL (Political Philosophy: I Own Me (yep, boiled down to 6 letters))
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To: JoeProBono

A few problems with the space alien concept.

Light speed isn’t diddly in space travel. Just to get to Proxima Centauri, the star nearest to Earth, at 4.243 light years, at the speed of light takes, obviously, 4.243 years.

Enter speed of light doubling. Round off the distance to 4 light years, and at twice the speed of light it takes 2 years, four times the speed of light just 1 year, eight times the speed of light, six months....

32,786 times the speed of light, 1 hr and 8 minutes. About. Just to get to a star that is “right next door.”

So how far away might a star be that can support life?

Well, our solar system is in a thin band about 3/4ths of the way outside galactic center, on a “local arm” of one of the spiral arms of the galaxy. It is a fairly quiet place to be. Closer to the galactic core, things are much more violent and destructive, so it would be harder for life to get a foothold.

But this strongly narrows the part of the sky in which directions we might look for life. Add to that the majority of the stars are not suitable for habitable planets

And the worst factor of all: time. The galaxy is about 13 billion years old, and Earth is about 4.5 billion years old. Intelligent life on Earth is perhaps 100,000 years old, and modernity only 200 or so years. How much longer might we last? Another 100,000? Still just the blink of an eye in galactic time.

All kinds of intelligent aliens could have risen and died out, leaving behind little or no trace after a short time, unless you found a major habitat and did a lot of archaeology.


51 posted on 02/22/2010 3:53:39 PM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: F15Eagle

What convinces you that Noah’s wives and descendents would be tainted by the Nephilium ?DNA? somehow?

What other holes do you find in the Nephilium hypothesis?


52 posted on 02/22/2010 3:55:53 PM PST by Quix ( POL Ldrs quotes fm1900 TRAITORS http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2130557/posts?page=81#81)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy


53 posted on 02/22/2010 3:57:28 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet)
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To: mdmathis6
why do believers in ET assume that they should be benevolent and morally superior to us?

Nobody that I know even remotely presumes that, where did you get that idea from?

54 posted on 02/22/2010 4:01:03 PM PST by Hot Tabasco (My boomerang won't come back)
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To: JoeProBono

Well, I guess they are ‘like us’, if you consider that aliens would be alive... just ‘like us’. But that’s probably about it.


55 posted on 02/22/2010 4:04:05 PM PST by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: GonzoGOP
Here's a little something from the classic 'They Live' movie. It's just a little to close to home.


56 posted on 02/22/2010 4:09:09 PM PST by gogogodzilla (Live free or die!)
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To: GeronL

“I was just happy to see a movie that actually had a few ‘conservative’ ideas in it. Did you notice the alien population kept rising throughout the movie? lol”

Oh yeah. Some of the aerial shots reminded me of the Rodney King riots actually.


57 posted on 02/22/2010 4:14:36 PM PST by dljordan (Psalm 109:8 "Let his days be few; and let another take his office. ")
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To: Hot Tabasco

From the title of thethe original Post, from lots of movie and media sources, ect. The presumption since 1978(Close Encounters) is that most ET’s love Earth and want to wish us well and that any super advanced civilization must have developed high moral culture along with the technology.


58 posted on 02/22/2010 4:17:23 PM PST by mdmathis6
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
Light speed isn’t diddly in space travel


59 posted on 02/22/2010 4:23:00 PM PST by mikrofon (Bo knows Physics)
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To: dljordan

I was also glad the movie wasn’t set in the US. Why do aliens always pick on us? lol


60 posted on 02/22/2010 4:27:33 PM PST by GeronL (Political Philosophy: I Own Me (yep, boiled down to 6 letters))
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