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Would We See the Aliens Coming?
universetoday.com ^ | on June 1, 2015 | Fraser Cain

Posted on 06/01/2015 9:39:58 AM PDT by BenLurkin

A basic rule of the Universe is that you can’t go faster than the speed of light. So I’m going to have any aliens trying to attack us traveling at sublight speeds.

So, we’ll say they’ve got access to a giant mountain of power. They can afford to travel at 10% the speed of light, which means before they get to us, they have to slow down. At this speed, deceleration is expensive. We’d see the energy signature from their brakes long before they even reached Earth.

Let’s say they’re passing the orbit of the dwarf planet Pluto, which is 4 light-hours away. Since they’re travelling at 10% the speed of light, we’d have about 40 hours to scramble jet fighters, get those tanks out onto the streets and round up Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and Bruce Willis to hide behind.

...

We’re actually pretty good at detecting heat with our infrared telescopes.

A space drive decelerating a city-sized alien spacecraft from a significant portion of the speed of light would shed a mountain of heat, and that’s all heat we might detect.

...

If aliens wanted to catch us off guard, they can use one of the oldest tricks in the aerial combat book, known as the Dicta Boelcke. They can fly at us using the Sun as camouflage. A rather large portion of the sky is completely obscured by that glowing ball of fiery plasma.

...

Astronomers often discover asteroids skimming by the Earth just after they’ve just gone past. That’s because they hurl at us from the Sun, just like clever aliens.

To spot those asteroids, we’ll need to deploy a space-based sky survey that can watch the heavens from a different perspective than Earth. Plans for this kind of mission are actually in the works.

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


TOPICS: Astronomy
KEYWORDS:
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To: Greysard

We would say “exhaust” and, sometimes, we CAN see aircraft clearly by their exhaust or contrails.


81 posted on 06/02/2015 4:15:25 AM PDT by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand-basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
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To: Phlap
so what do we have to attract them to us?

White sandy beaches.......

82 posted on 06/02/2015 4:33:27 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco (War IS the answer! Peace activists never liberated anything or anyone....)
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To: Hot Tabasco
so what do we have to attract them to us?

White sandy beaches.......

Nøt to mentiøn the løveli lakes, and the majestic møøse...

83 posted on 06/02/2015 5:44:14 AM PDT by JRios1968 (I'm guttery and trashy, with a hint of lemon. - Laz)
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To: Phlap

“What do we have to attract them to us?” Short answer, the Promises of God the Creator of the whole shebang. Long answer, these are aliens only in the sense that they are not occupants of our 4D spacetime and are using cloned biological units to interact here from their ‘other’ dimensional reality which is right here and has been right here since the beginning. not


84 posted on 06/02/2015 6:44:30 AM PDT by MHGinTN (Is it really all relative, Mister Einstein?)
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To: Greysard

To further elaborate, unless the aliens have a magical energy source (zero point energy for example) any energy source will have IR output and, since enormous energy is required, there will be a very large IR output.

But, if the aliens have a magical energy source, then they probably have a magical FTL stardrive, too, and then, no, we won’t see them coming.


85 posted on 06/02/2015 9:45:56 AM PDT by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand-basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
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To: Little Ray
But, if the aliens have a magical energy source, then they probably have a magical FTL stardrive, too, and then, no, we won’t see them coming.

Most likely the aliens would have to have that magical energy source and a matching stardrive. Otherwise travel between stars is not possible:

  1. Travel at near-c speeds in normal space requires enormous energy for acceleration
  2. Waste energy cannot be dumped in vacuum, other than by radiating it away - which is extremely inefficient and cannot handle large amounts of power
  3. Therefore, the engine that accelerates the ship to near-c speeds must be very efficient, such as to generate very little waste energy - otherwise the engine will melt down.

86 posted on 06/02/2015 10:33:06 AM PDT by Greysard
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To: Greysard

That waste energy is why you see in the IR spike. Right now, our understanding of physics doesn’t allow a power source without the waste heat. That is why it would be “magic” energy source.


87 posted on 06/02/2015 11:43:31 AM PDT by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand-basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
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To: Greysard

Inertia arises because of the zero point filed. Find a way to shield from or divert the zp field and speed is no longer hampered by the inertial restraints.


88 posted on 06/02/2015 12:50:39 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Is it really all relative, Mister Einstein?)
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To: MHGinTN

zero point filed should be zero point FIELD.


89 posted on 06/02/2015 12:51:06 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Is it really all relative, Mister Einstein?)
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To: Little Ray

I’m guessing that I know different Marines than you know. Just a hunch...


90 posted on 06/02/2015 4:31:28 PM PDT by piytar (Good will be called evil and Evil will be called good.)
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To: SoCal Pubbie; cuban leaf; varyouga; PapaBear3625
So Cal, I'm with you on this one.

Just because "They traveled really far, really fast and made it here", doesn't require them to be super intelligent as a necessity. I would suggest the folks that built their craft and navigation and life support would be very intelligent but not necessarily smarter than humans. And certainly those doing the traveling wouldn't need extraordinary intelligence.

Today's aircraft basically fly themselves.

There was a time when driving an automobile long distances required you having a mechanic along. Now cars are driving themselves.

At some point the technology would become so ubiquitous that any moron could use it.

 photo morons-from-outer-space-movie-poster-1985-1020213076_zps392323e6.jpg

91 posted on 06/02/2015 4:51:11 PM PDT by Zeneta (Thoughts in time and out of season.)
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To: Zeneta

Just because “They traveled really far, really fast and made it here”, doesn’t require them to be super intelligent as a necessity.


Thing is, like our military, they are trained in the things they need to be trained in. They may not know how to manufacture a drone, but they have been trained how to use one effectively.


92 posted on 06/03/2015 8:54:54 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: piytar

Doesn’t matter how tough they are - once they run out of ammo, they have short, not very ergonomic, spears and armor that isn’t very effective against blades, bludgeons or arrows.
Unless they made friends (marines are pretty good at that...), it will be over very quickly and very messily - esp. if they ran into Mongols.


93 posted on 06/03/2015 10:59:39 AM PDT by Little Ray (How did I end up in this hand-basket, and why is it getting so hot?)
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To: Little Ray

Lol. I know how to make explosives from piss, feces, and ####. And I’m not a Marine.

They are trained to adapt. They’re very good at it. And they have an extra millennia of knowledge.

Seriously, it would not even be a contest.

And with respect to the current discussion, you don’t think alien invaders would understand the concept of supply lines?


94 posted on 06/03/2015 9:53:42 PM PDT by piytar (Good will be called evil and Evil will be called good.)
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