Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: LibWhacker

It is strange that with all the possible planets that could support intelligent life, that not one has been found that has generated that type of electromagnetic transmission we call radio.


7 posted on 04/29/2017 1:20:57 AM PDT by jonrick46 (The Left has a mental illness: A totalitarian psyche.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: jonrick46

Life-bearing planets may be exceedingly rare and we just haven’t seen one yet. Thus, no radio signals. Also, radio signals used for terrestrial communication aren’t powerful enough to be easily detected that far out in interstellar space.


8 posted on 04/29/2017 1:38:21 AM PDT by LibWhacker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies ]

To: jonrick46
It is strange that with all the possible planets that could support intelligent life, that not one has been found that has generated that type of electromagnetic transmission we call radio.

Several factors work against detecting extraterrestrial radio transmissions.

One is it requires a tool-building species. There may be many alien species with high intelligence on other planets, but if they're not tool-builders, we'll never detect them. Think of a species like whales. Apparently quite intelligent. They even have music. But with those little flippers they have it makes it difficult to build anything.

Another factor is radio transmissions simply are not powerful enough and they get scattered and absorbed over interstellar distances.

The third factor is the narrow time-band where a civilization may actually use radio transmission. On Earth, we've been using radio transmission for about a century, a tiny fraction of time on a cosmic scale. Other alien races may have ascended, declined, and extinguished themselves millions of years before.

It is rather cool to speculate on however small the chance, of picking up the alien equivalent of "I Love Lucy" from some alien world.

12 posted on 04/29/2017 4:49:55 AM PDT by Flick Lives
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


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