Posted on 07/16/2002 7:40:55 AM PDT by Momaw Nadon
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Scientists searching the stars for aliens are convinced an E.T. is out there -- it's just that they haven't had the know-how to detect such a being.
But now technological advances have opened the way for scientists to check millions of previously unknown star systems, dramatically increasing the chances of finding intelligent life in outer space in the next 25 years, the world's largest private extraterrestrial agency believes.
"We're looking for needles in the haystack that is our galaxy, but there could be thousands of needles out there," Seth Shostak, the senior astronomer at California's non-profit Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence ( news - web sites) (SETI) Institute, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
"If that's the case, with the number of new star systems we now hope to check, we should find one of those in the next 25 years."
But Shostak, visiting Australia to attend a conference on extraterrestrial research, said detecting alien life, like the big-eyed alien in the film E.T., was only the start.
"Even if we detect life out there, we'll still know nothing about what form of life we have detected and I doubt they'll be able -- or want -- to communicate with us," Shostak said.
Since it was founded in 1984, the SETI Institute has monitored radio signals, hoping to pick up a transmission from outer space. Its Project Phoenix conducts two annual three-week sessions on a radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico.
Project Phoenix, widely seen as the inspiration for the 1997 film "Contact" starring Jodie Foster, which depicted a search for life beyond earth, is the privately funded successor to an original NASA ( news - web sites) program that was canceled in 1993 amid much skepticism by the U.S. Congress.
But the search has been slow. About 500 of 1,000 targeted stars have been examined -- and no extraterrestrial transmissions have been detected.
E.T. NOT ON THE LINE
"We do get signals all the time but when checked out they have all been human made...and are not from E.T., more AT&T," said Shostak.
He said the privately-funded institute was developing a giant US$26 million telescope to start operating in 2005 that can search the stars for signals at least 100 times faster.
The so-called Allen Telescope Array, named after sponsor and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is a network of more than 350, six-meter (20-foot) satellite dishes with a collecting area exceeding that of a 100-meter (338-foot) telescope.
The Allen array, to be built at the Hat Creek Observatory about 290 miles northeast of San Fransciso, will also expand the institute's stellar reconnaissance to 100,000 or even one million nearby stars, searching 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Shostak said he is convinced there is intelligent life out there -- but don't expect to find a loveable, boggle-eyed E.T..
He said if any aliens share the same carbon-based organic chemistry as humans, they would probably have a central processing system, eyes, a mouth or two, legs and some form of reproduction.
But Shostak thinks any intelligent extraterrestrial life will have gone light years beyond the intelligence of man.
"What we are more likely to hear will be so far beyond our own level that it might not be biological anymore but some artificial form of life," he said. "Don't expect a blobby, squishy alien to be on the end of the line."
Kind of like they do with Islamic terrorists operating in our midst?
:-)
Argh! My lunch!!! My lunch!!!
Sure they do. On occassion even the USAF flies them - then we get a better look.
I do not disagree at all. However, A vast amount of our communications is not designed to be used in a tight beam point-to-point format such as a laser. As we spread thru the solar system, high power EM will become increasing prevalent.
I beg to differ, kind sir. I believe you may have missed the long forgotten passage "On the 8th day, the Lord created potato salad"
That sentence seems contradictory. If G-d created all things, then word, idea, and defintion of the term "alien" are also ultimately part of His plan and His creation. What then?
To say that there is no other life but man is to say all of these billions of systems are sterile, and devoid of life.
Look at the mars photos. There are straight lines, and all sorts of anomolous structures. Any scientist will tell you straight lines are man made and do not occur naturally, but here they are.
It is more likely than not that something besides nature created it. Well, it was alive, and had consciousness.
Maybe, but you've got it to prove.
Right. The point is that wherever life arises, it will conform to its local environment so as to take maximal advantage of it, with the result that the environment will seem to have been prepared in advance especially for those organisms.
Additionally, not only is modern astronomy behind my position, it is acumulating more evidence for it all of the time. Consider this link
http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/design_evidences/20020502_solar_system_design.html?main
It gives 118 things that must be fine-tuned for the Earth to support advanced life. The odds for some of these things are hundreds or even thousands to one against. Multiply those odds together and you get a number far larger than any reasonable estimate for the number of solar systems in the galaxy. Indeed, the universe iteself does not contain enough likely candidates for there to be even one Earth, much less two.
We are either VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY lucky to be here, or we were meant to be.
See it this way, for other Earths we have only one test case, but for your idea we have nine test cases plus about 50 moons of pretty good size. No advanced life has developed on any of them, and probably no mirco-organisms either- despite the fact some have probably been "seeded" by earth biotics (from ateriod impacts blowing chucns of earth into space).
A lot had to go right for Earth to stay between the freezing and boiling temperature of water for 4 billion years. Take a look as this link
http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/design_evidences/20020502_solar_system_design.html?main
It gives 118 things that have to go right. Some of them are finicky. Multiply them all together and it looks like we should not even be here.
I mean, what you say is true as far as it goes, especially for micro-organisms that can evolve a lot faster and farther than metazoans. But it applies only when you have a habitable environment to begin with, otherwise all planets in the solar system would likely contain life that evolved from the first life on earth.
No Biblical proof of this. None. I'm Christian, and I firmly believe there are "others" out there.
The same miricle from whence came the rest of the universe.
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.