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."
And I hope to spend a week with Jamie Lee Curtis and a large jar of chocolate syrup.
So, are you saying that we are not!? Heretic! Get thee to thy death!
Oh, BTW, just pretentious? I'll throw in hyper-arrogant, deluded, closed-minded, dogmatic, self-righteous, lordly, overbearing, supercilious, and so on.
As far as being lots of Earth's out there, I doubt it. It is literally a miracle that WE are even here. The more we learn about the earth the longer the list of things we realize had to be JUST RIGHT for this planet to support human life. Even if they discover 100 billion solar systems, that is not enough to make it likely that there is even one other Earth.
Actually, no, it's not, based on probablities as well as ego. Saying "we are unique" is obviously alot more pretentious than saying "we are not unique" - the first sentence implies special status, the other does not. Additionally, believing in something is that is VERY VERY VERY probable, mathmatically, versus believing something very very VERY improbable is pretty much the opposite of pretention - it's common sense.
If one believes in life evolving through chance chemical interactions, then it is short-sighted NOT to consider that life could have evolved elsewhere. Given the billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars, then the sheer magnitude of star systems suggests that, if we are the only life forms in the universe, we are extremely lucky. We are the Powerball winners of the life lottery.
I can't say for sure that there is life elsewhere, nor would I myopically state that we MUST be the only ones. As the saying goes, absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence. That applies to the scientific view as well as the religious one.
Demons certainly have the ability to manifest themselves as angels or aliens of light. To a dead world an alien would be an angel of light. It gives them more hope in their vain thoughts of reincarnation, extended life, and evolution. I have to wonder if they aren't working up some way to ping SETI or something like that to increase the hopes and waste in this effort.
As far as being lots of Earth's out there, I doubt it. It is literally a miracle that WE are even here. The more we learn about the earth the longer the list of things we realize had to be JUST RIGHT for this planet to support human life. Even if they discover 100 billion solar systems, that is not enough to make it likely that there is even one other Earth.
Yes, I heard that the original list was some trivial 5 or 6 things needed for a good ole "class M" star trek, planet. Now they have something like 70 or 80 things needed for the earth to be as perfect and stable as it is. When you consider the fire of the sun and the cold of space and we sit here on this planet under a quilt of atmosphere that never varies but enough to give us some interesting weather. What an amazing creation.
Don't look at that green man behind the curtain, eh? Protest all you want, but we're closing in on your home planet.
A whole lotta smoke gettin' blown here...
Patience, Commander Zebronk. We must lull the Earthlings into a sense of security before the invasion fleet arrives.
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.