And...there could be none.
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."
Agreed. If any life at all exists on other planets, it will only be plant and animal life put there for the convinience of man for when we get there.
Who is this guy medved that you all keep referring to?
What are the similarites?
And I can't make up my mind if you're simply a drooling idiot, just like to chime in to get your jollies, or are payed to be here.
And...there could be none.
Thank you so much for the kind words. :-)
By tracing through some of their FR posts, I've found that they've had some sort of adversarial relationship with medved. I guess they're upset that he's shown them up on a few threads, and attribute my manner of proving them wrong to this "medved" person.
Maybe I'll ping the real medved and see if he has anything to say about it...
Incidently, I simply posted my opinion in post#166, then the jolly duo of Patick Henry and VadeRetro started slamming me, so I simply posted information in hopes of "enlightening" them. I suppose they see it as a personal challenge to their manhood or something, go figure..
Not saying that they're ALIENS, but then again, what else could fly like that and create a crop circle formation at the same time? We don't know what they ARE, but we DO know that they AREN'T Doug and Dave or their silly friends at CircleMakers.com.
I've already posted it for you once already, you should go look up the definition of delusional yourself this time. It is you who strongly holds a false belief in spite of invalidating evidence. That's not to mention this paranoid fear of yours where you feel threatened by the material that I've posted.
The Wicked Witch of the West? The films of her flying are fairly high-resolution and in glorious Technicolor.
Medved would rather spam in-line than link. But a couple of other people are big on splashing dictionary entries all over the page. Nothing makes a weak argument strong like bringing out the dictionary.
What strikes me about this crop circle thing is that it's just another one, a subset of the UFO type I've seen already. I've argued with those before, and JFK assassination freaks, and tons of creationists. It's the same experience. They seem to copy each other slavishly. The CIA touch is right out of the JFK-ist's manual. I really believe the CIA gives a hoot about crop circles.
As spectacular as that image is, it is only but a fraction of OUR Universe. It doesn't include those we don't yet know of. Great post.
You'll be in great company, especially if your LGM could be from the neighborhood of Saturn.
Don't forget the Seventh Planet.....
Do you have any proof or facts to back that up maybe, or is that just your wild assumption?
It could have lasted 30 or 300 minutes.
It COULD have lasted 30 seconds as well..
A little video editting has sped it up and removed most of the people action.
Those people must of been running in and out of there an awful lot, you'd think you'd see their tracks..
If fact, didn't I see this exact one on television a year or two ago?
Maybe you did, you know better than anyone else..
psst-This sure looks like a medved-impersonation to me.
Psst. I'm not medved, nor have I heard of him prior to this thread. I guess medved kicked your butt in the past, heh?
What is a LGM?
Click on the image below to view the video. Warning: The video is a 4 MB .MOV file, so downloading may take quite a while on a slow connection.
From August 6th Mexico City Flyby..
Fernando Camacho has provided this quicktime representation (click the above still image) of the August 6th 1997 Mexico City sighting. Fernando obtained this footage from a video broadcasted the 28th of September 1997 on the program, Tercer Milenio, hosted by Jaime Maussan. The footage was recorded from television via a VHS deck and then subsequently sampled by computer.
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