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+--- Thread: Astronomers sweep the entire sky, looking for aliens (/thread-8153.html)
Astronomers sweep the entire sky, looking for aliens - Leigha - Feb 18, 2020
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/astronomers-sweep-entire-sky-alien-21501642
Okay, this doesn't make much sense to me. (the sweeping part) From Earth, we can only see a very small part of the universe, like 4%? There's so much that we can't see, so what will this ''sweeping'' really accomplish?
Could alien life be found in dark matter?
RE: Astronomers sweep the entire sky, looking for aliens - Magical Realist - Feb 18, 2020
Quote:Could alien life be found in dark matter?
That would be an interesting twist on the identity of the ufo pilots. Something much more local than an interdimensional yet etheric enough to display the odd vanishing/morphing behavior of ufos. The Greys are known to walk thru walls.
RE: Astronomers sweep the entire sky, looking for aliens - Zinjanthropos - Feb 18, 2020
Finding proof of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe will be one of humanity’s greatest days. Won’t matter if they’re too far away or if they may have gone extinct, it will be monumental times. Any thoughts on how we as Earthlings would react? Will it change us and if so, how?
RE: Astronomers sweep the entire sky, looking for aliens - Leigha - Feb 19, 2020
(Feb 18, 2020 03:17 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: Finding proof of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe will be one of humanity’s greatest days. Won’t matter if they’re too far away or if they may have gone extinct, it will be monumental times. Any thoughts on how we as Earthlings would react? Will it change us and if so, how?Hmm, hard to say...but, I'm sure Democrats will find a way to get them to vote in US elections.
RE: Astronomers sweep the entire sky, looking for aliens - Yazata - Feb 20, 2020
My first thought was how do they expect to recognize alien transmissions?
More problems:
If we receive a transmission from a star 20 light-years away, that transmission needs to have been sent 20 years ago to be getting here just now. If the star is 1000 light years away, the signal needs to have been sent 1000 years ago. A million light years away, a million years. So we will only be detecting what was happening for a cosmic instant. (With that instant varying by distance.)
And radio waves disperse. They get weaker with distance. So we will only hear transmissions from relatively nearby. It's conceivable that aliens might aim a tight coherent beam at us so as to have less dispersion, but why would their beam be aimed precisely at us?
I expect life in the universe to be exceedingly rare. Most life in the universe probably isn't intelligent. Intelligent life might not be technological. Technological civilizations might not be using radio any longer for interstellar communications, and would expect recipients of their messages to be using suitably advanced methods. (We do the same. We don't expect aliens to be using signal fires or smoke signals.) Our communications technology might not be up to the cosmic standard.
RE: Astronomers sweep the entire sky, looking for aliens - Zinjanthropos - Feb 20, 2020
Wegs...got your tv on?
Quote:Hey, that's far out so you heard him too
Switch on the TV we may pick him up on channel two
Wegs....go find the remote....quickly.
Quote:If we receive a transmission from a star 20 light-years away, that transmission needs to have been sent 20 years ago to be getting here just now. If the star is 1000 light years away, the signal needs to have been sent 1000 years ago. A million light years away, a million years. So we will only be detecting what was happening for a cosmic instant.
I don't think time or distance means much here. The whole point of the exercise is to discover intelligent life elsewhere....living or once living. However, that said, if too close then we might be listening in on something we wish we hadn't.
RE: Astronomers sweep the entire sky, looking for aliens - Yazata - Feb 20, 2020
(Feb 20, 2020 06:25 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: Wegs...got your tv on?
Quote:Hey, that's far out so you heard him too
Switch on the TV we may pick him up on channel two
Wegs....go find the remote....quickly.
Don't tell MR! He'll go berserk.
Quote:Quote:If we receive a transmission from a star 20 light-years away, that transmission needs to have been sent 20 years ago to be getting here just now. If the star is 1000 light years away, the signal needs to have been sent 1000 years ago. A million light years away, a million years. So we will only be detecting what was happening for a cosmic instant.
I don't think time or distance means much here. The whole point of the exercise is to discover intelligent life elsewhere....living or once living. However, that said, if too close then we could be inviting something we wish we hadn't.
The thing is, if the aliens are indeed there and were transmitting a little too early or a little too late, listening right now on Earth wouldn't catch it. Do we really expect aliens to be transmitting their beacons for millions of years, just so listeners like us at an unknown distance might have a better chance of picking them up?
RE: Astronomers sweep the entire sky, looking for aliens - Zinjanthropos - Feb 20, 2020
Quote:The thing is, if the aliens are indeed there and were transmitting a little too early or a little too late, listening right now on Earth wouldn't catch it. Do we really expect aliens to be transmitting their beacons for millions of years, just so listeners like us at an unknown distance might have a better chance of picking them up?
Going to be really tough...
https://www.rfvenue.com/blog/2014/12/15/when-it-comes-to-rf-distance-plays-tricks-with-the-mind