Discovery of Intelligent Life in the Milky Way: "It's Only a Matter of Time..."

Time! In the search for life in the universe, time and the sheer scale of the cosmos are enemies of our all too brief human-life span. A few basic facts provide a startling and eye-opening perspective on both our mortality and the obstacles confronting our search for life beyond the Solar System. 

A prime target for our early efforts to find a twin Earth is our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, 4.4 million light years away, which means that light (or an extraterrestrial message) takes 4.4 years to reach us. 

It’s been the destination of interstellar travelers in science fiction writing for so long now that one would almost be forgiven for thinking we’d already colonized it. But Alpha Centauri, the three-star system closest to our own Sun, is now the center of some very exciting science.

Javiera Guedes who headed up a NASA-funded project to analyze the possibility of detecting an Earthlike planet in orbit around Alpha Centauri B, has shown that terrestrial planets are likely to have formed around Alpha Centauri B, and that these planets should be orbiting in the “habitable zone.” 

"It's so close to us, and the position of the other stars is such that it should be very possible to find a small planet," she explained. She also found that, based on astronomers' current understanding of how solar systems form, the existence of a planet the size of our own is very likely, and that there's also a chance that it would lie in the habitable zone.

Now, the planet-hunting team is using a telescope in Chile to keep an eye on the star for the next three years, in order to collect enough data to determine whether or not the next Earthlike planet lies next door.

"If they exist, we can observe them," said Guedes also showed that such planets would be observable if a telescope was dedicated to their search.

Guedes used a series of planet formation computer simulations to determine that terrestrial planets have probably formed around the star. The team ran repeated computer simulations which ran on a time frame of 200 million years each time. They varied the beginning conditions each time, and thus created a different result each time. However, each time a system of multiple planets evolved with at least one planet – approximately the size of Earth – forming. In many of these simulations, this planet was often found to be orbiting within the habitable zone of the star.

Its brightness and its position in the sky are both positive factors that make the Alpha Centauri search plausible; the latter giving the team a long period of observability each year from the Southern Hemisphere.

But the profound implication of the iron-clad law of astronomical time is that we see Alpha Centauri only as it was 4.4 years ago.In other words any message from inhabitants of Alpa Cenauri saying "Our planet is dying!" and our reply would consume a total of almost nine years.

The effect becomes even more starkly dramatic at greater distances. If we look at the awesome beauty of the Orion Nebula, we see it as the inhabitants of the Roman Empire saw it 1500 light years ago. A radio message we sent to a planet in the region would take some 3000 years for us to get their reply.

An even more extreme example  would a message sent to us from the extreme outer edge of the Milky Way, which is 100,000 light years in diameter. Earth is located about 28,000 light years from the galactic center. A message reaching us now would have been sent 70,000 years ago. 

To put astronomical time in an even more awesome perspective, scientists have located a giant 13-billion year old galaxy at the edge of the observable universe. The galaxy, which is 12.8 billion light-years from Earth, is as large as the Milky Way galaxy and harbors a supermassive black hole that contains at least a billion times as much matter as does our Sun. A message received from a planet that existed in this ancient would have to have been sent some eight billion years before the Earth was formed when the universe was only one-sixteenth of its present age. And, would that planet, indeed, that galaxy, still exist? 

Casey Kazan

Comments

[just wondering]

I believe we dont see the Orion Nebula as the Romans saw it.

The Romans saw it as it was 2t years ago where we see it as just t years ago.

However, We see Orion Nebula as it was 1500 years ago, so therefore anything on that side would be seeing us as we were in Roman times.

[TSHIMANGADZO NDOU]

REMEMBER ME"

Hopefully yours
Tshimangadzo ndou

Title name: Jesus christ (The Galactic senate/empire)
World : Planet earth

[adam]

Alpha Centauri is only 4.4 light-years away, not 4.4 million. just a heads up.

[ramkumar]

Planets around triple star systems Alpha Centauri B and proxima centuri ..Star wars episode and Total re- call depicts a planet with 2 suns . Now they had started discussing about the possibility of planets around M-dwarfs and pulsars also .
Hope Kepler mission will find out the needle in the haystack .
Our limitation is that we have to find out the planet from the impact of the shadow it generates while it travels around the star .

[Marc]

DailyGalaxy, what's going on guys?

I can't believe such a high-profile blog doesn't have it's facts straight.

As adam mentioned Alpha Centauri is "only" 4.4 light years away, not 4.4 million.

[bumpy]

"Earth is located about 28,000 light years from the galactic center. A message reaching us now would have been sent 70,000 years ago."

Depends on which edge it was sent from. From the nearest edge, 22,000 years ago. From the farthest edge, 78,000 years ago.

[moreWormHlzplz]

I am trying to get back to Alpha Centauri system cuz I left my wallet at TGI Fridays there and now I can't make bail to get my baby momma out of jail. Anyone know Steven Hawking's cell #? I think he might know the location of the worm hole I need to get back there. - T

[Aces]

Badly written article... 4.4 million years away (now Alpha Centauri is father than Andromea?)

but the biggest problem is saying that we see Orion Nebula as the Romans saw it 1500 years ago. Actually, we see it as the nebula itself was 1500 years ago.

When the romans saw it 1500 years ago, it was 1500 years older than the image they saw... meaning. the nebula was in Roman times 3000 years older than the image we see today.

[Jim Stevens]

Oh there is no doubt in my mind dude. We WILL discover other life out there eventually. There HAS to be something out there!

RT
www.be-anonymous.bg.tc

[Salil Maniktahla]

Correction: the distance to Alpha Centauri is 4.4 LY, *not* 4.4 MILLION Light Years.

[mark]

seriously, this article is ponderous, f*ing ponderous! Read the comments above and try again!

[Zaphod]

Just because you're on the interwebz is no reason not to proof your article. Editors? Fact checkers? This is why there will always be a need for print media and libraries.

[Justin]

AWFUL math and reasoning in this article! Who proof-read this, if anyone?

1) Alpha Centauri is 4.4 light-years away, not 4.4 MILLION. That's why light takes 4.4 years to reach us! Really, light-years is the easiest unit of measurement out there: how far light travels in a year. Come on! Do you just add a reflexive "uhhh...million!" when describing all long distances?

2) Clearly the light we are seeing right now from the Orion Nebula is not the light that the Romans SAW, unless there's a giant space mirror 750 light years away (on the other side of the solar system as the Orion Nebula) that we're aiming our telescopes at. :)

Who edits these?

[hahaha]

a completely ignorant person must have written this

[Keith]

4.4 vs. 4.4 Million is almost considered a typo when dealing with Cosmic distances, however it should have been caught before posting.

[BoyBunny]

They HAVE to look for intelligent life out there... because there damn well isn't any to be found in places like NASA!

We mourn the death of hard sciences... and welcome our new postmodern science masters (idiots).

[Free Samples]

I agree. Within the next 4 or 5 years, I believe the discovery will be made.

[Adam]

only posting because none of the other comments caught it:

"we see it as the inhabitants of the Roman Empire saw it 1500 light years ago."

... light years are a measure of distance, as pointed out numerous times above), yet in this context it's used as a measure of time.

seriously, for an article attempting to EXPLAIN the significance of cosmic distance... you do a quite poor job of GRASPING the concept of cosmic distance.. or just don't care enough about your readers to proof the post.. either way.. -10 blog points.

[Jon]

Um, 4.4 Million light years away? Is that in the next galaxy?

[Michael Slomski]

This article is very confusing, I do not know much about space, but I thought you cannot travel faster than light, so if Alpha Centauri is 4.4 million light years away, wouldnt it take 4.4 million light years?

[Velocity Wave]

Correction to another part of the article:

"we see it as the inhabitants of the Roman Empire saw it 1500 light years ago."

The romans saw it in a different way (that was 1500 years in their past).

Thus that sentence should be corrected to read as:

"we see it as it existed in the time of the Roman Empire, 1500 years ago".

(There sure is a heck of a lot of typos and errors on this website! They might need a new editor! But otherwise it is very interesting.)

[Greg Ruo]

... this article is cool and its meaning clear. Pity there are two evident typos, but I do not see reasons to be so excited about that. Mercy to the editor !

Greg Ruo

[nick]

Article? Are you kidding? This must be the worst written page and a waste of time I have read in a long time- out of 13 paragraphs- 2 are errors and the last 3 are telling us how far things are? Keep blogging!

[Iain]

As the Monty Python song goes: '... and pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space because there's bugger all down here on Earth."

Can we have your liver please?

And come one guys. Get over the 4.4 million LY typo.

[Pesadelo]

'A prime target for our early efforts to find a twin Earth is our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, 4.4 million light years away, which means that light (or an extraterrestrial message) takes 4.4 years to reach us.'
'The effect becomes even more starkly dramatic at greater distances. If we look at the awesome beauty of the Orion Nebula, we see it as the inhabitants of the Roman Empire saw it 1500 light years ago.'
Casey: Stop doing Science Articles, please!