The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel

Field Guide to the Milky Way's ET-Life Hotspots

  

Where in the Milky Way are we most likely to encounter advanced technological civilizations? Virginia Trimble, of the University of California, Irvine and one of the world's leading astronomers specializing in the structure and evolution of stars and galaxies, believes that it is highly probable that most of the stars that are both rich enough in metals (all the elements except for hydrogen and helium are called "metals") to harbor habitable terrestrial planets (such as Earth) and are more than five billion years old exist considerably closer to the center of the Milky Way than we are. It’s as if the Milky Way had formed from the inside out, with the older disk stars forming in the dense galactic center about 12 billion years ago. The upshot is that a 6 billion year old terrestrial planet has a potential 1.5 billion-year technology headstart to produce some pretty awesome next-generation iPods.

Is Detection by an Exo Civilization a Threat to Earth? World's Experts Debate -A Galaxy Classic

Mankind has always been driven by contradictory drives.  The relentless curiosity that pushes us forward and is directly responsible for our progress from caves to  cities.  The fear of change that tells us "hang on, these caves/cities are really nice, we don't want to risk losing them."  There isn't any greater potential threat to the status quo than the discovery of extraterrestrial life, which is why some people would prefer we didn't try.

Mankind has always been driven by contradictory drives.  The relentless curiosity that pushes us forward and is directly responsible for our progress from caves to  cities.  The fear of change that tells us "hang on, these caves/cities are really nice, we don't want to risk losing them."  There isn't any greater potential threat to the status quo than the discovery of extraterrestrial life, which is why some people would prefer we didn't try.

"The Great Silence": Why Haven't Signs of Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life Been Discovered?

"The idea that we are the only intelligent creatures in a cosmos of a hundred billion galaxies is so preposterous that there are very few astronomers today who would take it seriously. It is safest to assume therefore, that they are out there and to consider the manner in which this may impinge upon human society."

Arthur C. Clarke, physicist and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey

The world-renowned physicist Lee Smolin author of Life of the Cosmos says that what we should look for to confirm the existence of intelligent life in the Milky Way is a message left for us some time in the last several hundred million years. 

"The idea that we are the only intelligent creatures in a cosmos of a hundred billion galaxies is so preposterous that there are very few astronomers today who would take it seriously. It is safest to assume therefore, that they are out there and to consider the manner in which this may impinge upon human society."

Arthur C. Clarke, physicist and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stephen Hawking on the Possibility of Non-Carbon-Based Extraterrestrial Life

On the 50th anniversary of NASA, Stephen Hawking, Newton's heir as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, was asked the question, “Are we alone?”

His answer was short and simple; "probably not."

Hawking outlined three possibilities. One, being that there is no life out there, and two – somewhat pessimistically, that when intelligent life gets smart enough to send signals in to space, it is also busying itself with stockpiling nuclear bombs.

The 1.8 Gigayear Gap -A Galaxy Classic

Are we the lone sentient life in the universe? So far, we have no evidence to the contrary, and yet the odds that not one single other planet has evolved intelligent life would appear, from a statistical standpoint, to be quite small. There are an estimated 250 billion (2.5 x 10¹¹ ) stars in the Milky Way alone, and over 70 sextillion (7 x 10²² ) in the visible universe, and many of them are surrounded by multiple planets. The shear size of the known universe is staggeringly and inconceivably vast.

The METI Controversy Pro & Con: Is Detection by an Exo Civilization a Threat to Earth?

Mankind has always been driven by contradictory drives.  The relentless curiosity that pushes us forward and is directly responsible for our progress from caves to  cities.  The fear of change that tells us "hang on, these caves/cities are really nice, we don't want to risk losing them."  There isn't any greater potential threat to the status quo than the discovery of extraterrestrial life, which is why some people would prefer we didn't try.

Should We Broadcast Google into Deep Space?

The UFO Phenomena -“Religion or Science”? A Galaxy Classic

Is the world’s fascination with the possibility of UFOs and  more a religion or a natural intuitive sense that life is “out there” based on current scientific research and recent planet-search discoveries?

One of the world’s preeminent astrophysicists, Carl Sagan, believed that “the interest in unidentified flying objects derives, perhaps, not so much from scientific curiosity as from unfulfilled religious needs.”

SETI Chief Astronomer: "Humans Predicted to Make Contact with an Extraterrestrial Civilization Within Two Decades"--A Galaxy Classic

"That's 500 billion planets out there, and bear in mind there are 100 billion other galaxies. To think this [the Earth] is the only place where anything interesting is happening, you have got to be really audacious to take that point of view."

Seth Shostak, SETI senior astronomer

 

Zooming In On the Best Shot at ET Contact

"If those civilizations are out there – and we don't know that they are – those that inhabit star systems that lie close to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the sun will be the most motivated to send communications signals toward Earth, because those civilizations will surely have detected our annual transit across the face of the sun, telling them that Earth lies in a habitable zone, where liquid water is stable," says Richard Conn Henry, of Johns Hopkins University. "Through spectroscopic analysis of our atmosphere, they will know that Earth likely bears life. Knowing where to look tremendously reduces the amount of radio telescope time we will need to conduct the search.”

Field Guide to the Milky Way's ET-Life Hotspots

  

Where in the Milky Way are we most likely to encounter advanced technological civilizations? Virginia Trimble, of the University of California, Irvine and one of the world's leading astronomers specializing in the structure and evolution of stars and galaxies, believes that it is highly probable that most of the stars that are both rich enough in metals (all the elements except for hydrogen and helium are called "metals") to harbor habitable terrestrial planets (such as Earth) and are more than five billion years old exist considerably closer to the center of the Milky Way than we are. It’s as if the Milky Way had formed from the inside out, with the older disk stars forming in the dense galactic center about 12 billion years ago. The upshot is that a 6 billion year old terrestrial planet has a potential 1.5 billion-year technology headstart to produce some pretty awesome next-generation iPods.

Is Detection by an Exo Civilization a Threat to Earth? World's Experts Debate -A Galaxy Classic

Mankind has always been driven by contradictory drives.  The relentless curiosity that pushes us forward and is directly responsible for our progress from caves to  cities.  The fear of change that tells us "hang on, these caves/cities are really nice, we don't want to risk losing them."  There isn't any greater potential threat to the status quo than the discovery of extraterrestrial life, which is why some people would prefer we didn't try.

Mankind has always been driven by contradictory drives.  The relentless curiosity that pushes us forward and is directly responsible for our progress from caves to  cities.  The fear of change that tells us "hang on, these caves/cities are really nice, we don't want to risk losing them."  There isn't any greater potential threat to the status quo than the discovery of extraterrestrial life, which is why some people would prefer we didn't try.

"The Great Silence": Why Haven't Signs of Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life Been Discovered?

"The idea that we are the only intelligent creatures in a cosmos of a hundred billion galaxies is so preposterous that there are very few astronomers today who would take it seriously. It is safest to assume therefore, that they are out there and to consider the manner in which this may impinge upon human society."

Arthur C. Clarke, physicist and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey

The world-renowned physicist Lee Smolin author of Life of the Cosmos says that what we should look for to confirm the existence of intelligent life in the Milky Way is a message left for us some time in the last several hundred million years. 

"The idea that we are the only intelligent creatures in a cosmos of a hundred billion galaxies is so preposterous that there are very few astronomers today who would take it seriously. It is safest to assume therefore, that they are out there and to consider the manner in which this may impinge upon human society."

Arthur C. Clarke, physicist and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stephen Hawking on the Possibility of Non-Carbon-Based Extraterrestrial Life

On the 50th anniversary of NASA, Stephen Hawking, Newton's heir as the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, was asked the question, “Are we alone?”

His answer was short and simple; "probably not."

Hawking outlined three possibilities. One, being that there is no life out there, and two – somewhat pessimistically, that when intelligent life gets smart enough to send signals in to space, it is also busying itself with stockpiling nuclear bombs.

The 1.8 Gigayear Gap -A Galaxy Classic

Are we the lone sentient life in the universe? So far, we have no evidence to the contrary, and yet the odds that not one single other planet has evolved intelligent life would appear, from a statistical standpoint, to be quite small. There are an estimated 250 billion (2.5 x 10¹¹ ) stars in the Milky Way alone, and over 70 sextillion (7 x 10²² ) in the visible universe, and many of them are surrounded by multiple planets. The shear size of the known universe is staggeringly and inconceivably vast.

The METI Controversy Pro & Con: Is Detection by an Exo Civilization a Threat to Earth?

Mankind has always been driven by contradictory drives.  The relentless curiosity that pushes us forward and is directly responsible for our progress from caves to  cities.  The fear of change that tells us "hang on, these caves/cities are really nice, we don't want to risk losing them."  There isn't any greater potential threat to the status quo than the discovery of extraterrestrial life, which is why some people would prefer we didn't try.

Should We Broadcast Google into Deep Space?

The UFO Phenomena -“Religion or Science”? A Galaxy Classic

Is the world’s fascination with the possibility of UFOs and  more a religion or a natural intuitive sense that life is “out there” based on current scientific research and recent planet-search discoveries?

One of the world’s preeminent astrophysicists, Carl Sagan, believed that “the interest in unidentified flying objects derives, perhaps, not so much from scientific curiosity as from unfulfilled religious needs.”

SETI Chief Astronomer: "Humans Predicted to Make Contact with an Extraterrestrial Civilization Within Two Decades"--A Galaxy Classic

"That's 500 billion planets out there, and bear in mind there are 100 billion other galaxies. To think this [the Earth] is the only place where anything interesting is happening, you have got to be really audacious to take that point of view."

Seth Shostak, SETI senior astronomer

 

Zooming In On the Best Shot at ET Contact

"If those civilizations are out there – and we don't know that they are – those that inhabit star systems that lie close to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the sun will be the most motivated to send communications signals toward Earth, because those civilizations will surely have detected our annual transit across the face of the sun, telling them that Earth lies in a habitable zone, where liquid water is stable," says Richard Conn Henry, of Johns Hopkins University. "Through spectroscopic analysis of our atmosphere, they will know that Earth likely bears life. Knowing where to look tremendously reduces the amount of radio telescope time we will need to conduct the search.”