The Space Thread

[rocwell]

The tech is amazing but really when we consider how large the Universe is its not all that shocking. This made me think back to what Hawking said in 2010:



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/scie...ist-warns.html

"If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the American Indians."

Well at least we'd see the world united for the first time ever...

[Apollo]

"If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out very well for the American Indians."

Well at least we'd see the world united for the first time ever...

I'm pretty sure that indigenous people of North America partook in wars amongst themselves after Columbus and while various nations invaded what was then their lands.

I don't think man is capable of ending all world conflicts because man cannot stop corruption.

[Nilanka]

There's also the issue of timing. If anyone sent Earth a msg just 2000 yrs ago, we wouldn't have had the technology to receive it. Intelligent life on Earth has only been around for a minuscule fraction of the planet's lifetime. Conversely, I wonder how many suitable planets our radio signals have flown past, with the misfortune of being too early or too late for an intelligent civilization to notice them.

Also, we've only explored a small portion of the observable universe so far. I was listening to a StarTalk podcast interviewing one of the founders of SETI, who said if the universe was every body of water on Earth, we've only explored a 16 ounce glass so far. We haven't even scratched the surface.

[Apollo]

Well honestly, we don't know how long intelligent life has been around or what came before the written records we have. Current known records only date back 3000-4000 years ago.

There are several monuments on earth that we would struggle to recreate with modern technology and tools. Some of these would be impossible to create with the presumed tools used no matter the time line and resources. Others would be impossible to create with the presumed time line no matter the available tools and resources. It doesn't prove anything of course... Besides that our current generally accepted understanding of earth history is incorrect and distorted the further back we go.

[Ebonhawke]

Perseids meteor shower this weekend

[Joey]

Great podcast from Rogan with Cosmologist and Physics Professor Sean Carroll.
Several times you can actually see his mind literally being blown, as they touch on all the good stuff; dark matter, quantum mechanics, big bang, black holes, alternate universes, AI/machine learning, etc. :

[rocwell]

Hurricane Harvey from ISS. Deadly, but beautiful.

[Apollo]

Bacterial cells treated with a common antibiotic have been spotted changing shape to survive while aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The way bacteria act in near-zero gravity environments could pose a serious problem for treating astronauts with infections.

The "clever shape-shifting" was detected in bacteria being experimented on in the near-weightlessness of space, and is believed to help the bacteria survive.

http://news.sky.com/story/shape-shif...ation-11033655

[Apollo]

many SETI astronomers aren't content with only scanning the airwaves for signs of ET. Instead, they think we should also be actively reaching out to the cosmos on behalf of planet Earth.

These astronomers occupy a controversial niche within the SETI community known as Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligences, or METI. At the forefront of this group is Douglas Vakoch, president of METI International, a research group dedicated to designing and sending messages intended for extraterrestrial recipients.

Vakoch and his colleagues at METI International are fighting an uphill battle. Aside from all the technical problems that come with trying to contact aliens, many SETI astronomers think it's a bad idea.

The METI opposition group, which includes scientists like Stephen Hawking, argues that since we have no idea what ET might be like, sending a message into the cosmos comes with a huge existential risk. If the aliens happen to be friendly, no problem. But if they're hostile, that means we're essentially sending out a beacon that says "ATTACK HERE."

https://www.cnet.com/news/next-year-...ch-for-aliens/

I'm curious how the writer defines "many". Is that a majority? Is it a dozen or dozens?

I think its irresponsible to go sending out signals to the galaxy. I think back to the novel Ender's Game, where the writer describes a life form incredibly different from us. Unknown to humanity, the life form which was insectoid in form, was driven by a hive mind; one consciousness. When humanity made first contact with the life form it immediately was aggressive, attacking humanity in full force. Later in the story, after much devastation the protagonist discovers the hive mind guiding the creatures and that their society viewed each individual life form as essentially nothing more than the equivalent of a hair on your head, it was just a very minor and insignificant piece of their total "body". It assumed humanity was the same. It was this difference which lead to the attacks and it was this fundamental difference which incited a war with humanity. This is all fiction of course but most great fiction writers are great futurists and in essence foretell the future to at least some vague accuracy in their literature.

I think we should listen to the scientists like Hawking and consider the imaginative stories by people like Orson Scott Card before we go sending transmissions. Also, if we were to send out a message it shouldn't be something written by a handful of astronomers.

[Nilanka]

Aren't we sending out signals (radiowaves) daily? Not for the purpose of contacting ET life, but just our normal everyday use.

[Miekenstien]

[Bendit]

Just read about this today!

Some 130 million years ago, in a galaxy far away, the smoldering cores of two collapsed stars smashed into each other. The resulting explosion sent a burst of gamma rays streaming through space and rippled the very fabric of the universe.

On Aug. 17, those signals reached Earth — and sparked an astronomy revolution.

The distant collision created a “kilonova,” an astronomical marvel that scientists have never seen before. It was the first cosmic event in history to be witnessed via both traditional telescopes, which can observe electromagnetic radiation like gamma rays, and gravitational wave detectors, which sense the wrinkles in space-time produced by distant cataclysms.

There is a vid "simulation" of the event in the link...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.27b0d22135b1

[Bendit]

Hey Trekkies...something for u here

A mysterious object detected hurtling past our sun could be the first space rock traced back to a different solar system, according to astronomers tracking the body.

While other objects have previously been mooted as having interstellar origins, experts say the latest find, an object estimated to be less than 400m in diameter, is the best contender yet.

“The exciting thing about this is that this may be essentially a visitor from another star system,” said Dr Edward Bloomer, astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.

If its origins are confirmed as lying beyond our solar system, it will be the first space rock known to come from elsewhere in the galaxy.

Published in the minor planet electronic circulars by the Minor Planet Center at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the observations reveal that the object is in a strong hyperbolic orbit – in other words, it is going fast enough to escape the gravitational pull of the sun.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/...ystem-a2017-u1

[rocwell]

Scientists beamed a message towards GJ 273, a red dwarf star, last month
The star was chosen as it is known to host two potentially habitable planet
The message included a science and maths 'tutorial' and 33 musical excerpts
But not everyone is convinced by the plan, with experts including Professor Stephen Hawking, warning that if aliens discovered us, it could 'end life on Earth'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...ears-away.html

[Miekenstien]

Scientists beamed a message towards GJ 273, a red dwarf star, last month
The star was chosen as it is known to host two potentially habitable planet
The message included a science and maths 'tutorial' and 33 musical excerpts
But not everyone is convinced by the plan, with experts including Professor Stephen Hawking, warning that if aliens discovered us, it could 'end life on Earth'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...ears-away.html

i agree with hawking on this. they will kill us if they can. the worst bit of vger is the map to exactly where we are. luckily it moves pretty slowly and not much chance of aliens finding it, but messages to direct planets is a bad idea.

if they can discern our messages they will begin to plan for either our future invasion or theirs.