If There Are Aliens Out There, Where Are They?

[pokerfan]

By Mario Livio, Joe Silk on January 6, 2016

Physicist Enrico Fermi famously asked the question "Where are they?" to express his surprise over the absence of any signs for the existence of other intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy. Although many potential resolutions to this so-called “Fermi paradox” have been suggested over the years, there is still no consensus on which one, if any, is correct. The question of whether we are alone in the Milky Way (or in the universe at large) remains, however, one of the most intriguing questions in science in general, and in astronomy in particular.

Given the enormous uncertainties involved with the emergence, evolution, and survivability of any extrasolar life (if it exists), we shall attempt to briefly identify the most generic, remotely-detectable signatures of alien life (both simple and intelligent), and to examine the expected effectiveness of various search strategies. This topic has become particularly timely, because observations (primarily with the Kepler space telescope) have shown that the Milky Way contains no fewer than a billion Earth-size planets orbiting Sun-like (or smaller) stars in the “Goldilocks” region that allows for liquid water to exist on the planet’s surface (the so-called habitable zone). Furthermore, the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life has recently received a significant boost in the form of “Breakthrough Listen”—a $100-million decade-long project aimed at searching for non-natural transmissions in the electromagnetic bandwidth from 100 megahertz to 50 gigahertz.

More: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/if-there-are-aliens-out-there-where-are-they/

Right here. The aliens are right here ===> http://www.democraticunderground.com/122844783

[jonno99]

1. I figure there is a 50/50 chance that they will find US - tasty...nt

[Kelvin Mace]

2. And when you find them,

could you ask them where my car keys are?

[denbot]

3. There is a chance there is an aggressive species playing "Whack-a-mole".

Maybe they are wired to be assholes, maybe they barely survived multiple contacts, and are no longer willing to chance it.

We are no threat to a civilization like that until we can bridge the stars. Until then, our radio emissions have let everyone in a 75+ light year radius know where we are..

[saltpoint]

4. Robinson Crusoe thought he was alone on

the island.

He wasn't.

Interesting and thought-provoking post, pokerfan.

[deathrind]

5. They have...

Probably watched us as we have evolved over the last few million years, seen the tremendous violence we do to one another... repeatedly and have come to the conclusion that as long as we are confined to our Solar Systems they are just going to leave us alone.

Honestly the biggest hurdle to contacting another intelligent life form (if they exist) is distance. Setting aside the medium sound needs in order to travel from point A to point B it would take ~3.7million years for a signal to reach our closest star Alpha Centauri.

[Staph]

6. The answer to this question is in a song by Peter Mulvey

titled "Vlad the Astrophysicist".

. . .

"Imagine the entire universe is only about this big,
Only the size of a beach ball. I mean, universe is not spherical but go with me on this, okay?
Now, imagine that all of time: thirteen and one half billion years from the big bang until now,
Imagine that, that goes by in, say, five minutes. On that scale, consider us,
We are intelligent civilization, yes? We make radio waves, rocket ships, baseball, Great Wall of China,
Bach sonatas, clearly intelligent civilization. The question is, how long do we last? Hm?
Another 5000 years? 50,000? Another 5 million years? It does not matter;
On the universal scale that I am asking you to consider, those all look the same, they look like this,"
And he held his hand in front of him, with thumb and forefinger pressed together,
And parted them for the barest instant, and as he did so, he made a sound through his teeth, "fss"
He looked at me, to see if I understood. Every human that has ever lived, and will ever live...
All the history that we have made and will ever make..."fss".
He paused, to let that sink in. It sank in.
"So," he said, "here is the universe," and again he held his hands out defining the space,
"And here are the intelligent civilizations as they arise in the universe,"
And he moved his hand here. "Fss." Then here..."fss." Then here - "fss."
"You see?" He said, "They never meet each other. Time is too long, space is too large.
I mean sure, maybe at one time, right next to each other at the same time, fss, fss -
Two civilizations sprang up and they had war, better yet they had peace,
They had arts exchanges, they had an intergalactic library...but they are all dead now, too.
In all likelihood, we are alone, and by the time the next civilization arises,
We'll have been gone for a long, long time."
. . .

http://lyrics.wikia.com/wiki/Peter_Mulvey:Vlad_The_Astrophysicist

[Blanks]

7. If it's true that the speed of light...

Cannot be exceeded. Then, even if there is intelligent life in the galaxy, it takes more than the life span of humans to travel to another solar system.

That means in order for us to travel to a different solar system we have to bring the resources for our children (or grandchildren) to find a way to land on the planet after traveling through space for 90 years.

It's possible that our ancestors came from a different solar system, but didn't have the means to replicate the factories and mining facilities with the people that were around after such a long trip. It would be difficult to build a whole society so far away. Particularly if there were problems entering the atmosphere.

I believe there is life on other planets in the galaxy, and that we have the technology to travel to those other planets, but if we choose a planet and there isn't life on that planet, then we can't just phone home because the people traveling won't be there for several decades.

[Hoppy]

8. I saw a documentary once where this guy from the planet, Krypton landed on Earth. So it is real.

[Moostache]

9. I have a pet theory of my own...

What if we happen to be the first? The first species to survive long enough and develop technology at all? Think about how insanely lucky we are that the meteor or comet that wiped out the dinosaurs hit when we were evolutionary beneficiaries of the impact and then evolved to fill the niche...think about the utility of the opposable thumb and then its scarcity in nature.

The reason we cannot contact other life forms will always be distance. Unless someone figures out a way around the speed of light and relativity, we won't ever contact alien life directly unless it arrives here for colonization or extermination. I think back to world history and whenever explorers arrive, the indigenous die. We should be glad that we have NOT encountered aliens (yet?).

Of course, then there is always this guy:

[pokerfan]

10. Which is Solution #34

in this excellent book:



Highly recommended.

[hobbit709]

11. We're on an intergalactic quarantine list.

What really intelligent species would have anything to do with us.

[cpwm17]

12. Star Trek is science fiction out there, just like it is over here.

And intelligent life is likely very thinly scattered throughout our infinite Universe.

[BlueJazz]

13. Perhaps they're here already. Moving through time and space, observing us, cataloging us.

Finding us quaint but not that interesting.

[cstanleytech]

14. Or, more likely imo is that they arent there or atleast not now.

After all most species only last a finite number of years before they are gone so the odds of humanity existing at the same time as another intelligent species on another world is probably pretty slim.

[BlueJazz]

15. I make believe they ARE here so I can "Rip their ass a new one" for not helping us.

Plus there's someone to talk to..

[Orsino]

16. We've barely begun looking. n/t

[Shankapotomus]

17. We're right here

Can we help you?