Billions of potentially populated planets in the galaxy There are billions of habitable planets in the Milky Way where aliens could be having their tea right now, according to a new six-year study. "Our results show that planets orbiting around stars are more the rule than the exception. In a typical solar system approximately four planets have their orbits in the terrestrial zone …
It is a set of jump coordinates, converted from another song Kara Thrace's father taught her as a child.
It probably can be reduced to the equivalent of NGC-1252 Tuvan Throat Singers' tonals in an acoustic conduit.
On a Galactica threat/note, I really wish that we are just the descendants of interbreeding, and that our distant relatives are out there, looking for us after hearing of a band of refugees seeking a new home. Wouldn't it be something to have distant cousins "find us". They might come to regret it, though -- if they exist at all.
I'd prefer to believe that if comets brought water to the Earth, then it can and ought to have happened for other worlds. Even if only 1,000 other worlds, even if they are too far for *us* to detect yet. Unfortunately, we may not as a species/world find other advanced life until 5 or 10 more lifetimes from now, assuming they cannot cloak themselves to decieive us into looking elsewhere, assumng they've been approached by others and learned to remain anonymous, hehehe.
To me, it would be sad if we are all there is of sentient life forms. It would be a cosmic waste of the universe's sheer size to have this vast support system of gravity, wells, energy, and so forth, a huge cosmic show, just for *us*. Kinda depressing. I hope there's more, a LOT more life (intelligent, sentient, comparable) out there -- even if we don't get to find out.
“This means, statistically, every star in the galaxy should have at least one planet, and probably more,”
"Statistically, the research team extrapolates that [...] two-thirds have an Earth 2.0."
So now we know that "Fp" is about 1 and "Ne" is 2/3. How does this affect current estimates?
See maccys slightly mis quoted quote 'so where is everyone?'
Several scenarios
1) They never made it past our equivalent of WW3 or some other self made disaster
2) They have made it past that stage and are far advanced. Possibly observing. Possibly not
3) Some kind of natural disaster killed them all
4)Their radio hasn't reached us yet and are most likely 'dark' to our listening abilities by now. (We can only measure that which we know how to measure)
5) Space. It's big!
6. Radio of a type capable of detection across interstellar distances becomes obsolete within a couple of centuries of its invention.
We know that's true because it's happening all around us. Analogue broadcasting (with easy-to-detect carrier frequencies) is being turned off. Digital signals are far more efficient, meaning far harder to detect at interstellar distances. Also for how long will radio broadcasting exist at all? The Internet is starting to replace broadcast in developed countries.
I doubt that 22nd-century Earth will be radio-detectable from tens of light-years out, let alone hundreds or thousands. (I'm assuming technological progress continues ... but it's also true if we blow ourselves up).
Radial velocity will also only catch an exoplanet candidate if Earth is roughly in line with its orbital plane. The gravitational microlensing approach is not as sensitive to the relative geometry, but it will also miss most exoplanets because of the time sensitivity (the exoplanet has to pass nearly between us and the distant star while the near star is transiting the distant one).
It's all statistical; you can make assumptions about the distribution of the angles of rotation of nearby stars, and hence their ecliptic, and you adjust your estimated population of planets based on the maximum number it would be possible to detect with each method.
"And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd."
And if you think "made in God's image" means "looks like a monkey" you're really not thinking very hard. This may be remarkably demonstrative.
David Icke wrote the bible?
Oh but to be serious, the bible isn't a metaphor. It contains a great deal of metaphor (neatly buggering up the still annoyingly popular "metaphor was only invented in the last 400 years" belief that I keep seeing EVERYWHERE), but it isn't one in total. It's a collection of sociological and historical documents charting the evolution of a set of religious beliefs over approximately 3000 years. Once understood in a correct historical context - and when parts are understood within the context of other parts - it becomes much less obtuse and much more readable.
Well, not readable... but at least understandable. Frankly, the sheer number of misconceptions people have about scripture still stagger me. I' often staggered by how much of it I completely misread.
And now back to Arkham City. Batman keeps dying for my sins, poor chap.
I'm not worried about alien armies - if they can get here, they are either so advanced they will wipe out out instantly, or are so advanced in science they don't need our pitiful resources, and could get what they want far easier in the asteroid belt.
No, what I am afraid of is alien missionaries - "People of Earth: have you accepted Glub as your personal saviour?" After all, look at how well that sort of thing has generally worked out in our past.
to invade another planet is to take over a small number of leaders and opinion formers.
You can then steer the natives towards terraforming (or xenoforming) the planet to make it more hospitable for your own requirements on the planet's own dime, without all the wasteful drama produced by giant invading armies, etc.
Extra points for persuading the natives that none of this is happening, that - for example - temperature increases don't matter, and that possible developments in the wrong direction - like sustainable power - are a bit mad really, and no one should take them seriously.
That way the natives can cook themselves, and you can start eating them when you're ready.
The physics of chemistry is universal. There's no other element that has even half the versatility for building complex molecules that Carbon does. Single bonds, double bonds, rings with de-localised electrons, stereochemistry where one carbon is bonded to four different groups or the cis/trans arrangement around a double bond or the sequence of groups around a ring ....
Alien biochemistry may look nothing like ours, but I'll eat my hat if it's not based on Carbon, with Hydrogen, Nitrogen and Oxygen in important supporting roles. I also think it highly likely it'll have proteins (loosely defined as long chains of amino acids, CO-NH bonded).
It appears that everyone's jalopy is red-lined at 1 ly/y, and furthermore you need an infinitely large team of horses to pull you up to that speed, and infinitely large brakes to dump the energy should you wish to stop. Where is everyone? Out there, a long way away, and that's where they're forced to stay.
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