Aliens: Closer Than We May Realize

Humanity has a lot of finely tuned instruments pointed at the sky. But it's a really big sky.

This post has been updated.

Science fiction movies frequently make it seem as though hostile extraterrestrials might be able to sneak through Earth’s atmosphere, emerge from the clouds without warning, and start wrecking shit. But is it really possible that spaceships could suddenly appear out of the vast blackness of space unnoticed by the myriad instruments on the ground? Depending on the aliens’ level of technological sophistication, one can argue that almost anything is possible. Humans have pointed a lot of sensors skyward, but it’s not clear they would really give us a proper heads up before our extraterrestrial guests arrive.

It sort of depends on exactly what we’re looking for. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, better known as SETI, has been fruitless so far, but we keep investing and more and more money towards projects aimed at answering whether or not we’re alone in the universe. That investigation basically revolves around detecting various signals that point to the existence of technologically advanced extraterrestrials. And that also means the instruments we can use to observe space let us see farther into the universe than ever before. How far exactly? Douglas Vakoch tells Inverse that the answer has more to do with defining “see” than with arriving at a specific number.

A SETI researcher and the president of METI International, Vakoch divides the tools used to do SETI research into two groups: optical, and radio. Optical instruments, which look for lasers or other light patterns that suggest the presence of intelligent aliens, can make decent observations up to about 1,000 light-years away. “Beyond 1,000 light-years, however, it can get more difficult,” Vakoch says. Those instruments include the Boquete Optical SETI Observatory in Panama, and the Owl Observatory in Michigan.

Radio instruments, on the other hand, make a lot more sense for investigating signs of extraterrestrial life. For one, we can listen in on radio waves moving through space from about 10,000 light-years and beyond. Radio waves are also a pretty specific sign of a technologically advanced civilization while a star system may be expressing a strange laser-based signal in the distance, that might also just be an unexplained natural phenomenon (as we’re sort of learning when it comes to Tabbys Star.

Of course, as Vakoch emphasizes, our abilities to listen in on the universe dwindles as the distance increases. Aliens broadcasting themselves 10,000 light-years away will likely avoid detection.

But then again, SETI is a two-way street. When asked whether we currently have a maximum limit from which we can detect alien life, Seth Shostak, the director of the Center for SETI Research at the SETI Institute, says, “It depends on how much money the aliens have to invest in their own technology.” He’s referring to the fact that intelligent lifeforms might possess technologies that allow them to broadcast their existence to us from farther away and offset the limits of our own instruments.

“In theory, there’s no limit,” he adds.

It’s important to remember that SETI investigations don’t just watch the universe in all direction in hopes we’ll stumble on something. Scientists focus our instruments on certain regions of space that are most promising — i.e. the exoplanets or star systems that possess the best chances for developing habitable environments.

“We start close to home,” says Vakoch, “and look at sun-like stars. As we move the investigation farther out, we start to hone in on stars or star regions that might be useful. For example, a current trend in the SETI community is the study of red dwarf stars, which were historically ignored. The beauty of red dwarfs is that they last a long time,” says Vakoch, sustaining planetary systems that have a much longer chance of developing habitable traits. Red dwarfs make up about 80 to 90 percent of the stars in our own neighborhood within the Milky Way galaxy.”

There’s another big factor to consider. SETI research focuses on finding aliens thatwant to be found — or at the very least, are not actively trying to hide from human detection. If a hostile fleet of extraterrestrial warships were stationed somewhere in the galaxy or was en route to the solar system, they could very well possess a number of highly advanced technologies that could shroud their presence. Space itself is incredibly big anyways — humans don’t have eyes and ears scanning all parts of the universe around us.

Aliens might be able to slip into orbit, but if they were traveling in anything truly large it might be quite difficult for them to do so without severely disrupting our orbital equipment or even taking out a geosynchronous satellite. Still, that’s not an impossible feat.

“If they’re sufficiently intelligent,” says Vakoch, “there’s no reason to think they couldn’t be anywhere.”

Photos via District 9, Guardians of the Galaxy

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08-08-2016 om 00:41 geschreven door peter  

How might humans defend Earth from hostile aliens? You have to think big. Real big.

Neel V. Patel

In the upcoming sequel to the 1996 summer blockbuster Independence Day, a massive alien force comes to Earth to avenge losses sustained at Will Smith’s hand 20 years earlier. Aware that this might happen, the planet has spent the previous two decades preparing: creating Earth Space Defense, an international defense program and warning system with bases on the moon, Mars, and Saturn’s moon Rhea, and a lot of laser guns built using repurposed alien technology. The whole thing looks very Hollywood high budget, but, in reality, it represents a paltry effort.

Defending Earth from alien invaders will require a lot more than some outposts and a Hemsworth brother. Still, even that’s better than what we’ve got. As it stands, we possess neither of the two things we’d need to repel an extraterrestrial attack: a system to find and assess alien threats and a means to destroy incoming ships. We’re way closer on the former than the latter.

Believe it or not, planetary defense is a real part of space research and exploration — albeit in terms of protecting the planet against natural threats, like asteroids, comets, surprise solar flares, etc. For NASA, other space agencies around the world, and private companies, planetary defense is basically limited to a discussion of asteroid impact avoidance and deflection, and the development of technologies that allow us to track near-Earth objects that might pose a threat should their travel path ever line up with ours. To that end, NASA has been bolstering its efforts to improve instruments designed to track such rocks zipping through the solar system — most notably through the recent opening of thePlanetary Defense Coordination Office, to better study and characterize different near-Earth asteroids and comets and predict their orbits around the sun in relation to Earth.

Tracking technologies, like the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer space telescope, would let us know if an alien battalion were en route to Earth long before it reached the planet — provided the aliens were in a pretty big ship and traveling slow enough to give us time to parse the patterns. The issue with WISE, from a strategic defense perspective, is just how easy it would be for aliens to destroy. It is a scientific instrument and, as such, not designed to be combat ready.

Unfortunately, we still have no actual way of engaging with an object that’s on a crash course for a pale blue dot. Under the asteroid-focused planetary defense model, NASA is actually supporting a few off-the-wall projects with a bit of R&D funding, such as the gravity tractor. But this isn’t technology we could use to actually defend ourselves against creatures with superior ships. The only technology we have that can really do that is nuclear bombs.

Whether our lives are threatened by an asteroid or extraterrestrials, bombs are likely the best answer we’ve got. If it comes down to saving humanity, you better believe we’ll be launching nukes straight up.

Of course, this is easier said than done. The problem, as the aforementioned movies each discussed, is that you can’t simply launch a nuke or 12 straight into an asteroid. They’ll barely make a dent into the rock, and will hardly affect the trajectory of the damn thing. When it comes to alien invasion, we might have better luck, since a spaceship would need to slow down upon approaching the planet to ensure its safety. At deceased speeds and with a structure that would presumably facilitate interstellar travel (i.e. made to be lightweight with a relatively hollow interior), an alien ship would be a lot more vulnerable to damage by nuclear weapons.

Unfortunately, if an alien civilization is capable of waging wars light-years away from its home, it’s probably already found a way to mitigate or even totally offset damage by a conventional bombs. We’d have to find a way to crack our way in and blow the ship up from the inside.

Meet the Hypervelocity Asteroid Intercept Vehicle, or HAIV: a seemingly conventional spacecraft carrying a nuclear explosive device capable of blowing an object up from the inside out. HAIV is basically two main components — a “kinetic impactor” that bores a hole into the object and creates a hollow path behind it, and an encasement for the nuke.

A diagram describing how HAIV works.

The genius behind HAIV, aeronautics engineer Bong Wie of Iowa State University, conceived of HAIV as a potential way to defend Earth against asteroid threats. Wie, who is also director the university’s Asteroid Deflection Research Center, says his projectile, which would be between 1000 to 2000 kilograms in mass and move at about 5 kilometers per second, contains enough kinetic energy to create a hole or crater about 10 meters deep and 20 meters wide in an oncoming asteroid. The nuclear device would go into that crater behind the spacecraft and, boom goes the dynamite.

If we have at least a 5-year warning time, Wie says, mankind will be able to prep a HAIV mission. A nuclear explosion will then occur in space far outside the lunar distance. “Less than 0.1% of resulting fragments would enter Earth’s atmosphere.”

The reason we would need to design and build HAIV from scratch after we know an asteroid is on its way is because you need to cater the whole thing to destroy the asteroid as optimally as possible. For an asteroid with a diameter of 300 meters, the best kind of nuclear device would probably weigh about 1000 kilograms. A larger meteor will need something bigger; smaller rocks could be crushed with smaller bombs.

Wie and his colleagues were previously awarded two phases of funding through the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. “This concept is now further being investigated by a team of researchers from NASA and the national defense laboratories for a possible flight demonstration in the near future,” he says. “However, all previous studies of HAIV were based on conceptual and computational research. No experimental validation or testing of the HAIV concept has been performed yet.”

Wie has never explained whether the HAIV might be a useful system to protect us from aliens, but he has said that the use of nuclear devices is the most cost-effective option for mitigating impact threat.

Wie is loathe to speculate on the potential weaponization of his technology. But this is not a trait universal to space scientists. Igor Ashurbeyli is actively planning to repel an attack. The chairman of the Moscow-based International Expert Society on Space Threat Defense, Ashurbeyli told the audience at the 4th Manfred Lachs International Conference on Conflicts in Space and the Rule of Law, that he was preparing a proposal for an armed, unmanned space platform dedicated to monitoring activity in space and on the Earth and capable of directly neutralizing both.

Artist's rendition of URBOCOP

His concept is called the Universal Robotic Battle Cosmic Platform, or URBOCOP. Exactly what it would look like is hard to say, but Ashurbeyli says URBOCOP would essentially be an autonomously-run system — “free from human bias” — that could identify a variety of threats in advance and defend the planet from them. He lists solar flares, changes to Earth’s magnetosphere, asteroids and comets, man-made space debris, unforeseen effects of climate change, cosmic rays, biological threats from other parts of space — all as potential space threats. This situation reminds one of Russian roulette, he told the audience. “Only with rocks, huge pieces of metal, solar energy and other surprises, acting as bullets and putting all of humanity at fatal risk.”

In addition, Ashurbeyli also thinks URBOCOP could work to defend the Earth against intelligent extraterrestrials, or even man-made threats here on the surface. Imagine two countries warring against one-another and launching missiles back and forth. URBOCOP could very easily strike to shut those launches down before those weapons even get into the air.

All of that raises an enormous number of questions. What kind of A.I. system would be used to make sure URBOCOP doesn’t turn against us or mistakenly destroy civilian equipment or structures? What will this thing look like? If Wie is right and nukes are really the only thing that will protect us from large asteroids, are we prepared to store nukes on a space platform floating in orbit?

Ashurbeyli didn’t answer those questions, or even really outline how URBOCOP would work. That’s all being detailed in a presentation later this year. But he’s striving hard to make discussions of planetary defense technologies move from the outer rim of the scientific community, and closer to the mainstream.

There are few reasons to think he’s being foolish in this regard. Even if the chances of Earth being attacked by aliens is next to nothing, space is a pretty volatile place. You never know what strange shit the sun will spew on a whim; what weird comet or asteroid will appear out of nowhere and make its way towards our neighborhood; and so forth. And in reality, we seem to already possess the tools we need to pick up on dangers, and strike at them. It’s just a matter of refining them and putting them towards ensuring Earth stays a safe place to live — seeing how it’s the only planet we have so far.

Photos via Wie/NASA, Ashurbeyli, YouTube

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08-08-2016 om 00:28 geschreven door peter  

Unidentified Flying Object Filmed Firing Thrusters Above Auckland, New Zealand (Video)

(Before It's News)

While filming the sunset at 5.30pm on August 2, 2016 over Auckland in New Zealand the videographer noticed a strange black object hovering above a cloud formation. Suddenly the object changed into a bright light and disappeared.
 

Since the object is filmed from a great distance the videographer wonders whether it is a UFO or a fighter jet firing its thrusters/engines.

Thanks http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/

{ http://beforeitsnews.com/ }

07-08-2016 om 23:49 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious Green Light Captured Over Mexico and US (Video)

(Before It's News)

On August 5, 2016 at around 21.45 hours Galarza journalist Saul was in the center of Mexico City when he noticed a strange green light in the sky. Saul managed to capture the object.

But at the same night, on August 5, 2016 a similar green object is seen flying through the sky in US. Despite the witness did not mentioned the location, she also managed to capture the green light.

Both witnesses wonder whether the object could have been an atmospheric phenomenon or maybe a UFO?

Thanks http://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/

{ http://beforeitsnews.com/ }

07-08-2016 om 23:43 geschreven door peter  

Dr. Steven Greer - Interstellar Travel, X-files and The CIA Plan To Discredit UFOLogy

07-08-2016 om 21:33 geschreven door peter  

China Finished Building Its Alien-Hunting Telescope (Video)

Pingtang County, southwest of China’s Guizhou Province.

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, took roughly five years to complete and cost $180m; initial plans and location reconnaissance began way back in 1994. Its massive reflector, comprised of 4,450 panels covers the same area as 30 football fields.

It will become operational in September and will be used to search for extraterrestrial life, but don’t expect to hear about FAST aiding in major discoveries right away. Over the next two to three years, the telescope will be subject to adjustments and used for early-stage research by scientists in China. It will then become available to researchers across the globe to use.

According to Xinhua News, FAST will aid in detecting pulsars, gravitational waves and eventually amino acids, which would confirm life on other planets.

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What makes world's largest ever radio telescope FAST in SW#China's Guizhou so extraordinary? #XinhuaTV

3:18 PM - 2 Jul 2016

The telescope is much bigger than the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which was previously regarded as the world’s largest at around 300m in diameter.

In order to ensure total radio silence within a five-kilometer radius around FAST, more than 9,000 people will be moved out of the area surrounding the telescope and resettled in neighboring counties by September.

Source thenextweb.com

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07-08-2016 om 21:24 geschreven door peter  

‘Buitenaardse megastructuur’ nog mysterieuzer dan gedacht

07-08-2016 om 20:49 geschreven door peter  

Washington witness photographs square UFO

A Washington witness at Aberdeen reported watching and photographing a square or rectangle-shaped UFO that hovered in place and appeared to wobble as it moved closer, according to testimony in Case 78098 from the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) witness reporting database.

Cropped and enlarged portion of the witness image.

(Credit: MUFON)

The witness was standing at a window when something unusual was seen at 8:15 p.m. on July 11, 2016.

“A box kite was the initial reaction, but I quickly dismissed that as it was unmoving, yet started to move a moment later,” the witness stated.“Perfectly still, perfectly vertical, perfectly symmetrical at first. As I watched it,it seemingly wobbled as the opposing side rotated slightly towards me. As it did that and then back, you could see a projection or appendage, same glossy material, same stark sharp lines.”

The witness described the object.

“Appendage protruded at a 30-degree downward angle and appeared to be half the width of the depth of the overall craft. Appendage ended in a 30-degree downward sharp angle. As if it were a 2 x 4 piece of lumber angle cut. Cut portion had sharp lines just like the rest of the craft and matched the line that makes the bottom of the craft, again symmetrical in shape (followed the same line as the bottom and top of the object).”

Cropped and enlarged portion of the witness image.

(Credit: MUFON)

The object moved.

“It rotated back to the initial position seen and that was when I went for my cell phone for a photo. Seconds later I was at my window camera ready. It had moved in a line away from the initial sighting, but not quickly in appearance. It had covered some territory.”

The photography attempt was not good.

“The photo taken is not good and shows what was clearly seen by me to be a square, to be not so square, and blurred. Samsung Galaxy 3. Took a second picture, but you cannot distinguish it in that picture as it was being covered by a passing cloud. Twenty to 30 minutes later you could still make out a black speck in the same general area in a break in the cloud formation.”

Cropped and enlarged portion of the witness image.

(Credit: MUFON)

The witness was able to gain additional details.

“Also, when It was initially turning in front of me, there were some change to its glossy nature on the side that faced me. As it rotated it appeared to have an elliptical irregularity to the surface that drew some attention from me, but, it still somehow appeared flush, flat and black even though the elliptical shape covered fully one-quarter to one-third of that side. More of a line suggesting an oval rather than a protrusion on the surface itself.”

Assistant State Director AletaDeBee is investigating for Washington MUFON. Please remember that most UFO sightings can be explained as something natural or man-made. The above quotes were edited for clarity. Please report UFO activity to MUFON.com.

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07-08-2016 om 20:40 geschreven door peter  

PANIEK BIJ NASA VANWEGE ENORME UFO NABIJ DE ZON ( VIDEO)

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07-08-2016 om 19:46 geschreven door peter  

Pair of UFOs Fly Over Neighborhood In New York on July 31, 2016, Video, UFO Sighting News

Date of sighting: July 31, 2016
Location of sighting:  Peekskill, New York, USA

This UFO has a wingman. There are two UFOs here that fly one over the other at the same speed. These UFOs were over Peekskill, New York just last week and moving silently over a small neighborhood. Great video, by Latest UFO UFOvni of Youtube.
Scott C. Waring
www.ufosightingsdaily.com  

{  http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

07-08-2016 om 19:23 geschreven door peter  

UFO Over Auckland, New Zealand On Aug 2, 2016, Video, UFO Sighting News

Date of sighting: Aug 2, 2016
Location of sighting: Auckland, New Zealand

This is a great video. It shows a dark disk moving low from cloud to cloud over New Zealand. This was taken during sunset, which is the most common time to catch a UFO, due to the setting suns position. 
Scott C. Waring
www.ufosightingsdaily.com 

Eyewitness states:
his 'UFO' was captured on 02/08/2016 @approx 5.30pm with my sunset video! What do you think this is? Thanks.

{  http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

07-08-2016 om 19:20 geschreven door peter  

Green Glowing UFO Over Mexico City On Aug 5, 2016, Video, UFO Sighting News.

Date of sighting: August 5, 2016
Location of sighting: Mexico City, Mexico

This UFO was caught by a reporter in Mexico City last week. Its a UFO hiding in the clouds, but its propulsion seems to be making this green glow around it. It is triangle shape. This happens more often than you would think. Somethings they are shooting though the clouds, and they notice you on the ground watching them. They move as fast as lightening, but when they notice you they will either stop for a few seconds, or they will circle the sky, sometimes both right above you. Yes, I have experience such an event before. 
Scott C. Waring
www.ufosightingsdaily.com 

Eyewitness states:
Galarza journalist Saul captured extraordinary images of a green light in the skies of Mexico City. Located on Madero Street, in the center of the city, he managed to catch the August 5, 2016, around 21:45 hours. Atmospheric phenomenon UFO?

{ http://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

07-08-2016 om 18:52 geschreven door peter  

NASA promises ‘definitive evidence’ of alien life by 2025

We are on the cusp of discovering alien civilizations, NASA’s top scientists have said. They predict we’re one generation away from finding something in our Milky Way neighborhood, which is bustling with environments conducive to life.

Making their comments at a panel discussion Tuesday, the space scientists predict that the first discoveries will come within a decade.

Chief scientist Ellen Stofan believes we’ll have “definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years,” as“in most cases we have the technology, and we’re on a path to implementing it. And so I think we’re definitely on the road.”

I think we’re one generation away in our solar system, where it’s on an icy moon or on Mars, and one generation [away] on a planet around a nearby star,” former astronaut John Grunsfeld said at the session.

NASA has made huge strides in both spotting distant worlds and analyzing their chemical composition. Stofan said: “We know where to look.” Indeed, the Kepler mission has found no shortage of rocks that could support life, while icy moons in our own galaxy have long been suspected to hold incredible secrets beneath their own crust – among them Jupiter’s enigmatic moons – especially Europa, where a gargantuan body of water rages beneath the thin surface and water vapors are literally sprayed 200 km upward, giving clues to life-supporting minerals beneath. This while Ganymede is thought to have more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined.

The same can be said of Saturn’s satellite Enceladus.

Scientists found evidence to suggest that, like our more distant galactic neighbors, Mars also harbored entire oceans, the cracks and scars on its surface appearing to be made by raging water currents full of salt. All of this makes the Milky Way quite “a soggy place,” according to the director of NASA’s Astrophysics Division, Paul Hertz.

“We can see water in the interstellar clouds from which planetary systems and stellar systems form,” he says. “We can see water in the disks of debris that are going to become planetary systems around other stars, and we can even see comets being dissipated in other solar systems as [their] star evaporates them.”

The Mars rover Curiosity, stationed on the Red Planet, continues to dazzle scientists with intriguing new finds. Just two weeks ago, it discovered organic molecules containing carbon and “fixed”nitrogen – elements central to all known life.

The Kepler mission’s overwhelming success has also been a godsend – its lens measuring the tiniest changes in the light intensity of a star, as a planet passes by it. With its robotic eye, it showed us that life and rocky worlds should be far more common in our galaxy than the likes of gassy Saturn and Jupiter.

Numerous advances in both technology and our ability to implement it mean we are also accelerating the pace. One US company has just been given a grant for its plasma rocket to reach Mars in just 39 days, while NASA itself is already hard at work on developing a new Mars lander that resembles a saucer and promises to make it possible to “safely land heavier spacecraft” on alien planets.

Humanity is facing two separate challenges in space: one is finding signs of intelligent life, the other is identifying potentially habitable environments. While one may rush to tie the two together, the latter is a considerably easier proposition to make.

Stofan is all but certain the manned mission to Mars will emerge with spectacular discoveries: “I’m a field geologist; I go out and break open rocks and look for fossils,” she said. “Those are hard to find. So I have a bias that it’s eventually going to take humans on the surface of Mars — field geologists, astrobiologists, chemists — actually out there looking for that good evidence of life that we can bring back to Earth for all the scientists to argue about.”

Europa will see us much sooner than that. As soon as 2022, our $2.1 billion will get to work on probing the mysteries of its oceans. And then there are the water vapors, spotted in the region next to the southern pole.

These discoveries are accompanied by huge strides in lens technologies NASA says will be central to finding alien life within two deacdes. Already there are several contenders for the next King of telescopes, their tech specs threatening to leave the famed Hubble far behind; among them the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which cost the space agency a fat $8.8 billion. The technology onboard is strong enough to peer at distant ‘super-Earths’ and analyze the possible chemical composition of those worlds, the gasses they spew out being strong indicators of life.

For direct signs, however, we still need to take good old photos of the rocks, according to Hertz. That is why NASA is hard at work on the next generation of telescopes – one that will feature a coronograph. The device is invaluable for blocking out the glare of the host stars of the exoplanets, giving us a clear view of the celestial bodies. It’s set to launch sometime in the mid-2020s.

Source www.rt.com

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07-08-2016 om 00:29 geschreven door peter  

Robotic telescope discovers 3 super-Earths ‘very close’ to us

Three new super-Earths “unlike anything in our solar system” have been observed close to us, just 54 light years away. The scientists were aided by an advanced automated robotic telescope – a technology expected to yield much more in the coming years.

Let’s not pack our bags yet though – the three celestial bodies actually perform much more daring orbits around their host star than even our Mercury, taking 5, 12 and 24 days respectively. And we all know what happened to Mercury because of its close proximity to the Sun.

“The three planets are unlike anything in our solar system, with masses 7-8 times the mass of Earth and orbits that take them very close to their host star,” Berkeley graduate Lauren Weiss said.

The above findings are presented in the Astrophysical Journal.

Although one planet was discovered back in 2009, only now have the scientists at universities in California, Hawaii, Arizona and Tennessee compiled a workable map of the neighborhood, where all three orbit their host star HD 7924. As with previously-discovered potentially habitable worlds, scientists measured the wobble in light caused by the bodies passing in front of their sun, which allowed them to estimate the size and trajectory of the bodies. To achieve this they used the Automated Planet Finder (APF) Telescope at Lick Observatory in California, the W.M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea in Hawaii, and the Automatic Photometric Telescope (APT) at the Fairborn Observatory in Arizona.

The news APF facility is lauded by scientists for speeding up the process of planet-finding substantially. This is due to the observatory’s dedicated facility, armed with robotic technologies. The tools can work all night without human oversight and don’t ever get tired.

“This level of automation is a game-changer in astronomy,”astronomer Andrew Howard, based in Hawaii, said. “It’s a bit like owning a driverless car that goes planet shopping.”

Following one of the discoveries in 2009, a further five years of exploring followed. Then the APF Telescope came into play and completed the picture of the particular galactic neighborhood in a matter of a year-and-a-half.

“We initially used APF like a regular telescope, staying up all night searching star to star. But the idea of letting a computer take the graveyard shift was more appealing after months of little sleep. So we wrote software to replace ourselves with a robot,” BJ Fulton, a graduate at the University of Hawaii, was cited as saying.

One may remember the ground-breaking announcement of the Kepler program, which first brought to fruition the concept of measuring the changes in a star’s glow, as possible planets passed in front. Well, the APF continues the job with flying colors. Because, unlike Kepler’s thousands of Earth-like planets found all across the Milky Way, the APF’s discoveries are dramatically close to our own neighborhood.

Scientists on the project are very optimistic about a more thorough analysis of that sector in the near future and anticipate new discoveries.

These robotic observations are just the start of a new search campaign, which is part of Fulton’s doctoral dissertation. The new wave of robotic planet research will become a systematic survey of nearby stars in its own right. Two new Hawaiian facilities dedicated to this are currently being built. The APF is here to stay.

Source www.rt.com

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07-08-2016 om 00:16 geschreven door peter  

How Would Alien Life Forms Look And Behave On A Habitable Planet Around A Red Dwarf Star?

The largest population of stars in the galaxy hide in the shadows, too dim to be seen with the naked eye from Earth. Their limited radiance helps to extend their lifetimes, which are far greater than that of the sun. Scientists think that 20 out of the 30 stars nearest to Earth are red dwarfs; however, none of them can be seen with the naked eye. The closest star to the sun, Proxima Centauri, is a red dwarf.

Take the example of the recently discovered planet called Kepler 186f. It orbits a red dwarf star that has only 4% of the sun’s luminosity. It appears to have liquid water and to be habitable and it seems to have gravity similar to Earth. Due to their low luminosity, how do you think lifeforms would look like on a planet like this? There are a lot of factors that need to be considered, and most exoplanets are too far for those factors to be observed directly with current instruments.

Let’s first ponder the possible environments of a planet circling a red dwarf.

What would the sky looks like?

For a blue sky: A planet needs to have a thick atmosphere with an abundance of oxygen, and preferably a clear ocean of water or methane. To have a thick atmosphere the planet will need to have a strong magnetosphere. To have a strong magnetosphere the planet will need to have a large, solid iron inner core rotating quickly within a fluid iron outer core. To have such a core, the planet must be larger than a certain size, and must have been born after a certain amount of time after the big bang, and in a region of space relatively populated by iron dust created largely through supernovae and nucleosynthesis.

For a red sky: consider Mars. Its atmosphere is 1% of Earth’s, and appears red because the ground is red. It’s literally rust. To have such a minimal atmosphere, Mars or any planet would likely have lost its magnetosphere. For that to be the case geological activity and core motion would need to have been dropped nearly to nothing (Mars in fact has some magnetism in the southern hemisphere). To be rust the planet must have a considerable amount of iron, so it needs to have accreted during a period when iron has been nucleosynthesized in abundance, and it needs to have formed in a region of space in which that is the case.

Let’s assume the planet has the same mass as Earth and is in the circumstellar habitable zone which, around Red Dwarfs, would be very close to the star. Tidal-locking would be inevitable, but models predict that atmospheric equilibration is potentially possible between the starward side and its opposite if CO2 and H20 are present. Still, the climate might be pretty turbulent, so expect the need for sturdy shelters capable of thermo-regulation.

The luminosity of a Red Dwarf is no more than 10% of our sun’s, so it will be like living in perpetual twilight. Plants will need to photosynthesize much more efficiently, perhaps via black analogues of chlorophyll.

Life forms could have a very similar metabolisms to earthly organisms. But who knows they might not even be a carbon based lifeforms. Metabolisms are a function of the chemical environment they evolve in. Life that evolve in an ammonia rich atmosphere would be very different than on that evolved in a sulfur rich atmosphere.

I would think that they would evolve big, big eyes or light sensors.  It is logical to assume that their visual system would extend into the infrared end of the electromagnetic spectrum, since a red dwarf’s visible light emission peaks in the red portion of the spectrum.

They would not see colors like we do. They could see inside thick dust clouds, obscured galacticcores, and other hidden regions of the cosmos. These unique abilities are thanks to infrared light, a wavelength invisible to the human eye.

Space would look like this to them:

This is how they would see us humans:

How might they observe us?

In infrared our petty reasons for racism and xenophobic behavior completely vanishes.

Looking at us humans in the infrared like these aliens could, it would be impossible for them to understand our human failing of unenlightened racism. They would not see the superficial characteristic of white, black, red or yellow skin. In infrared we would all appear to be the same.

We are all the SAME even when not viewed in infrared but many people still do not understand that.

Their physical size and bodily configuration depends on the gravity of the planet.  Massive planet, massive life forms. Smaller planet, thinner lighter life forms. If there are aquatic life forms, they are probably on the level of algae and flagellates. Colors of organisms will be in the white to pale region.

Red Dwarfs are thought to have frequent stellar flares. If you’re caught outside at the start of one, you better have a radiation-resistant coat that will envelop you rapidly.

Check out the free-access special issue on “M star planet habitability” in the journal Astrobiology, http://www.liebertonline.com/toc…, in particular the paper by Tarter et al. NASA and NSF broadly agree, and are funding searches for planets in the M-dwarf habitable zone – have a look at the presentation by Bean at this year’s Exploring Strange New Worlds exoplanet conference – http://nexsci.caltech.edu/confer…

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06-08-2016 om 23:58 geschreven door peter  

Extraterrestrial Life Does Exist. Why Should They Be Hostile Towards Us?

When legendary broadcaster Orson Welles gave his suspenseful 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast, it caused a perhaps overblown but nonetheless real panic among Americans who mistook it for news reportage. And while “invaders from Mars” laying waste to the world now seems unlikely, scientists are worried that a similar broadcast in the future could be relating a real alien invasion — and not just one from across our porous southern border.

Astronomers have listened for signals from alien civilizations since 1960, when the Cornell University astronomer Frank Drake co-opted the national observatory at Green Bank, West Virginia, to launch Project Ozma. S.E.T.I Advocates are perhaps driven by frustration after 60 years of listening to the Cosmos and hearing nothing but cosmic crickets. But might our messages serve as a homing beacon for beings less like the cute E.T. and more akin to the rampaging aliens in Independence Day or Darth Vader and his Death Star? That’s the worry.

But is it a worry that is grounded in reality, no matter what Stephen Hawking might proclaim? It makes sense on some levels and then not on others. The only verifiable source of life which we have is our own bubble on Earth. So when reasoning by our own example…be afraid ….be very afraid.

Reason being is that life is very often hostile to other life. Look at the trials of life in nature and the trials of life in the newspapers. Mans inhumanity to man …. All Lives clearly do not matter.

Predators kill their prey. Many herbivores are highly aggressive and will attack and sometimes kill other animals (e.g. boars, hippopotamuses). Many animals fight, injure and potentially kill members of their own species (e.g. males fighting for mating rights). Chimpanzees go to war with other groups of chimpanzees. Anthills to go war with other anthills.

Look at humans. We are pretty damn hostile to other life – we’ve exterminated countless species, and other species we keep enslaved in conditions of horrendous suffering so that we can eat them (e.g. chickens, pigs).

This is not done out of deliberate malice. No one said: “Let’s go wipe out those damned dodos!” It is done out of convenience – an aggregate of small actions and in actions that each serves to make someone’s life nicer in the long or short run.

I saw a chart comparing species by the number of human deaths they’re responsible for in an average year. Sharks weighed in at the bottom of the list, with only 10 human casualties a year. Humans were about tied for first place with mosquitoes, each of them weighing in at close to a million. If you scoped a species like this flying around in the boundless expanse of the universe, wouldn’t your first impulse be to grab a can of Raid and let them have it?

But does it have to be that way?

What about the nature of any (hypothetical) extraterrestrial life? Does brawn win over brains? Does life take life all over the Universe?

Here are a few points to ponder:

1) One hypothesis points out that the incredible level of technology any space-faring species must have achieved indicates that it has successfully navigated its innate tendencies (if any) toward violence, evolving wisdom and social skills. A species like this would welcome with joy a new species — not kill it.

2) Another hypothesis points out that any extraterrestrial species is bound to be so different from us that we could never be able to achieve mutual understanding or even recognition. A species like this might be inimical to our interests — or even our survival — not because of hostility, but because of indifference or unawareness. They might exterminate us the way we blindly make other species extinct when they are under our radar. According to this theory, there is no special reason that they would consider humans (or any other earth species) as interesting — or even visible. In that case, they might bump us off accidentally while they used our atmosphere, for example, for some strange actions only they understand.

3) A third hypothesis suggests that the motives of an extraterrestrial species may be as alien to us as the motives of insects. They might ferociously pursue their horrifying goals of killing us for food or egg chambers or whatever. They may need all our organics, or all our females, or all our air or water. Or they may have inscrutable goals, but instantly fly into a screaming death attack — stopping at nothing, including machine gun fire — if, for example, we try to control the neat stacks of geometric prisms (which exude a deadly toxin) they are placing everywhere.

So extraterrestrial creatures may be benevolent, indifferent, or malevolent. On what basis can we make a prediction? On what evidence would we rely to assert a conclusion?

I can not provide any evidence but what I can provide is a point of view.

I am a firm believer that the more intelligent something is the more avenues, aspects, possibilities one can go through or mull over in any given situation. The smarter one is, the Universe becomes less and less black and white. Infinite shades of probability grey exist which are not available to creatures without advanced perceptions, advanced intelligence. The choice of violence and destruction is just one option in a ever increasing venue of options which is available for the advanced intellect. In that perspective I believe it will always be moreadvantageous to create then destroy. Advanced life will respect life in all its forms and handily work out any conflicts that may arise to create win-win scenarios. In the light of ever increasing accounts of UAP’s. This may be why we are still here and pondering such a question.

YOU must note that I am NOT referring to Humans, I am referring to INTELLIGENT life in the Universe.

We are not it. We have only been out of the proverbial caves for the most fleeting instant of cosmic deep time.

But who knows, I always reserve the right to be wrong…

If an alien species invades Earth and destroys or enslaves humanity, it will most likely not be out of malice but out of convenience. Grand Admiral Gorignax does not hate humans, but he reallywants that third conquest medal. His brother-in-law already has three conquest medals, and Mrs. Gorignax has been nagging him about it to no end. You don’t want little Gorignax Junior to go through the horrors of a divorce and custody battle, do you? I’m sorry, but in order to preserve this family, those humans will have to go.

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06-08-2016 om 23:50 geschreven door peter  

Assuming E.T. Can Control Gravity What Other Capabilities Can We Expect Them To Have?

The actual way that the universe works is the same everywhere, however, every intelligent life form will have a different understanding of it. Not only have our laws of physics changed over time, even today, different people have different interpretations of how things work. The more advanced a civilization becomes the closer their model of reality will match the actual universe.

While eventually any two independently developed set of laws of physics should converge, Their current similarity will depend both on how different they were to start with and how much progress has been made.

We don’t understand how gravity works. We understand the effects. It is an attractive force in three dimensions. The ‘fabric’ analogy is a tool to help us visualize what is happening. Space-Time is not real. It is a tool to help us figure out reality. We say gravity bends space time because we can understand that. In reality, nothing is bent, there is no ‘fabric’, and so far as we have discovered, there is no actual entity that we call ‘time.’ Time is another tool we use to help us figure out our reality and what is happening in our reality. Neither the time particle/wave nor the gravity particle/wave has been confirmed. It has been recently glimpsed but that is notconfirmation. Only the effects have been seen or discovered. Like a shadow, when we see it, we know that there is something blocking the light, but in the cases of time and gravity, when we look, we can not find the actual entity that is causing the effect.

Gravity control and inertia suggest that they might posses some form of reactionless drive. A reactionless drive is a device to generate motion without a propellant, presumably incontradiction to the law of conservation of momentum. The name comes from Newton’s third law, which is usually expressed as, “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” A large number of infeasible devices, such as the “Dean drive”, are a staple of science fiction, particularly for space propulsion. To date, no reactionless drive has ever been validated under properly controlled conditions. Since we do not have theory of quantum gravity it might be possible to construct such drive by an advanced intergalactic intelligence.

Since such feats would require lot of understanding of basic physical laws we can assume that any race with such capability have quantum theory of gravity and can exploit it to practical gains.

Having control over gravity permits interesting industrial processes to become possible. Assuming that one have not limitation over it one can imagine that the aliens could create what is essentially a “matter furnace” using gravity to create something like accretion disk allowing conversion matter to energy – far safer than antimatter power.

To be a master of gravity means you are a master of time as well. Times fiery arrow relentless chugging forward can be stopped in it’s tracks. Time would be putty in the hands of these advanced intelligence’s. They could stop time, stretch it and make it their plaything. They may not age and they may be timeless.

To control gravity is to control the Universe at a level at this time we can only dream of. It brings sources of propulsion and energy that would appear as magic to us hairless apes.

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06-08-2016 om 23:37 geschreven door peter  

Simple Solution To The Fermi Paradox

The Fermi paradox asks “if there are other advanced alien species, why haven’t we detected them?”. If you delve into this topic you will find a whole lot of utter nonsense written about Kardashev scales, Von Neumann probes and Dyson spheres as if those were even a thing.

Here’s the deal … Space is a really big place. Really really gi-friggin-normously big! One Light-year is $9.46\times {\mathrm{10^}}^{15}m$. Let’s call it 10,000,000,000,000 (10 trillion) km give or take.

The first part of the paradox is “why haven’t we heard from them?”

We can only observe objects at interstellar distances by measuring their light and radio emissions, i.e. electromagnetic radiation. EM radiation spreads out in spherically expanding waves, so the Inverse-square law predicts that EM intensity declines with the square of the distance from the source.

If we plug in some numbers we can see that in standard MKS units, if our hypothetical alienbuddies orbiting Proxima broadcast a signal of $1w/m^2$ toward us here on Earth it would decline to only $0.5\times {\mathrm{10^-}}^{34}w/m^2$ by the time it got here. We can multiply that by any output level we like to get the potential intensity of EM at that distance. For reference, the intensity of theCosmic microwave background radiation is about $3.7\times {\mathrm{10^}}^{-18}w/m^2$.

There are clever tricks that radio astronomers can use with arrays of receivers and by focusing on areas of the radio frequency spectrum that aren’t “naturally occurring”, but even so our alien civilization’s total output would be roughly 13-16 orders of magnitude below the cosmic microwave background. It’s likely none of their signal would be recoverable with our current technology. It is argued that ETs would be blasting a much more powerful signal our way. Perhaps they are, but even if they are shooting megawatts our way, it’s still going to be many orders below the cosmic microwave background when it gets here.

And why would they want to shout at us like that anyway? Here on Earth, there is no need to “shout”. Most of our terrestrial communicationsis broadcast within the atmosphere at signal strengths in the single digit integer watt range (there are spectacular exceptions like the Taldom transmitter in Russia). Very little of our radio noise leaks to space because it is intended for communication on Earth. It’s a safe bet the aliens would also use moderate to low power communications as well – if they even use EM at all. So even if they are “close” we probably wouldn’t notice.

The second part of the paradox is “why haven’t they visited us yet?”

Everywhere looks just like everywhere else in space. We have a hard time even detecting the existence of (Earth-sized) planets in the Goldilocks zone about nearby stars. Our smarter cousins may be better at it than us, but they suffer from the same tyranny of distance. Relativity dictates that nothing physical can travel at (or realistically, even close to) the speed of light. There may not be any aliens zipping along in starships.

At the kinds of speeds we can reach now (0.00023c) any star is more than ten thousand years away from us. If we could go a hundred times faster (say 0.01c), a trip to the Alpha Centauri group is 400-800 years (optimistically) because we have to accelerate and decelerate at the other end. Our ETs have the same physics we do and have to overcome the same limits. They might travel at higher speeds, but unless they are vastly more long lived than we are, they simply won’t survive the trip. But at 0.1c they might be in the ballpark.

Here is another take on this apparent paradox… 

Lets imagine that the chance of self-destruction for an advanced civilization is ~100% before they become capable of roaming the universe.

Here are some of the common musings which I think are wrong.

1) The Universe Is A Big Place

That doesn’t work. Whatever method we apply to compute how many life-friendly planets are out there, we always arrive at ridiculously large numbers. Considering time + statistics, that means many alien civilizations should exist right now that are highly evolved. If we take the human progress trajectory into the next 1000 years, it’s obvious that we will find ways to bridge very large distances quickly (much faster than light).

There would be tremendously powerful technology, and the first thing you do with this technology is to search for life. Even we with super-primitive tech know how to search for life (but we are lacking the hardware for expeditions).

2) Advanced Cultures Will Turn Inside, Not Outside

Unlikely. Whatever species wins the millions of years of selection will be expansive and aggressive by nature. This is not going away, ever, because that’s who we (and they) are – because if we wouldn’t, we wouldn’t exist.

The assumptions that advanced civilizations will remove the very core that defines who they are is flawed, people (and aliens) don’t do this. In fact, a conscious mind is very likely to be incapable of removing itself. Statistics and tech trajectories simply can’t explain why the universe isn’t humming with high tech aliens.

Unless we turn our attention to certain inevitable dynamics inside these civilizations. The chance an advanced civilization self-destructs before it reaches universe roaming capability approximates 100%.  I call it the self-destruction paradigm.

Here is my reasoning and some number games:

Let’s safely assume that every alien high tech civilization reaches a point where it can easily self-destruct. Humanity reached that point in the 20th century. And it’s getting exponentially worse with every day.

Let’s define self-destruction as a civilizational regression back to a point where high tech space travel becomes difficult – a major set back in terms of science, culture and technology. Like a nuclear war, artificial intelligence nightmare or disintegration of the planetary ecosystem.

Let’s also assume that with increasing technology, the number of people needed to initiate self-destruction becomes exponentially smaller: in 1950, you needed one of 2 major countries to initiate human self destruction. Today, you need not more than a network of 100, maybe 1000 bad guys who hack their way towards a few dozen nukes. In the close future, one hacker who creates a self-conscious, evil artificial intelligence. In his basement might be enough.

Now, let’s consider the time between the point at that a civilization reaches self-destructioncapability, and the point at that it could freely roam and screen the universe for alien life.

It’s very hard to exactly estimate this timeline, but it will be quite significant. Let’s say 10,000 years, assuming truly exponential technology growth.

Now, what are the odds that the civilization will self-destruct within this timeline?

Pretty quickly (given exponential scales), a very small number of people – maybe every single member – of the civilization will have the power to destroy the civilization. To make things easier to compute, let’s assume it’s in average 100 hundred people who have to collude to self-destruct. We can also safely assume perfect connectivity between all members, except for the very first decades.

Let’s also assume, based on humanity, an average population of 100 billion people (we are already at 7 billion, so 100 billion average over the next 10,000 years is quite low).

This means all it takes is 100 people out of 100 billion to collude to self-destruct the civilization – and it only has to happen once during these 10,000 years. Let’s assume it takes one month for the evil group to plot and execute the self-destruction (also very lenient given that most of the time they will have super-artificial intelligence at their disposal).

That’s right: you have to make sure continuously over 10,000 x 12 months = 120,000 months that no group of 100 out of 100 billion people decides to go wild, ever.

It’s also pretty safe to assume that there is no security system in the world to prevent them from doing it, since this level of control is hard to imagine. Maybe there are some safety measures in place to screen for deviants, but at this scale, it’s a problem.

So basically this civilization must reach a level of wisdom, foresight and absolutely flawless caring-for-each-other system that out of 100 billion, there will never be 100 people who are pissed or crazy enough to destroy the civilization.

It might be possible to build a wisdom infrastructure like this, but it’s a herculean task.

And I think that all advanced alien civilizations so far have failed to achieve it.

Humanity is utterly unprepared to live up to this task. Fortunately, it will take another 100 or so years before we reach levels of easy universally accessible self-destruction capability. Unfortunately, 100 years is not a lot of time to invent a new wisdom infrastructure that ensures not a single member of the human race has a reason to go crazy.

You can think about the self-destruction paradigm both theoretically / mathematically and from a concrete threat assessment perspective. Combine exponential biotech, physics engineering, AI and software with terrorism and plot it on a 30 year trajectory from today, and you already get a feeling of the problem. Now do it over the next 100 years, and the problem becomes an existential, high-probability threat.

As I eluded to before – self-destruction doesn’t always mean total annihilation.

But if you get set back 10% of the total every 100 years, you can’t go beyond 1000 years of advancement. And you will never roam the universe freely and scan for aliens everywhere, even though it’s so close on your tech trajectory.

I don’t think the “paradox” is a paradox at all. It is based on wildly optimistic assumptions about the ease of detection of alien signals. SETI has been processing radio-telescope data for decades without a single result. We have reasonable lower bounds for the distance to possible civilizations that are most likely 2-10 times as far as Proxima. There’s no reason at all to believe alien civilizations are just dying to get here and meet us.

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06-08-2016 om 23:30 geschreven door peter  

NASA WARNS: Asteroid Could Hit Earth causing ‘Immense Suffering And Death’

No, it’s not YET ANOTHER conspiracy theory, Armageddon propaganda or end-of-the-world story, but it seems that NASA is worried about the 500-meter Asteroid which is why the Space Agency will send a probe to visit the potential Armageddon asteroid and study it in detail.

---

 

If the Asteroid impacts Earth, it would be similar to setting off 3 BILLION tons of explosive.

 

An asteroid named Bennu which can be seen from Earth as it crosses our orbit every six years could potentially cause ‘Immense Suffering And Death’, and NASA is planning to build a space probe in order to collect rock samples from the Asteroid in fears it may collide with our planet.

 

The asteroid which is around 500 meters in diameters and traveling around the sun at 63,000 miles-per-hor will pass between the Earth and the moon in the year 2135.

 

• “That 2135 fly-by is going to tweak Bennu’s orbit, potentially putting it on course for the Earth later that century,” Dante Lauretta, professor of planetary science at Arizona University, told The Sunday Times

 

“It may be destined to cause immense suffering and death,” he added.

 

While researchers will have a hard time prediction how close the approach of the asteroid between the Earth and the moon will be and how much its orbit will be affected by the fly-by near Earth, Lauretta estimates that it COULD SHIFT the asteroid onto a COLLISION course with Earth.

 

‘We estimate the chance of impact at about one in 2,700 between 2175 and 2196,’ said Dante Lauretta.

 

The OSRIS-Rex space probe is set to launch in September and land on the asteroid in 2018. According to researchers, it will spend one year on the surface of Bennu, and it will collect samples of rock before heading back to Earth in 2023.

 

 

If the Asteroid impacts Earth, it would be similar to setting off 3 BILLION tons of explosive.

 

If the mission goes through successfully, it will be the FIRST to visit an asteroid and return with samples to Earth.

 

According to Lauretta, samples from the asteroid could provide ‘vital data for future generations’.

 

In order to pick up a sample and head back to Earth, the spacecraft will ‘hover’ over a targeted area where it will lower itself at 10 centimeters per second and will remain in touch with the surface for only five seconds, while it vacuums the target area collecting samples from the asteroid.

 

Scientists will take advantage of the asteroid-visiting mission and study the building blocks of life by researching the minerals located beneath the surface of Bennu.

 

Hopefully, this isn’t anywhere similar to the story of the movie Armageddon, but if it is, will someone please gather the boys and girls from the film and give Bruce Willis a call?

 

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06-08-2016 om 22:36 geschreven door peter  

Russians Knew Aliens Existed In 1969

06-08-2016 om 22:28 geschreven door peter