Are we not far away from discovering alien life

[Spook187]

I dunno, woke up a few days ago, looked across the bed and could have sworn they were already here.

Does the wife know you said that about her

 

[Cosimo]

Does the wife know you said that about her

I'd be on a long journey looking for an exoplanet if she had.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

So I am ready to meet aliens and handle the truth. When will US government disclosure the existence of aliens and declassified all documents all agencies and NSA kept since 1947?

Hmm, perhaps because there isn't any.
There are loads of documents obviously but all tosh.

 

[Rroff]

No known human technology is capable of photographing a planet 39 light-years away. Not even vaguely close to it. Not the Hubble telescope. Not anything else. You have been told things that aren't true.

If 2 (or more) gas giants (at the upper end of observed size) were orbiting a star on the dimmer end of the scale (absolute magnitude) in just the right place and with the aid of gravitational lensing you'd get a pretty good image of one of them at 39ly with today's tech. Unfortunately to my knowledge there is only 1 instance so far discovered anything remotely like that and its 170+ly.

Sadly direct imaging of an earth like exoplanet (in anything like detail beyond like 1 coloured pixel) is some way off yet

EDIT: Think the best we have so far are PSO J318.5-22 (6x the size of Jupiter and no star light to deal with) at about 19 pixels worth of resolution in the infrared and Beta Pictoris b at about 16 pixel worth heh.

 

[Angilion]

If 2 (or more) gas giants (at the upper end of observed size) were orbiting a star on the dimmer end of the scale (absolute magnitude) in just the right place and with the aid of gravitational lensing you'd get a pretty good image of one of them at 39ly with today's tech. Unfortunately to my knowledge there is only 1 instance so far discovered anything remotely like that and its 170+ly.

Sadly direct imaging of an earth like exoplanet (in anything like detail beyond like 1 coloured pixel) is some way off yet

EDIT: Think the best we have so far are PSO J318.5-22 (6x the size of Jupiter and no star light to deal with) at about 19 pixels worth of resolution in the infrared and Beta Pictoris b at about 16 pixel worth heh.

An astronomer's idea of "a pretty good image" is quite a bit different to common usage

The context was photos of other planets showing the technology of the aliens living on them. So at the very least the photos would have to show a space station. Even showing the lights of a city wouldn't really cut it in that context, since that requires the interpretation that a lit area is a city. A Dyson sphere would be big enough, but we couldn't see that even if it is possible to build one and some people somewhere have done so.

 

[Jason_Sturgess]

My view is like this ! Earth is just a massive science experiment , ( Imagen we are inside a snowball ) The galaxy & Space is just a wall stopping us from going anywhere , I don't believe there is any other life , look at all the amazing Animals and creatures we have on earth , If you want to find Aliens just look at what we have on this planet. we don't need to look any where else but here.

 

[Kutter]

Also dont forget alien civilizations may have visited earth millions or billions of years ago. Some stars exploded before man even existed and they could have had planets with intelligent life. The universe is an old place.

 

[sityeuropa]

My view is like this ! Earth is just a massive science experiment , ( Imagen we are inside a snowball ) The galaxy & Space is just a wall stopping us from going anywhere , I don't believe there is any other life , look at all the amazing Animals and creatures we have on earth , If you want to find Aliens just look at what we have on this planet. we don't need to look any where else but here.

How close minded you are.

You should learn a bit more about the vastness of space. All the atoms on Earth are elsewhere in the solar system. The ingredients are there. The only question is how common is the start up of that self replicating single cell.

 

[Captain]

I refuse to believe that in the vastness of the universe we are alone, we just can't be. It really is fascinating to think and read about, shame I'll never leave earth.

 

[doofer]

I quite like the idea of inter-dimensional and parallel Universe 'Inner Space' visitors rather than light years away vast distance travelling 'Aliens'.

Everything is an illusion anyway, you create absolutely everything in your own mind, nothing existed until you became sentient and thought of it and everything will cease to exist when you die, it's all just an elaborate hologram you created.

I also found this 'Other-Worldly visitation' the other day quite amusing too http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36189614

 

[hargi]

Did they get any further with this http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/alien-mega...nd-distant-star-wouldnt-be-surprising-1527367

 

[Rroff]

There were a couple of talks (one of them a TED talk IIRC) on it more recently I believe - so far they've found holes in just about every theory and nothing that nicely fits even "aliens" but still can't rule out it being aliens.

 

[mrk]

This is a good read: http://futurism.com/proof-aliens-definitely/

“To me, this implies that other intelligent, technology producing species very likely have evolved before us,” says Frank. “Think of it this way: before our result you’d be considered a pessimist if you imagined the probability of evolving a civilization on a habitable planet were, say, one in a trillion. But even that guess, one chance in a trillion, implies that what has happened here on Earth with humanity has in fact happened about 10 billion other times over cosmic history!”

So the number is cosmically small, but the number still exists.

 

[datalol-jack]

This is a good read: http://futurism.com/proof-aliens-definitely/



So the number is cosmically small, but the number still exists.

What's infinitesimal to the cosmos is a cosmos to a man.

 

[mrk]

Imagine a time when we're exploring beyond the solar system and one of our AI controlled robotic probes discovers ancient artefacts on the surface of another planet belonging to an extinct civilisation from millions/billions of years ago?

Well, no point imagining, we will all be dead then

 

[Rannoch]

Each year when I look at The Pillars of Creation through my telescope, I get the feeling there is life right there in The Eagle Nebula.

 

[Rroff]

Each year when I look at The Pillars of Creation through my telescope, I get the feeling there is life right there in The Eagle Nebula.

Is that not a star breeding region with a lot of things that make it somewhat incompatible with most forms of life?

What kind of image do you get of it through a telescope? keep contemplating getting some kind of setup but never get around to actually doing anything about it.

 

[datalol-jack]

Imagine a time when we're exploring beyond the solar system and one of our AI controlled robotic probes discovers ancient artefacts on the surface of another planet belonging to an extinct civilisation from millions/billions of years ago?

Well, no point imagining, we will all be dead then

There are alternatives; alternatives with questions, but alternatives nonetheless: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma_(video_game). Though if we're already in a virtual reality the point is moot.

 

[Rannoch]

Is that not a star breeding region with a lot of things that make it somewhat incompatible with most forms of life?

What kind of image do you get of it through a telescope? keep contemplating getting some kind of setup but never get around to actually doing anything about it.

I view it visually. The nebula is vast but the pillars are a sight to behold, small as they look.