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![]() Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 998 Credit: 9,101,544 RAC: 65 ![]() ![]() |
MeerKAT, a scientific mega-project to unlock cosmic conundrums from dark energy to detecting extraterrestrial life was given a boost on Friday, July 11, when the 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope was inaugurated in the remote South African town of Carnarvon. Built at a cost of 4.4 billion rand, MeerKAT will be incorporated into the complex Square Kilometre Array (SKA). https://www.rawstory.com/2018/07/south-africas-meerkat-help-unlock-mysteries-universe/ ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 998 Credit: 9,101,544 RAC: 65 ![]() ![]() |
NASA Probe Primed; 20,000 Worlds Await Bill Retherford - Jul 14, 2018 https://www.forbes.com/sites/billretherford/2018/07/14/for-nasas-tess-the-search-starts-soon/#6b43e1b31315 The robotic spacecraft, launched 12 weeks ago, is now locked into “final science orbit,†says NASA’s Padi Boyd. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 9 May 10 Posts: 3359 Credit: 4,182,900 RAC: 10 ![]() |
NASA Probe Primed; 20,000 Worlds Await It is so cool to see images like this. Many people have no idea of just how many stars there are. They look up at night and see only the few hundred that are visible to the naked eye and think that's all there are. Bob DeWoody My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events. |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 25 Dec 00 Posts: 29149 Credit: 53,134,872 RAC: 32 ![]() ![]() |
NASA Probe Primed; 20,000 Worlds Await Unfortunately most of us now live in areas with terrible light pollution and can't even see the milky way anymore. |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 5 Nov 00 Posts: 12094 Credit: 6,317,865 RAC: 0 ![]() |
That's right. The only Milky Way I can see is the one in my candy bar drawer. ![]() |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 24 Jan 00 Posts: 26175 Credit: 261,360,520 RAC: 489 ![]() ![]() |
That's what the sky looks like here on a clear night with the street lights out (if the street lights are on then a 3km drive will soon fix that). ;-) Cheers. |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 25 Oct 06 Posts: 3756 Credit: 1,999,735 RAC: 4 ![]() |
Wiggo, Can you send us a picture of the Southern Cross from Down Under ? |
![]() Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 998 Credit: 9,101,544 RAC: 65 ![]() ![]() |
Is there anybody out there? "There are 100 billion stars in our Galaxy – surely we can’t be the only intelligent lifeform out there? In this week’s Science Focus Podcast we ask Mike Garrett what we’ll do if we find them, and what it means for us as humans." 12th July 2018 #podcast #SETI http://www.sciencefocus.com/article/space/science-focus-podcast-mike-garrett-bluedot-extraterrestial-communication-seti?utm_content=buffer014c0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Michael Watson Send message Joined: 7 Feb 08 Posts: 1302 Credit: 2,098,506 RAC: 5 |
Listened to the entire podcast. Mike Garrett thinks that intelligent life is rare in the galaxy, chiefly because we've found no evidence of it in our SETI searches. I consider this is a premature conclusion. As Dr. Jill Tarter has said, the SETI work done so far is like scooping a glass of water out of the ocean. If we find no fish in that glass, should we conclude, she asks, that there are no fish in the ocean? On that basis, it doesn't appear that even the rarity of fish, or extraterrestrials, can be established. An example of this inadequacy of our cumulative SETI investigations: Mike Garrett remarks, in passing, that there is no evidence for Dyson spheres around any stars we have observed. This is incorrect. A good many stars have been found that are dimmer in visible light than expected, given their distances and spectral types, and where there is no ready astrophysical explanation for this. Since a Dyson sphere would absorb much of a star's visible light, this constitutes evidence for Dyson spheres. What is keeping this from being a scientific headline? Our current observations are not yet good enough to rule out all possible natural causes. We need to dip out many more glasses of water from the ocean before we can say that there are or are not Dyson spheres in our galaxy. |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 5 Nov 00 Posts: 12094 Credit: 6,317,865 RAC: 0 ![]() |
That was a great listen! Thank you for posting it. My takeaways are these: They didn't really address the degradation of our inadvertent radio signals, like tv transmissions, over interstellar space. He made a good point about the speed of light and how it's fast for our earthly purposes, but in the grand scheme of things it's kind of slow. Another good point was about why we don't have better pictures nowadays of UFO's with so many people carrying mobile phones around that have pretty good camera systems in them. I also liked the point about the discovery of an alien signal or contact being so different than what we may expect that our preparations for response may be very inadequate. ![]() |
![]() Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 998 Credit: 9,101,544 RAC: 65 ![]() ![]() |
An interesting newspiece from Michael: The new Canadian CHIME radio telescope has detected another of those strange Fast Radio Bursts, this time at a substantially lower radio frequency than ever before. As the linked article, below, points out, it can not be ruled out at this time, that FRBs are the work of a very advanced, very distant civilization in space. ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 998 Credit: 9,101,544 RAC: 65 ![]() ![]() |
Are we alone? The question is worthy of serious scientific study, says scientist Kevin Knuth June 28, 2018 https://theconversation.com/are-we-alone-the-question-is-worthy-of-serious-scientific-study-98843 One of the most pertinent articles referenced in aforementioned article: Groundbreaking UFO Video Released By Chilean Navy - 01/05/2017 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/groundbreaking-ufo-video-just-released-from-chilean_us_586d37bce4b014e7c72ee56b ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 25 Oct 06 Posts: 3756 Credit: 1,999,735 RAC: 4 ![]() |
If it can't be ruled out as not coming from an advanced civilization then I would like to know why. Either:
It is easily explained by cosmic phenomena that we apparently haven't seen before or can't figure out. It is a repeating phenomena that is used by the putative civilization to manage their everyday affairs It is hype to keep the money flowing in.
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![]() Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 998 Credit: 9,101,544 RAC: 65 ![]() ![]() |
Alas, even if pro-ufologist supporters have a valid argument (absence of evidence isn't evidence of absence), they face an even more formidable rational and methodological principle: Ockham's razor. And, until further extraordinary proofs and evidence are presented, that's where the energy/ressources chips should fall. If it can't be ruled out as not coming from an advanced civilization then I would like to know why. Either: ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Michael Watson Send message Joined: 7 Feb 08 Posts: 1302 Credit: 2,098,506 RAC: 5 |
If it can't be ruled out as not coming from an advanced civilization then I would like to know why. Either: As far as Fast Radio Bursts are concerned, they can not be readily explained by our current knowledge of the universe. Future knowledge may offer an astrophysical explanation, but this is purely speculative. At least one Fast Radio Burst has already been observed to repeat itself, which must argue very strongly against the favorite explanations. These involve catastrophic processes associated with one or more 'black holes'. The Fast Radio Bursts last mere milliseconds. It's doubtful that most radio astronomy observations to date were made with sufficiently short integration times to discern signals contained in the bursts, should they actually be present. Two scientists have produced a paper suggesting the possibility that the FRBs are energy beams intended to power space vessels. |
![]() ![]() Send message Joined: 27 Oct 00 Posts: 1338 Credit: 2,970,814 RAC: 0 ![]() |
But how we can hope to extract any message from a transmission ? We need to suppose the alien sender is an english mathematician ! And if not ? And how we can sure it has been translated to binaries... and made by a radio frenquency modulator ? i know some are considaring there is only one mathematic (our way to do maths) maybe alien found another way. same as communicating... and transmitting ... and code and decode... etc etc etc... In middle age we thought we were the center of universe... which was false. And if alien found other ways ? Other ways to make maths, to binary, to code/decode, to transmit... Maybe our way to think and our way to make things we thought are still The center of the Universe ! Not because we are doing things our way thats the only way!! There is an obligation of: if there are another civilisation in the universe it cannot be different ^^ Maybe it is false too LOL maybe we arent the Center of the Universe in that category too :) |
![]() Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 998 Credit: 9,101,544 RAC: 65 ![]() ![]() |
The Galaxy Is Soaked with Water-Rich Alien Planets - Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | August 22, 2018 https://www.space.com/41575-alien-planets-water-worlds-common.html "Water worlds" are incredibly common throughout the Milky Way galaxy, a new study suggests. ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 998 Credit: 9,101,544 RAC: 65 ![]() ![]() |
Another way to search for biosignatures of alien life—the material blasted out of asteroid impacts August 22, 2018 by Matt Williams https://phys.org/news/2018-08-biosignatures-alien-lifethe-material-blasted.html "By studying the ejecta from an impact event, we could learn something about the geology and habitability of the exoplanet and potentially detect a biosphere. The method is the only way I know to access the subsurface of an exoplanet. In this sense, the impact can be seen as a drilling experiment provided by nature. Our study shows that dust produced in an impact event is in principle detectable, and future telescopes might be able to constrain the composition of the dust, and therefore the composition of the planet." ![]() ![]() ![]() |
![]() Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 998 Credit: 9,101,544 RAC: 65 ![]() ![]() |
Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to Get a $5.8 Million Antenna Upgrade by Mindy Weisberger, Live Science Senior Writer | August 17, 2018 https://www.space.com/41519-arecibo-observatory-alpaca-antenna-upgrade.html The National Science Foundation (NSF) just awarded $5.8 million in funding to add a new "supersensitive antenna" to the 1,000-foot (305 meters) telescope dish. ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Dr Who Fan ![]() Send message Joined: 8 Jan 01 Posts: 2526 Credit: 715,342 RAC: 4 ![]() |
To Study the Stars, This Town Went Off the Grid Worlds collide in Green Bank, West Virginia, which sits deep inside a radio-free zone established in 1958. |
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