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Pierre A Renaud 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/ Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020 |
Pierre A Renaud 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. Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020 |
Bob DeWoody Send message Joined: 9 May 10 Posts: 3387 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. |
Gary Charpentier Send message Joined: 25 Dec 00 Posts: 30608 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. |
Gordon Lowe 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. The mind is a weird and mysterious place |
Wiggo Send message Joined: 24 Jan 00 Posts: 34744 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. |
William Rothamel 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 ? |
Pierre A Renaud 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 Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020 |
Michael Watson Send message Joined: 7 Feb 08 Posts: 1383 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. |
Gordon Lowe 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. The mind is a weird and mysterious place |
Pierre A Renaud 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. Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020 |
Pierre A Renaud 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 Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020 |
William Rothamel 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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Pierre A Renaud 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: Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020 |
Michael Watson Send message Joined: 7 Feb 08 Posts: 1383 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. |
Pierre A Renaud 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. Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020 |
Pierre A Renaud 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." Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020 |
Pierre A Renaud 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. Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020 |
Dr Who Fan Send message Joined: 8 Jan 01 Posts: 3194 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. |
Pierre A Renaud Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 998 Credit: 9,101,544 RAC: 65 |
An Answer To Fermi's Paradox - Aug 22, 2018, Bill Retherford https://www.forbes.com/sites/billretherford/2018/08/22/an-answer-to-fermis-paradox/#78132e0c4aed A new theory suggests why we haven’t heard from anyone: The aliens live underwater—locked away in the immense underground oceans of their home planets, beneath miles of rock or ice, with no way to reach us. Apr 3, 1999 - May 3, 2020 |
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