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NASA scientists look for advanced aliens in 100,000 galaxies - no evidence
Posted on 4/14/15 at 5:45 pm
Posted on 4/14/15 at 5:45 pm
quote:
STATE COLLEGE, Pa., April 14 (UPI) -- For more than a year, scientists at NASA and elsewhere have suggested hard evidence of alien life, if it is out there, would be discovered within 20 years. But newly discovered life forms are likely to be primitive. A recent survey of some 100,000 galaxies turned up no evidence of advanced alien civilizations. Researchers at Penn State University analyzed data from NASA's WISE observatory, a space-based infrared telescope, for data that might suggest the presence of faraway alien empires. Their analysis turned up no sure signs. "The idea behind our research is that, if an entire galaxy had been colonized by an advanced spacefaring civilization, the energy produced by that civilization's technologies would be detectable in mid-infrared wavelengths -- exactly the radiation that the WISE satellite was designed to detect for other astronomical purposes," lead investigator Jason T. Wright, an assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the Penn State's Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds, explained in a press release.
quote:
"Whether an advanced spacefaring civilization uses the large amounts of energy from its galaxy's stars to power computers, space flight, communication, or something we can't yet imagine, fundamental thermodynamics tells us that this energy must be radiated away as heat in the mid-infrared wavelengths," Wright said. "This same basic physics causes your computer to radiate heat while it is turned on."
Fermi Paradox anyone?
This post was edited on 4/14/15 at 5:49 pm
10
Posted on 4/14/15 at 5:48 pm to weagle99
So all they've learned is that as far as we can tell, no alien civilization has conquered an entire galaxy? Galaxy's are huge, there could easily be an advanced civilization in another galaxy that would never know about.
Posted on 4/14/15 at 5:50 pm to Slayer103
Conquering a galaxy all plays into singularity, time, and other topics in my view.
Posted on 4/14/15 at 5:52 pm to weagle99
quote:
100,000 galaxies
I guess there is no need to check the other 200,000,000,000.
Posted on 4/14/15 at 5:54 pm to weagle99
Absence of Evidence =/= Evidence of Absence
Posted on 4/14/15 at 5:54 pm to weagle99
From how far away? These are millions of lightyears away. Which just means they didn't colonize a galaxy (ridiculous criteria, but that aside) millions of years ago.
If an alien race only a thousand lightyears away looked at earth, they would see no energy or radio waves either.
If an alien race only a thousand lightyears away looked at earth, they would see no energy or radio waves either.
Posted on 4/14/15 at 5:56 pm to Slayer103
quote:
Galaxy's are huge, there could easily be an advanced civilization in another galaxy that would never know about.
Not to mention extremely far away. They're looking millions to billions of light years away.
Posted on 4/14/15 at 5:57 pm to xXLSUXx
Right. But this is still an interesting data point nonetheless.
Again, start thinking about this in terms of billions of years, singularity, 3d printing / self replication etc.
Again, start thinking about this in terms of billions of years, singularity, 3d printing / self replication etc.
Posted on 4/14/15 at 5:59 pm to weagle99
quote:And what does this thinking tell us? We don't have technology to search with the necessary level of specificity within galaxies, let alone the billions of galaxies we can't search at all. It really isn't a very interesting data point since it's obvious given our limitations.
Right. But this is still an interesting data point nonetheless.
Again, start thinking about this in terms of billions of years, singularity, 3d printing / self replication etc.
Posted on 4/14/15 at 6:03 pm to buckeye_vol
I'm not going to bother since your mind appears made up.
Posted on 4/14/15 at 6:05 pm to weagle99
Only 99,000,900,000 to go.
Posted on 4/14/15 at 6:06 pm to weagle99
Alright, what about retarded aliens?
Posted on 4/14/15 at 6:08 pm to weagle99
Its pretty weird to think about a scenario, but probably not outside the realm of possibility, where the universe is full of life, yet so old and vast, that very advanced civilizations rise and fall without ever meeting in space and time.
You could probably take a Drake equation amount of life forms, spread them out so thin not only in distance, but in time that they never meet. Crazy stuff.
Maybe we missed someone by a million, billion, or trillion years in our sector.
You could probably take a Drake equation amount of life forms, spread them out so thin not only in distance, but in time that they never meet. Crazy stuff.
Maybe we missed someone by a million, billion, or trillion years in our sector.
This post was edited on 4/14/15 at 6:09 pm
Posted on 4/14/15 at 6:08 pm to weagle99
quote:I really don't know what thinking in terms of "singularity" entails.
I'm not going to bother since your mind appears made up.
All I know is before this news came out, if you have asked me, do we have the technology to extensively search for life in other galaxies, I would have said probably not. So this news is unsurprising.
You seem to have a different way of framing this, so why don't you expand upon that?
This post was edited on 4/14/15 at 6:10 pm
Posted on 4/14/15 at 6:10 pm to buckeye_vol
quote:
I really don't know own what thinking in terms of "singularity" entails.
He's talking about that if life advances to the point of theorized future states, where intelligent life basically "runs amok" across the universe in capability at exponential rates, that you'd think we'd see some evidence of a lifeform/intelligence that has already made it that far, but we don't.
This post was edited on 4/14/15 at 6:11 pm
Posted on 4/14/15 at 6:12 pm to Dandy Lion
I bet there are dinosaurs on some planet out there
Posted on 4/14/15 at 6:13 pm to weagle99
Yet these same scientists are still finding things in our solar system. Amazing they can look so far away and deduct there is no advanced life, so far. 
Posted on 4/14/15 at 6:14 pm to Teddy Ruxpin
quote:I've heard this, but it's seems like pure conjecture and speculation on what will happen in a universe we know little about, relatively speaking. It's an interesting thought experiment, but it's a thought experiment based on our limited understanding of the universe.
He's talking about that if life advances to the point of theorized future states, where intelligent life basically "runs amok" across the universe in capability, that you'd think we'd see some evidence of a lifeform/intelligence that has already made it that far, but we don't.
Posted on 4/14/15 at 6:16 pm to Sparkplug#1
quote:
Yet these same scientists are still finding things in our solar system. Amazing they can look so far away and deduct there is no advanced life, so far.
Hello, End of Thread. Nice to meet you.
Posted on 4/14/15 at 6:16 pm to buckeye_vol
The idea is that given enough time or the development of a benevolent singularity a civilization can develop the ability to colonize an entire galaxy. Sounds crazy at first but IIRC the numbers say that with self replicating probes it would be possible to colonize the Milky Way in something like 100,000 years.
Remember we are talking about millions, and billions of years here.
With an adversarial singularity the timeline could shorten. One of the real fears with developing a true AI is that entity will turn the galaxy into a big paperclip factory or similar (I am not making that up).
I find this latest information interesting because it appears for the individual points of time in those specific galaxies it appears no civilizations existed who were capable of 'taming' their home galaxy. That's all.
Lots of good reading on AI and Fermi at waitbutwhy.com.
Remember we are talking about millions, and billions of years here.
With an adversarial singularity the timeline could shorten. One of the real fears with developing a true AI is that entity will turn the galaxy into a big paperclip factory or similar (I am not making that up).
I find this latest information interesting because it appears for the individual points of time in those specific galaxies it appears no civilizations existed who were capable of 'taming' their home galaxy. That's all.
Lots of good reading on AI and Fermi at waitbutwhy.com.
This post was edited on 4/14/15 at 6:18 pm
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