The Aliens : Examining The Dark Forest Theory, The Mystery of Oumuamua, and The Fermi Paradox

At the end of April, the normally closed military of the United States suddenly made a surprising statement. For several years, leaked footage of US military aircraft pilots meeting with UFOs has spread in cyberspace, and even managed to keep circulating on Youtube. Suddenly, at the end of April 2020, the US military who was entrenched in the Pentagon admitted that the meeting in the video was real and true.

In other words, they acknowledge the existence of UFOs and aliens. This adds to the surprise we have had in 2020. But what about your own opinion? Do you really believe in aliens?

Our planet is unique. Earth, our blue planet is endowed with life, while other planets are hit by the cold of winter like Mars, Neptune, or Pluto or even burned by the heat of the sun, like Venus and Mercury. But is our planet really unique? Could there be other planets with other life out there? Given how vast the universe is, the answer might be yes.

However, that brings us to another question, if there are other lives, where are they now? Why haven't we seen their existence until now? The answer may scare us.

To get started with this article, I'll first cover the Drake Equation. Maybe you are already familiar with the math equations you usually learn in school. But did you know there is a mathematical formula that can be used to calculate the number of alien life out there? This equation was first coined by mathematician Frank Drake in 1961 to calculate the probability of the number of alien civilizations out there. The formula Drake used at the time was this:

I will not discuss this formula further, but surprisingly, from the results of Drake's calculations, the results obtained are at least 1000 and a maximum of 100 million alien civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy alone. And that's just one galaxy. There are an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the universe, so you just have to multiply them.

This brings us to the next term I would like to introduce to you, which is the Fermi Paradox.

The Fermi paradox

While working at the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory in the United States, veteran physicist Enrico Fermi asked his fellow scientists in casual, casual conversations in the middle of summer. If there are so many alien lives out there, where are they today? Why didn't they visit us or at least send us an inquiry? I will explain what a probe is, but first I will make a presumption to better understand this Fermi Paradox.

If you are now in the US and say in your entire life, you have never been abroad. But you will find that a country called Germany does exist. Why do you know Have you never been there Maybe you answered that you have seen a film about Germany, or maybe you have met a real German who has been here. These things prove that Germany does exist even if you've never been there and seen it in person.

It's the same with alien life. Imagine showing a German film that makes us believe that Germany really exists, is a kind of radio wave as a kind of communication from aliens. Why haven't we received any transmissions from them that prove they exist? Or even more extreme, why haven't they visited us yet? Not just passing UFOs in blurry photos or videos, but actually visiting delegates to communicate with us?

Maybe there are some who think: OK, maybe the technology is not advanced? Humans themselves are creatures with less sophisticated technology, you know. Imagine, with our modern technology alone, it took 9 years for a NASA plane called New Horizon to reach Pluto.

I will make another assumption to refute this. Imagine your workspace. There must be all kinds of people with different abilities. Some may not understand their job well, some have mediocre abilities, and there must be someone who is the brightest person in the class who is always an exemplary employee. You can also apply this to aliens. If Drake's equations are correct and there are 100 million alien life in our own galaxy, why isn't anyone technologically advanced?

Maybe you can answer again, okay. Maybe because Bang is far away. Yes, it is true that the distance between one solar system and another solar system can reach millions or even trillions of kilometers. But then again, it's possible that alien civilizations on other planets have developed interstellar transport systems so sophisticated that distance is not a problem. Imagine the technology on our planet is like a rickshaw that travels so slowly, but in other parts of the world, there is Japan already developing the super fast Shinkansen.

If there is truly sophisticated alien life out there, why is it silent? Why is there no sign at all? Where are they? It is the same as a forest which has millions of animals, but not one is seen or heard. Isn't that strange?

As a result of this silence in the universe, Fermi's Paradox is often called the Great Silence, because it is as if we are alone here, without any other sign of life. If there really are so many aliens out there, then our universe must be noisy, like a factory full of people at work.

One theory to answer the Fermi Paradox is called the Dark Forest theory and it is very unpleasant to hear.

The Dark Forest Theory

The Dark Forest Theory presupposes the universe as a very dense forest and every alien civilization is a group of soldiers sneaking in the forest. Each soldier should walk quietly and try his best not to make a sound. Why? Because if they communicate or just make a sound, the enemy will immediately detect it.

This is the scariest explanation for why the alien civilizations on this planet have never shown themselves to us. Because they are afraid and hiding.

But afraid of what? Why are they hiding on purpose? Are there any intergalactic forces or a species of ferocious alien race out there destroying planet after planet so they have to go into hiding?

We need to admit, maybe (if there were) not all aliens out there are friendly and peace-loving. There may be an alien race that is cruel. If that's the case, should we hide and not tell the aliens of our existence outside? It seems a little late.

We're back to Frank Drake. Amazed by the results of the unexpected equations, he was assisted by the famous astronomer Carl Sagan to design the Arecibo Message in 1974. The message contained what human physical form was, our DNA formula, to the position of our planet in the solar system. The message is then sent using radio waves into space using the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. The goal, so that aliens out there know where we are.

Arecibo's message is said to have been questioned by top physicist Stephen Hawkings, who said that inviting aliens to our planet was a grave mistake. He gave an example of the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the American continent which caused the extinction of ancient civilizations there, the Indians who were finally driven from their homes because they were seized by white people, to the death of millions of Native Americans as a result of contracting smallpox brought from Europe. And this brings us to Oumuamua.

The Mystery of Oumuamua

In 2017, an astronomer named Robert Weryk working at an observatory in Hawaii discovered a strange celestial body. At first he thought it was a comet. However, because there is no tail of the celestial body, it is concluded that it is an asteroid. Since he first observed her in Hawaii, he gave her the Hawaiian name Oumuamua.

But there are three oddities about this Oumuamua. First the shape is very strange. Usually asteroids are spherical, but Oumuamua is elongated. Its length is about 10 times its width. Its width is estimated at 100 meters while its length is about 1 kilometer.

Second, this object did not originate in our solar system. This is quite strange, because usually every celestial body will orbit the nearest star due to its gravitational force. Oumuamua was even the first interstellar object to stop in our solar system. As a side note, prior to the arrival of Oumuamua, there was never recorded an interstellar object straying into our solar system.

Oumuamua came from the direction of the star Vega in the constellation Lyra and hurtled towards the Pegasus constellation. It is not known when Oumuamua entered our solar system, but it is clear that it was detected at its closest point to the Sun on September 9, 2019. Then Oumuamua flew near Earth on October 14 and is expected to leave our solar system in 2022.

Like other celestial bodies, Oumuamua moves faster when approaching the sun and moves slower when away from the sun, of course because of the Sun's gravitational force. All objects in our solar system are affected by the gravitational force of the Sun as the largest object in the solar system. But herein lies the third oddity. On June 27, 2018, scientists reported that Oumuamua was experiencing what is known as non-gravitational acceleration or experiencing an acceleration (going faster) that is not affected by the force of gravity. It was as if an airplane had an engine.

This, coupled with the fact that Oumuamua did not come from our solar system, raises the speculation that the supposed asteroid is actually a spaceship or at least a spacecraft sent by another alien civilization out there? What is a probe? A probe is a drone or small drone that is sent into space. NASA has sent probes many times, one of which is the famous Mars Rover that was sent to investigate the condition of the red planet.

Even top scientists seem to agree with this radical opinion. Even the name Oumuamua that was accidentally pinned to the object meant the first scout. Scout is the English term for soldiers sent on spying duties. So does this mean that the mysterious object is a ship sent by aliens to spy on us?

Okay this article is quite long so I will continue in another article. As I conclude, I want to invite you back to the beginning. Do you think the video released by the Pentagon proves the existence of UFOs as something to be afraid of? Do you really believe in aliens and what would happen if they did?