Hello everybody. I've been very busy these last days, but I hope it ends soon. Today I decided to talk on a philosophical and scientific topic. It has to do with space and its exploration. Since childhood, I have liked the theme of space, distant spaces and astrophysics. Space for me is an endless unattainable space. Although each person is an astronaut who roams outer space in a spaceship called planet Earth.
I think that the universe is so huge that we cannot imagine its true scale. There are many theories that our universe is just a bubble in an endless sea of other universes. But at the moment these are just theories. But, proceeding from the fact that the universe is infinitely huge, it can be assumed that besides us there are other worlds and beings. The so-called aliens. I've always wondered if there are intelligent beings on other planets that we don't know about.
There are many films on the topic of aliens and alien invasion in the cinema. People speculate and even try to prove that aliens periodically abduct people. Others argue that the government is hiding the truth about aliens from people. But today I want to speculate about what humanity is doing in order to get in touch with the alien race. Unless, of course, there is an intelligent civilization outside the Earth.
The searchfor extraterrestrial intelligence
This may be a terrifying fact, but perhaps we are alone in the universe. However, the search for extraterrestrial life has been going on for a long time. In 1984, the searchfor extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) began its work. But the beginning of this project was laid back in the 60s of the last century. It still exists today. The main goal of SETI is to search for traces of extraterrestrial civilizations through signals from space. In addition, the project used the computers of users (volunteers) around the world to increase the capacity.
During existence, not many interesting signals were received that could be mistaken for extraterrestrial. Perhaps real signals from aliens were received, but ordinary people will always be in the dark. Officially, SETI has not yet heard a single signal from extraterrestrial life.
But why until now has the SETI not found convincing evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations? Maybe it's because they don't really exist. Maybe the fact is that we are on the "black" list of other civilizations. It is possible that the mystery lies in the study of dark matter and dark energy. Maybe the fact is that ancient civilizations live by different rules, and we are like monkeys in a circus for them. Maybe we live in a matrix at all. There are a lot of guesses, but so far there are many more questions than answers.
Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence
But besides SETI, we also made METI -Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Agree, this is both interesting and dangerous. Sending information about yourself over many light years can be extremely dangerous. Unlike STI, this project is aimed at sending signals, not searching for them. By the way, the first message to extraterrestrial civilization was made by the Soviets in 1962. Unfortunately or fortunately, we do not have such powerful technologies to instantly send a signal to neighboring stars. For this reason, signals outside the solar system will not be detected soon.
But in addition to signals into space, people have repeatedly sent messages attached to spacecraft. Initially, the Soviets did this by attaching plates with various information about the Earth and humanity to 2 of their Pioneer spacecraft. Then the Americans did it by attaching gold plates with information to their Voyagers. Both of these missions involved flying outside the solar system and collecting some information.
The Pioneer plate depicts a man and a woman on the same scale as the ship. This is done so that the aliens have an idea of who they might be dealing with. The sun and pulsar coordinates are shown on the left. This is done so that aliens can find Earth if they want. In addition, if other information. Interestingly, due to the fact that men and women are depicted naked, the pioneer records were criticized as obscene.
The Voyager Golden Record consisted of greetings in more than 60 languages of the planet. The disc also includes various pieces of music from different cultures of our planet. In addition, the disc contains various sounds of the planet Earth and even 116 images. This is mainly done so that extraterrestrial civilization could understand our location in the universe and become familiar with our culture. Oh yes, I almost forgot, among other things, there is a speech on the disc by Jimmy Carter in which he addresses extraterrestrial civilizations.
Interestingly, in millions of years, these devices will be found by aliens or not. In addition, perhaps this will be the only proof that humanity has ever existed. Oh, how much I want to know ...
Telescopes are a way to search for extraterrestrial life
Probably one of the main ways to study space, search for extraterrestrial civilizations and planets suitable for life is observation. We have been observing space and stars since ancient times. Every year we receive more and more information. Thanks to modern satellites and observation stations, we have achieved great results in space exploration.
Of course, in most cases, scientists conduct various research, rather than looking for something that may not exist. However, there are many exoplanets on which life could potentially exist. The fact is that these planets have similar conditions as on our planet. Thus, it can be assumed that life develops on at least one of them. Perhaps there are Neanderthals or another species dominates. Anything can be.
Development in this direction does not stand still. Old telescopes are replaced with newer and more modern ones. There is no life without planets, which means that the main task of telescopes is to look for planets suitable for life - everything is logical. I've read about many upcoming projects to find life in deep space. A project called WFIRST or Wide Field Infrared Telescope caught my eye.
This project is designed for dark matter, dark energy and potentially habitable planets. Well, or those planets on which there is potentially life and theoretically a person can live. The technology that will be used will allow finding planets similar in terms of conditions to the planet Earth. This is a small step in the search for extraterrestrial civilizations, but it is a big step in the study and search for new planets.
There is an extraterrestrial civilization or not, this question still excites the minds of many people. We have not received reliable evidence of the existence of aliens, but we continue to search. Probably in the near future our civilization will find traces of intelligent life in the universe. But in the meantime, the search continues ...
