Space of extraterrestrial civilizations refutes the illusion that we are alone

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Aliens are looking not only for ufologists, but also for serious scientists. Not found yet. But they convincingly prove that brothers in mind simply have to exist even in our galaxy - the Milky Way, which has about 250 billion stars. Not to mention the entire universe.

At least someone is near

"Is there anyone there?" - so - interrogatively - the American astronomers Luis Ancordoki, Susanna Weber and Jorge Soriano called their research. And they themselves answered: within a radius of 10 kiloparsecs - this is about 30 thousand light years - there is at least one developed civilization that possesses the technology that allows us to come into contact with us. At least send signals.

Scientists prove: some intelligent creatures definitely coexist with us.

Ankordoki and his colleagues came to believe in the existence of brothers in mind by solving the Drake equation, which just allows us to calculate the probable number of extraterrestrial civilizations. Its - this very equation - was derived in 1960 by the professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Frank Donald Drake.

The equation, named after the scientist, has seven members: from the number of planets with suitable conditions for life - to the estimated time of existence of a civilization that lives on the planet.

Numerous calculations, carried out earlier according to Drake's formula, gave a different number of brothers in mind: from their complete absence - up to 5 thousand. The scatter arose from the fact that scientists differently estimated the values of the parameters included in the equation. They were based, naturally, on the ideas of their time.

Much has now become clearer - especially thanks to the observations that were carried out using the Kepler space telescope. It turned out that there are more stars in the Universe than previously imagined, as well as planets suitable for life. This led Ankordoki and his colleagues to an encouraging result.

Billions of brothers in mind

Drake's equation was recently used by Adam Frank, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Rochester and colleagues in the Department of Astronomy and Astrobiology at the University of Washington. However, scientists have calculated not the estimated number of intelligent civilizations, but, on the contrary, the probability that there is no one else in the universe except us. And it turned out: the chances of our loneliness are vanishingly small - less than one divided by 10 to the 22nd power.

Drake's equation, with which you can estimate the number of extraterrestrial civilizations.

The researchers decided that since the likelihood that we are alone is so small, then most likely we are not alone. Further calculations showed that there are about 10 billion intelligent civilizations in the Universe. Nothing less.

Drake himself with his equation.

Human civilization is at least 362nd in our galaxy. Or even 37965

Duncan Forgan of the Scottish University of Edinburgh counted our galactic neighbors in his own way. He created a mathematical model of the Milky Way, where intelligent life is known to have appeared - at least once. We are evidence of this.

The scientist launched the program in three scenarios. The first one assumed that living organisms arise with difficulty, but then develop well. According to the second scenario, they are experiencing difficulties in transforming into intelligent beings. According to the third, life is transferred from one planet to another, as follows from the very popular hypothesis of its appearance on Earth.

As a result, Forgan received three positive results. Namely, 361 intelligent civilizations for the first - the most difficult - case, 31,513 - for the second. And as many as 37,964 inhabited worlds for the third.

PARADOX FERMI: POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS

Enrico Fermi is an American physicist of Italian descent. Nobel Prize Laureate. According to legend, he expressed his paradox back in 1950, having once listened to his fellow physicists at dinner, who were trying to prove to him that extraterrestrial civilizations necessarily exist. And in turn he asked: "Well, where are they?" This question was later called the Fermi paradox. A quarter of a century later, it was supplemented by the Englishman Michael Hart. Expressed in the sense that if thousands of alien civilizations lived in the Universe, they would have reached us millions of years ago. Well, at least someone. And since no one got there, then there are no highly developed civilizations at all.

Indeed, where is everyone? They do not arrive, do not honk - they do not make themselves felt in any way. At least not explicitly.

Aliens may exist, but there are no very smart ones among them

It seems that there is no one smarter than us - earthlings - suggests astronomer Dimitar Sasselov, a professor from Harvard and one of the leaders of the Kepler telescope's scientific program. The main argument of the scientist: the time required for the appearance of even the simplest organisms may well be comparable to the age of the Universe, which is about 13.8 billion years old.

From the calculations of Sasselov it follows: a billion of all the "lived" years it took the stars to "produce" enough material from primary hydrogen and helium to form planets - oxygen, iron, silicon, carbon and other heavy elements. Another 8 to 9 billion years was spent on the very formation and creation of conditions suitable for life. Total, somewhere around 9-10 billion years. Earth, which is about 4.5 billion years old, fits well into this time frame. Therefore, it is not at all excluded that it was she who became the first planet on which life was born. And if so, then we are the first intelligent beings in the Universe.

The astronomer assures: if there are brothers in mind somewhere else, it is unlikely that their civilization is more developed than ours. That is, its capabilities are just as limited. This means that aliens could not have arrived in the past. And it would be naive to wait for them in the near future. As they do us.

But Stuart Armstrong and Anders Sandberg from Oxford University, on the contrary, believe that the Earth is later a child of the universe. Like, there is evidence that most of the planets similar to it were formed 1-2 billion years earlier. Accordingly, incomparably older than the earthly - almost for an entire eternity - there may be local civilizations that have gone far ahead in their development. Only this does not make it any easier: the “older brothers” have long since disappeared. So they do not make themselves felt.

It is possible that brothers in reason believe that it is too early to contact us. So far, they are just watching us.

Afraid, shunned, cautious and disdainful

Adrian Kent of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Physics believes there are not many useful resources in space. Therefore, advanced civilizations are forced to fight for them. That is, to fight with other brothers in mind. The surviving alien races are becoming very careful. And they begin, out of sin, to hide their existence in every possible way.

It is possible that other intelligent beings are even specially disguised so as not to attract attention from outside.

According to Kent, the "policy of self-promotion in space", which mankind adheres to at present, can have very disastrous consequences for him. Any "space predators" will not even respond. Or the colonialists. By the way, the late Stephen Hawking was very much afraid of this.

And perhaps aliens take care of our psyche - they do not report themselves, so as not to shock impressionable humanity.

Or highly developed brothers in reason do not consider it necessary to communicate with the underdeveloped. That is, with us - wild in their understanding. And even insane. They are watching, perhaps, our bestial life. But they do not come into contact. They disdain.

What if they disdain us for the time being?

Stay-at-home like us

For all the time of their existence, earthlings never made it to another planet. We haven't even reached Mars yet. And the Moon - a satellite of the Earth - has not been visited for a long time. And why? Because so far there is enough of everything - including space - on the home planet. The population is not growing exponentially. And he doesn't need another house. And this, in turn, does not compel active space exploration.

According to some scientists, other civilizations develop in a similar way - just like us, they do not grow exponentially. And they sit at home.

And Dr. Reginald Smith from the Bush-Franklin Institute (USA), in his scientific work "Broadcasting but not receiving" space. Believes that we are too far from each other.

The doctor calculated the average density required to establish contact between at least two "brothers". He took as a basis the "time of active life" of an intelligent civilization - the period during which it broadcasts into space. I took into account that the strength of radio signals decreases with distance. And they merge with the background.

Result: if the "active life time" is taken as 1000 years (we are still signaling about 100 years), then it turns out that more than 200 civilizations can exist in the Milky Way without knowing about each other and suffering from the Fermi paradox.

The scientist saddens: if the speed of movement in space is still limited by the speed of light and there are no "holes" connecting the distant regions of the galaxy by a short path, then we are unlikely to ever meet brothers in mind, to which, perhaps, hundreds or even thousands of light years.

HOPE REMAINS

Tabeta's star has some creative activity

Astronomers continue to search for reasons for the strange behavior of the star KIC 8462852, located in the constellation Cygnus, 1480 light years away. The star blinks in a supernatural way. Sometimes the luminous flux emanating from it is reduced by 80 percent. As if the star is obscured by something massive. But not the planets, from which it would change its brightness periodically. The amazing star randomly dims for different periods of time - from 5 to 80 days. Which is not typical of any stars.

The phenomenon was discovered by astrophysicist Tabeta Boyajian. KIC 8462852 now bears her name - Tabby's Star.

What is happening in deep space is of interest not only to astronomers. Ordinary citizens were also very excited and raised more than $ 100,000 for further research. Because among them - citizens - the hypothesis has become popular that the mysterious star is surrounded by the so-called Dyson sphere - a structure built by a local highly developed civilization that allows you to capture the radiation of a star and use its colossal energy. Structural elements from time to time and obscure the star from observers.

Scientists trying to find less fantastical explanations have suggested that local comets are "casting a shadow". However, calculations have shown that in order to cause the observed changes in brightness, more than a million heavenly wanderers are needed, each at least 200 kilometers in size. It is unlikely that this can be in reality.

The star could be obscured by the debris of the planets colliding here. Or planets not yet formed. But in this case, both of them should leave heat traces. And an infrared telescope aimed at a blinking star found nothing of the kind.

Clouds of dust could cover the light. This assumption was considered the most sensible - until astronomers from Russia, Estonia, the United States and Germany looked at how KIC 8462852 behaved in the recent past. Fortunately, as it turned out, she was in the field of view of the German Sonneberg Observatory. Archival data collected on photographic plates have shown: from 1934 to 1995, the star's luminosity did not change. That is, at least until 1995, nothing overshadowed it.

Where was the dust that now obscures Tabetha's star before? Where did it come from? There are no answers.

Laughter, laughter, but the available facts, surprisingly, fit into only one hypothesis - about a developed extraterrestrial civilization with its Dyson sphere. Many scientists, including Tabeta herself, do not hesitate to support this hypothesis.

According to the bold assumption, it was in 1995 that the aliens began to build their sphere, finished in 2011 - when the "blackouts" were first recorded by the Kepler telescope. It is possible that the object was left unfinished. This happens to intelligent beings.

Dyson Sphere: Construction started but not completed.

READY FOR MEETING

Astronomers have thought out a plan of action in case of the appearance of aliens

Back in 1989, the participants in the SETI project to search for extraterrestrial civilizations thought about what to do when they discovered the aliens themselves, or at least traces of their activities. According to the plan developed then, the first thing to do was to contact colleagues for advice and confirmation. Then it was necessary to inform the authorities and only then inform the public through press releases.

In the end, the shocking news would have made it into the newspapers, on television, on the radio. They, in which case, would give a refutation.

But time has made its own adjustments, as they say. The Internet, social networks, hackers and the possibility of uncontrolled distribution of information appeared. The risk of its leakage, abduction, and premature disclosure has increased incomparably.

To avoid hype, speculation and misunderstanding today and in the near future, prominent astronomers Duncan Forgan and Alexander Scholz of Cornell University have proposed a new plan of action. Now, according to scientists, on the contrary, the first thing to do is to announce the discovery. And as quickly as possible. So that the authorities or special services do not have time to "lay their paws", and colleagues began to check.

To announce that we are not alone in the Universe, you need to in a pre-created blog. In the same place - to agree on further actions. For example, what is considered confirmation and what is a refutation. The blog should describe every step of the specialists.

Earthlings know what to do if aliens arrive.

Astronomers believe: notify of the alleged discovery of brothers in mind should be even if there is only suspicion. It will be necessary to tell in detail and also as soon as possible about all the suspicions - even those that cannot be confirmed. And be sure to explain why the error occurred.