Two billion inhabitable planets in our galaxy - time to check them out?

OP

I'll be devoting my career to this :tongue:

How will you go about it?

Being a scientist has never had great appeal to me, but I think I would be one if it meant I could work on contacting other civilizations.

Reply 21

Kerch

8

Original post by Bassetts

12 light years sounds very close. How long would it take to travel 12 light years?

I have a hunch it will be more than 12 years.

Reply 22

Drewski

19

Original post by Fullofsurprises

Drewski, did you mean "I'm not"? :tongue:

I said what I meant and I mean what I say :wink:

Some humans are, sure. But generally? Not really.
What would we do if some alien species attempted to make contact with us? We'd be scared and highly suspicious and be on a hair trigger in case anything went untoward. Why would we assume differently of anyone else?

Reply 23

MangoFreak

17

Original post by Fullofsurprises

How will you go about it?

Being a scientist has never had great appeal to me, but I think I would be one if it meant I could work on contacting other civilizations.

I'd like to be a physicist. Improving propulsion systems and power generation to actually get people out there (hopefully myself included :tongue:

).

Warp drives aren't as sci-fi as you might think :sexface:

Might take a few centuries (although I always like to be optimistic :mmm:

), but it could happen.

Reply 24

User990473

Original post by Fullofsurprises

The nearest fit I could find for this thread is in the 'International' forum. :cool:

News today from Nasa that data from the Kepler mission shows that there are probably at least 2 billion inhabitable planets in our galaxy alone - the nearest being 'only' 12 light years away, still a vast distance but a hair's breadth away by cosmic standards.

There must be millions of sentient creatures and societies out there.

Let's drop everything and try to make contact with some of them! :excited:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/04/planets-galaxy-life-kepler

Should we now rush to make contact?

Stephen Hawking, for what it's worth, thinks not.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8642558.stm

Reply 25

Fullofsurprises

OP

20

Original post by Drewski

I said what I meant and I mean what I say :wink:

Some humans are, sure. But generally? Not really.
What would we do if some alien species attempted to make contact with us? We'd be scared and highly suspicious and be on a hair trigger in case anything went untoward. Why would we assume differently of anyone else?

There are a fair number of mad people around, but I'm confident that if aliens came here tomorrow and were not obviously threatening, rationality would win the day and most governments and concerned people would try to make calm, intelligent contact. Precautions, such as biohazard screening and taking things one step at a time, for sure. Wild gun-toting manic responses - no. Unless of course the aliens made landfall in Texas. Let's hope not, eh?

Reply 26

Aristotle's' Disciple

19

Original post by Fullofsurprises

I want to be on the first mission!! I adore aliens! :biggrin:

Haha, this comment is very naive but very cute also. :p:

Reply 27

Fullofsurprises

OP

20

Original post by MangoFreak

I'd like to be a physicist. Improving propulsion systems and power generation to actually get people out there (hopefully myself included :tongue:

).

Warp drives aren't as sci-fi as you might think :sexface:

Might take a few centuries (although I always like to be optimistic :mmm:

), but it could happen.

I watched a programme not long ago on BBC3 that rubbished the whole warp drive thing, they basically reckoned it would consume more energy than the entire universe produces, or something like that.

I like the idea of a Tardis personally, but all those time paradoxes could be tricky. :rolleyes:

Reply 28

Drewski

19

Original post by Fullofsurprises

There are a fair number of mad people around, but I'm confident that if aliens came here tomorrow and were not obviously threatening, rationality would win the day and most governments and concerned people would try to make calm, intelligent contact. Precautions, such as biohazard screening and taking things one step at a time, for sure. Wild gun-toting manic responses - no. Unless of course the aliens made landfall in Texas. Let's hope not, eh?

Tricky one to prove, that.

And no, if you were an intelligent species seeking to make first contact you would, presumably, aim for the densest population. Meaning they'd probably end up in China.

Reply 29

nexttime

22

Original post by MangoFreak

I like to stay optimistic and imagine that any successful, technologically advanced civilisation would be the result of evolution that left them similar to us

All the more reason to stay the **** away!

Reply 30

Fullofsurprises

OP

20

Original post by Drewski

Tricky one to prove, that.

And no, if you were an intelligent species seeking to make first contact you would, presumably, aim for the densest population. Meaning they'd probably end up in China.

Wasn't there a whole ufology thing about them aiming for the most brightly lit areas?

Reply 31

justanotherposter

14

We should probably work on being able to travel lightyears before worrying about what is lightyears away, I think it would take over 4000 years (probably longer) to travel just one lightyear with our current technology.

Edit: In miles one lightyear is 5.87849981 × 10^12 miles (for people who don't like standard form that's 5 878 499 810 000 miles)

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 32

MangoFreak

17

Original post by Fullofsurprises

I watched a programme not long ago on BBC3 that rubbished the whole warp drive thing, they basically reckoned it would consume more energy than the entire universe produces, or something like that.

I like the idea of a Tardis personally, but all those time paradoxes could be tricky. :rolleyes:

Oh yeah the original concept, to my understanding, was ridiculously power-consuming, but some people think it can be brought down to manageable (still huge) requirements.

And the exotic matter that so far doesn't technically exist :mmm:

Reply 33

Drewski

19

Original post by Fullofsurprises

Wasn't there a whole ufology thing about them aiming for the most brightly lit areas?

Don't know, but wouldn't that mean they ended up on Belgian motorways?

Reply 34

User990473

Original post by Fullofsurprises

There are a fair number of mad people around, but I'm confident that if aliens came here tomorrow and were not obviously threatening, rationality would win the day and most governments and concerned people would try to make calm, intelligent contact. Precautions, such as biohazard screening and taking things one step at a time, for sure. Wild gun-toting manic responses - no. Unless of course the aliens made landfall in Texas. Let's hope not, eh?

So these beings would find the art of manipulation, I can't help but saying, alien? :ahee:

Reply 35

bigwhalegambler

Original post by Fullofsurprises

The nearest fit I could find for this thread is in the 'International' forum. :cool:

News today from Nasa that data from the Kepler mission shows that there are probably at least 2 billion inhabitable planets in our galaxy alone - the nearest being 'only' 12 light years away, still a vast distance but a hair's breadth away by cosmic standards.

There must be millions of sentient creatures and societies out there.

Let's drop everything and try to make contact with some of them! :excited:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/nov/04/planets-galaxy-life-kepler

Should we now rush to make contact?

Never rush to make contact

Reply 36

User990473

Original post by justanotherposter

We should probably work on being able to travel lightyears before worrying about what is lightyears away, I think it would take over 4000 years (probably longer) to travel just one lightyear with our current technology.

Edit: In miles one lightyear is 5.87849981 × 10^12 miles (for people who don't like standard form that's 5 878 499 810 000 miles)

I don't think that it's necessarily a bad thing to observe what is out there before being able to do anything about it :dontknow:

I know this isn't what you were insinuating but it would be particularly stupid to travel before looking :lol:

Reply 37

Cll_ws

19

It upsets me to think that there's very probably a Star Wars type thing going on somewhere out there, and we're outside the loop like the loser at school who isn't allowed the latest toys.

Reply 38

Drewski

19

Original post by Cll_ws

It upsets me to think that there's very probably a Star Wars type thing going on somewhere out there, and we're outside the loop like the loser at school who isn't allowed the latest toys.