this is all we have - Search for Advanced Civilizations beyond Earth Finds Nothing Obvious in 100,000 Galaxies by 1kiki

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this is all we have - Search for Advanced Civilizations beyond Earth Finds Nothing Obvious in 100,000 Galaxies

POSTED BY: 1KIKI
UPDATED: Saturday, July 6, 2024 07:43
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Wednesday, April 15, 2015 10:25 PM

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

http://www.labmanager.com/news/2015/04/search-for-advanced-civilizatio
ns-beyond-earth-finds-nothing-obvious-in-100-000-galaxies?fw1pk=2#.VS8b83ZXais

Search for Advanced Civilizations beyond Earth Finds Nothing Obvious in 100,000 Galaxies

Lack of alien-filled galaxies is an interesting and new scientific result

After searching 100,000 galaxies for signs of highly advanced extraterrestrial life, a team of scientists using observations from NASA's WISE orbiting observatory has found no evidence of advanced civilizations in them. "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," said Jason T. Wright, an assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds at Penn State University, who conceived of and initiated the research.

The research team's first paper about its Glimpsing Heat from Alien Technologies Survey (G-HAT), will be published in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series on April 15, 2015. Also among the team's discoveries are some mysterious new phenomena in our own Milky Way galaxy.

"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."

Theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson proposed in the 1960s that advanced alien civilizations beyond Earth could be detected by the telltale evidence of their mid-infrared emissions. It was not until space-based telescopes like the WISE satellite that it became possible to make sensitive measurements of this radiation emitted by objects in space.

Roger Griffith, a postbaccalaureate researcher at Penn State and the lead author of the paper, scoured almost the entire catalog of the WISE satellite's detections -- nearly 100 million entries -- for objects consistent with galaxies emitting too much mid-infrared radiation. He then individually examined and categorized around 100,000 of the most promising galaxy images. Wright reports, "We found about 50 galaxies that have unusually high levels of mid-infrared radiation. Our follow-up studies of those galaxies may reveal if the origin of their radiation results from natural astronomical processes, or if it could indicate the presence of a highly advanced civilization."

In any case, Wright said, the team's non-detection of any obvious alien-filled galaxies is an interesting and new scientific result. "Our results mean that, out of the 100,000 galaxies that WISE could see in sufficient detail, none of them is widely populated by an alien civilization using most of the starlight in its galaxy for its own purposes. That's interesting because these galaxies are billions of years old, which should have been plenty of time for them to have been filled with alien civilizations, if they exist. Either they don't exist, or they don't yet use enough energy for us to recognize them," Wright said.

"This research is a significant expansion of earlier work in this area," said Brendan Mullan, director of the Buhl Planetarium at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh and a member of the G-HAT team. "The only previous study of civilizations in other galaxies looked at only 100 or so galaxies, and wasn't looking for the heat they emit. This is new ground."

Matthew Povich, an assistant professor of astronomy at Cal Poly Pomona, and a co-investigator on the project, said "Once we had identified the best candidates for alien-filled galaxies, we had to determine whether they were new discoveries that needed follow-up study, or well-known objects that had a lot of mid-infrared emission for some natural reason." Jessica Maldonado, a Cal Poly Pomona undergraduate, searched the astronomical literature for the best of the objects detected as part of the study to see which were well known and which were new to science. "Ms. Maldonado discovered that about a half dozen of the objects are both unstudied and really interesting looking," Povich said.

"When you're looking for extreme phenomena with the newest, most sensitive technology, you expect to discover the unexpected, even if it's not what you were looking for," said Steinn Sigurdsson, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State's Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds and a co-investigator on the research team. "Sure enough, Roger and Jessica did find some puzzling new objects. They are almost certainly natural astronomical phenomena, but we need to study them more carefully before we can say for sure exactly what's going on."

Among the discoveries within our own Milky Way galaxy are a bright nebula around the nearby star 48 Librae, and a cluster of objects easily detected by WISE in a patch of sky that appears totally black when viewed with telescopes that detect only visible light. "This cluster is probably a group of very young stars forming inside a previously undiscovered molecular cloud, and the 48 Librae nebula apparently is due to a huge cloud of dust around the star, but both deserve much more careful study," Povich said.

"As we look more carefully at the light from these galaxies," said Wright, "we should be able to push our sensitivity to alien technology down to much lower levels, and to better distinguish heat resulting from natural astronomical sources from heat produced by advanced technologies. This pilot study is just the beginning."

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Thursday, April 16, 2015 7:47 AM

RAHLMACLAREN

"Damn yokels, can't even tell a transport ship ain't got no guns on it." - Jayne Cobb

1. What is the definition of an advanced civilization? Do humans with barely a space program qualify?

2. How does an advanced civilization emit the proper amount of mid-infrared radiation? Do humans produce this radiation? How?

3. If so, what is the farthest from earth we have been able to detect it of ourselves?

Find here the Serenity you seek. -Tara Maclay

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Thursday, April 16, 2015 8:58 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Seems we'd need to look close to home before declaring nothing there in 100,000 galaxies. We're finding not just h2o but the liquid stuff on Mars. Who saw that comin?

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Thursday, April 16, 2015 9:43 AM

ANONYMOUSE

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence!!! The fact that no evidence has been found does not mean there is none to be found! We've only been looking for a few decades, gorrammit!

Besides, has anyone taken into account the minor consideration that other than the Magellanic Clouds, the nearest galaxy is 2.2 million light-years away?! We're seeing the galaxies as they were millions of years ago - suppose there weren't any advanced civilisations extant back then, or any comparable to ours? What if several have arisen since? How the gorram hell would we know?!

Also, they've said there's no 'obvious' evidence. What about not-so-obvious? Isn't that an obvious point? :)

I am very disappointed by this failure of both imagination and faith on science's part. The 'Fermi Paradox' is nothing of the kind - it isn't even a paradox.

Consider the Principle of Mediocrity - this is a principle which states that since the laws of physics are (so far as we know, but it seems reasonable) the same everywhere in the Universe, then everywhere should be pretty much the same as everywhere else.

Our sun is a very common type, a G2. It seems reasonable to suppose that other G2-type stars have solar systems similar to ours, formed by the same processes which in turn are governed by the same laws of physics.

Therefore there should be many planets similar to this one. Therefore there should be sentient life similar to us in terms of intelligence and civilisation. The fact that we haven't found them is, I repeat, not proof - or even evidence - that there aren't any.

We simply haven't found them yet, that's all. Be patient already.

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Thursday, April 16, 2015 10:32 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

They were clear about what they were looking for, and why. In fact, the important words are in the title. They define an 'advanced civilization' as one that has interstellar travel, and enough interstellar travel to spread across a galaxy. At that capacity, the waste energy signature would be obvious, even from a distance.

They didn't say there was no life, or no intelligent life, just that they didn't find an 'advanced civilization' - one that we might communicate with and that might bridge the distance between us. Because we aren't even off our little planet, let alone to another star in our galaxy ... and so, 'they' - if they exist - are going to have to come to us, and not the other way around if there's to be a meeting.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Friday, April 17, 2015 9:11 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Not all headlines tell the full story. From the article...

Quote:
"We found about 50 galaxies that have unusually high levels of mid-infrared radiation. Our follow-up studies of those galaxies may reveal if the origin of their radiation results from natural astronomical processes, or if it could indicate the presence of a highly advanced civilization."

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Friday, April 17, 2015 11:29 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Maybe if they were so advanced, they wouldn't waste so much energy?

Anyway, on a completely cynical note, I don't find that we're so hot stuff ourselves. So far, we've been following the same growth/ waste curve as bacteria in a petri dish. When we learn to live within the means of our space ship ...er, I mean planet .... THEN I feel we will have taken the first steps towards civilization.

THIS IS OUR SPACESHIP.

We had better learn to live with it, and with each other, or we're going to kill ourselves off. It's not like we have some place else to go.

--------------
You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Friday, April 17, 2015 11:40 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

We have Mars. I think more and more I'd like to go there, but I know it'll never happen.

But as for advanced civilizations, they too would have gone through an adolescent stage of wasteful and foolish energy usage. Those are the signs which I suspect the scientist would be looking for. Even if some species is 500, 5000 or 1 million years more advanced, the echo of their youth, so to speak, should be picked up by our sensors and radio telescopes.

We'r still new to the game, so who knows... maybe we'll find something that allows us to see what's been staring at us all along, and just didn't know it.

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Friday, April 17, 2015 12:28 PM

OLDGUY

What Would Mal do ?

I'm just a tad dumb about all this..but if someone were looking our way from another planet..say 2 million light years away...we'd look a bit unoccuppied as well..just a few dinosuars roaming around right?...

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Friday, April 17, 2015 12:36 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
We have Mars. I think more and more I'd like to go there, but I know it'll never happen.

No we don't.

I've thought about what it would take to set up a living space that would be self-sustaining for the foreseeable future, and it's not just "not easy" I think it's impossible. All organisms, us included, evolved under conditions that we don't even think about but which we depend on to survive.

Gravity, for example. The space-station astronauts come back bone-wasted due to lack of gravity, despite the fact they they exercise like crazy to keep their bone mass up. Various biological experiments show that a lot of living organisms ... plants, ants, etc ... require gravity to survive and reproduce. Yes, Mars has gravity, but it's weak compared to earth's. I think there'll be negative effects due to that, and "gravity" is one thing you can't manufacture.

Radiation. We need enough of the right kind (like UV, to make vitamin D), and less of the wrong kind (like cosmic rays). The earth has a magnetosphere which protects us, for the most part, from a lot of stray radiation. Mars doesn't have one. So EVERYTHING ... the greenhouses and living quarters and barns ... will have to be heavily shielded, a real problem. Being so far from the sun, and having to be shielded from hard radiation means ALL light will have to be artificial. That takes a lot of energy- where will it come from? It's a difficulty.

Trace minerals. There are some minerals that we absolutely need- like magnesium and chromium, and some that seem to have no beneficial effects at all, like lead and cadmium. When you live in an environment where mineral profile is "off" from what your species evolved in, it's easy to suffer from subtle deficiencies - or worse- subtle and cumulative poisoning.

So even if we solve the problem of not enough oxygen or too much carbon dioxide (and the experiment where people lived in an enclosed presumably self-sustaining environment ON EARTH, which was a failure due to carbon dioxide buildup) there will be some challenges which I think are simply unfixable.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, aside from the technical challenges, what makes you think "there" will be any better than "here"? We're at the technological level where we're past the most common existential threats that nature has dished out*. We've conquered diseases that could have wiped out the human species, we could conquer famine if we wanted to, and we can learn to roll with the weather. At this moment, the largest existential threats to us COME FROM US. Unless we learn how to live in one place like we have to LIVE IN ONE PLACE FOREVER ... not constantly seeking some new place ... we will fuck up every place we go.

We will become that "rapacious, locust-like alien" that scifi movies love to paint as the villain.

*except earth-killing meteorites, supervolcanoes, and the sun going supernova ... but, really, we got the common ones licked, if only we would chose to do so

--------------
You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Friday, April 17, 2015 4:53 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

We have camps in the antarctic, a station in space, we can have the same on the Mars.

Only a matter of time before we do.

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Friday, April 17, 2015 9:32 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:

We have camps in the antarctic, a station in space, we can have the same on the Mars.

Only a matter of time before we do.

Huh?
Surely, you jest.

Your examples: They're either ON THE EARTH, or they get their supplies from earth. They both need constant re-supply. Do you think that would happen with Mars?

--------------
You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Friday, April 17, 2015 9:45 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Life finds a way

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Friday, April 17, 2015 10:35 PM

WISHIMAY

I believe "they" wouldn't tell us if they did find something, which I have a feeling they already have. There wouldn't be any value in telling us, it would only create instabilities- but they have to look like they are looking...

We'll make it to Mars, may even stay a while, but inevitably life will change, wars will come and old concerns will be tossed aside again.

Nothing ever changes much.

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Friday, April 17, 2015 11:41 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

"... but they have to look like they are looking..."

Why? No one is going to come after them if they don't, especially if they're NOT focused on such an obscure property as the energy signal of entropy.

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Saturday, April 18, 2015 12:12 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:
Originally posted by Wishimay:
I believe "they" wouldn't tell us if they did find something, which I have a feeling they already have. There wouldn't be any value in telling us, it would only create instabilities- but they have to look like they are looking...

Well, go back to the movie CONTACT. How would " they " keep it hidden? The honor code ? Now, I'm speaking of INTELLIGENT life, of course. I have no doubt that we may have found life on Mars, simple , cellular organisms, at most, an that could have been hidden. Maybe for the reasons you said... stability. My view is that it would take the focus off of our 'leaders' as folks realized how ridiculous our lives are, being wasted under the direction of others.

Quote:

We'll make it to Mars, may even stay a while, but inevitably life will change, wars will come and old concerns will be tossed aside again.

Nothing ever changes much.

Over time, everything changes.

Everything.

But back to the matter of INTELLIGENT life, out there... if a signal or some evidence of life out there is found, what then ? It would be an echo from a form of life that most likely no longer exists. Or would be long dead, if we could ever send them back a reply.

Maybe that's how this works. Ghosts from eons ago, reaching out to future beings, who in turn become the ghosts to other beings, and so on.

Fathom the hypocrisy of a government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen

I'm just a red pill guy in a room full of blue pill addicts.

" AU, that was great, LOL!! " - Chrisisall

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Saturday, April 18, 2015 8:27 AM

WHOZIT

I just saw the new "STAR WARS" trailer, so I know there is life on other planets.

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Saturday, April 18, 2015 11:55 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Life finds a way

Uh huh.

Do you know what "life" does? Bacteria in a petri dish start out growing rather slowly at first, but their growth is exponential and when they get to a critical mass it appears as if their growth rate explodes. Suddenly, they're all over the dish.

And then, just as suddenly, they die- poisoned by their accumulated waste and starved by lack of food.

That's what "life" does: it grows to the limits of its resources, and then its pruned back by circumstances of its own making.

But I thought we were supposed to be INTELLIGENT life.

So, are we?

Intelligent?

--------------
You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Saturday, April 18, 2015 3:56 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.

".we'd look a bit unoccuppied as well"

Hi there old guy

They were looking for 'advanced civilizations' - so advanced they had colonized entire galaxies.

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Monday, April 20, 2015 5:58 AM

JO753

rezident owtsidr

Quote:
Originally posted by OLDGUY:
I'm just a tad dumb about all this..but if someone were looking our way from another planet..say 2 million light years away...we'd look a bit unoccuppied as well..just a few dinosuars roaming around right?...

Rite.

I dont really get wut this 'mid infrared' idea iz about. Therez all sorts uv tek thats not putting out much, if any heat and a variety uv naural fenominon that puts out lots uv heat below wut you see frum starz.

Absens uv evidens iz evidens uv absens, just not very strong evidens until youv serched the entire area in question. And the entire univers iz quite an area.

----------------------------
DUZ XaT SEM RiT TQ YQ? - Jubal Early

http://www.nooalf.com

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Monday, April 20, 2015 8:52 AM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Life finds a way

Uh huh.

Do you know what "life" does? Bacteria in a petri dish start out growing rather slowly at first, but their growth is exponential and when they get to a critical mass it appears as if their growth rate explodes. Suddenly, they're all over the dish.

And then, just as suddenly, they die- poisoned by their accumulated waste and starved by lack of food.

That's what "life" does: it grows to the limits of its resources, and then its pruned back by circumstances of its own making.

But I thought we were supposed to be INTELLIGENT life.

So, are we?

Intelligent?

The Earth got used up...

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Monday, April 20, 2015 11:14 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

One of the interesting things about Firefly - a show I love dearly- is its subtle use of what appears to be artificial gravity.

Also, they somewhat magically inhabit a solar system full of all kinds of easily-traversed distances, without the benefit of faster-than-light space travel.

Without gravity, people (and other species) fail. And taking a year to get to the next-nearest planet (and several centuries to reach the next star) is kind of a buzz-kill.

The Firefly future will never be ours. Please don't mistake a fiction (which we all love) for reality.

--------------
You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Saturday, July 6, 2024 7:43 AM

JAYNEZTOWN

100 years of aliens: From Mars beavers to little gray men

https://www.popsci.com/science/history-of-aliens/

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