Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Earthlike Planets Are Plentiful

 ... according to increasing evidence.

I favor "self-destruct" and "using different technology" as reasons why we aren't detecting signs of sentient life.  Based on life's incredible creativity and tenacity, it is likely to be both plentiful and -- on favorable worlds -- headed toward high complexity.  But given how humans do dumb things like trying to mow a hedge and starting wars over whose god is more peaceful, I would not be surprised by flash-in-the-pan civilizations.
Tags: news, science, space exploration
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  • 5 comments
siliconshaman

siliconshaman

February 11 2015, 12:27:50 UTC 6 years ago

Could be true... could also be the case that 'space is big'.

If you assume that an alien civilisation is using something we can detect, then given our technology, and the length of time we've been looking, you can calculate just how far away they'd be before we couldn't see them.

Turns out, depending on what you're looking for, that isn't very far. 50 lightyears for radio broadcasts, to slightly over 10,000Ly for the infra-red signature of a Dyson sphere.

Depending on how common sentient life with technological civilisations are, the probability distribution could be much greater than that.

Especially when you realise that most of the conditions for comparable life-forms falls within a sort of doughnut shaped zone in the galaxy. Too close to the core and you get fried by radiation every now&again from the central black-hole, too far out and the stars don't have enough heavy elements to form rocky planets.

ysabetwordsmith

Yes...

ysabetwordsmith

February 11 2015, 18:50:23 UTC 6 years ago

Which means that about half of the civilizations on that hoop will be hidden behind the hub of the galaxy from our perspective.
siliconshaman

Re: Yes...

siliconshaman

February 11 2015, 20:21:17 UTC 6 years ago

Actually, it's about 3/4 of the hoop is out of sight due to dust clouds, distance and the hub... and if there's only two of them [including us] then that's not good odds.
johnpalmer

johnpalmer

February 12 2015, 05:12:33 UTC 6 years ago

Bill Gawne also pointed out that we're in a region of space that's got sparse spare hydrogen (I think that's what it was), meaning you have less easily grabbed fuel. So there may not be a paradox for us.

(Um. "Paradox" - as in, the Fermi Paradox - if life existed outside Earth, there should be lots of signs of it. Why not?")
houseboatonstyx

houseboatonstyx

February 12 2015, 00:05:22 UTC 6 years ago

I've always liked this take.

Lucy: I know there are no aliens.

Charlie Brown: Why?

Lucy: They would have contacted me.