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Ancient Extraterrestrials
10
Ancient Extraterrestrials
by Asaftei Rares, Antohe Rares, Costache Andrei and Roman Matia
Short Introduction
Extraterrestrial life is hypothetical life which may occur outside of Earth and which did not originate on Earth
Such life might range from simple life forms to beings with civilizations far more advanced than humanity
The concept of extraterrestrial life, and particularly extraterrestrial intelligence, has had a major cultural impact, mainly in works of science fiction
Over the years, science fiction has introduced a number of theoretical ideas, each having a wide range of possibilities
Alien life-General aspects
Alien life, such as microorganisms, has been hypothesized to exist in the Solar System and throughout the universe
This hypothesis relies on the consistent physical laws of the universe
According to this argument, made by notable personalities such as Stephen Hawking and Winston Churchill, it would be improbable for life not to exist somewhere other than Earth.
On 4 November 2013, astronomers reported, based on the Kepler space mission data, that there could be as many as 40 billion Earth-sized planets , 11 billion of which may be orbiting Sun-like stars.
The nearest such planet may be 12 light-years away, according to the scientists
Supposedly the closest planet to Earth
Extraterrestrial contact
The cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact is the body of changes to terrestrial science, technology, religion, politics, and ecosystems resulting from contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. This concept is closely related to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), which attempts to locate intelligent life as opposed to analyzing the implications of contact with that life.
An extraterrestrial civilization may choose to communicate with humanity by means of artifacts or probes rather than by radio, for various reasons. While probes may take a long time to reach the Solar System, once there they would be able to hold a sustained dialogue that would be impossible using radio from hundreds or thousands of light-years away. Radio would be completely unsuitable for supervision and continued monitoring of a civilization, and should an extraterrestrial civilization wish to perform these activities on humanity, artifacts may be the only option other than to send large spacecraft to the Solar System.
With the discovery in the early 21st centuries of numerous extrasolar planets, some of which may be habitable, governments have once more become interested in funding new programs. In 2006 the European Space Agency launched COROT, the first spacecraft dedicated to the search for exoplanets, and in 2009 NASA launched the Kepler space for the same purpose. By February 2013 Kepler had detected 105 exoplanets and one of them, Kepler-22b, is potentially habitable.
Ancient Astronauts
"Ancient astronauts" (or "ancient aliens") refers to the pseudo-scientific idea that intelligent extraterrestrial beings visited Earth and made contact with humans in antiquity and prehistoric times. Proponents suggest that this contact influenced the development of modern cultures, technologies, and religions, and even human biology. A common position is that deities from most, if not all, religions are extraterrestrial in origin, and that advanced technologies brought to Earth by ancient astronauts were interpreted as evidence of divine status by early humans.
Proponents of the ancient astronaut hypothesis often maintain that humans are either descendants or creations of extraterrestrial intelligence who landed on Earth thousands of years ago. An associated idea is that humans evolved independently, but that much of human knowledge, religion, and culture came from extraterrestrial visitors in ancient times, in that ancient astronauts acted as a "mother culture". Some ancient astronaut proponents also believe that travelers from outer space, referred to as "astronauts" (or "spacemen") built many of the structures on Earth (such as Egyptian pyramids and the Moai stone heads of Easter Island) or aided humans in building them.
Drake's Equation
Dr. Frank Drake
The Drake equation is a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy.
The equation was written in 1961 by Frank Drake, not for purposes of quantifying the number of civilizations, but as a way to stimulate scientific dialogue at the first scientific meeting on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The equation summarizes the main concepts which scientists must contemplate when considering the question of other radio-communicative life. It is more properly thought of as an approximation rather than as a serious attempt to determine a precise number.
The equation
N = the no. of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible
R∗ = the average rate of star formation in our galaxy
fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne = the avg. no. of planets that can potentially support life per star w/ planets
f1 = the fraction of planets that could supp. life that actually develop life at some point
fi = the fraction of planets with life that actually go on to develop intelligent life
fc = the fr. of civ. that develop tech that releases det. signs of their existence into space
L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space
Criticism related to the Drake equation focuses not on the equation itself, but on the fact that the estimated values for several of its factors are highly conjectural, the combined effect being that the uncertainty associated with any derived value is so large that the equation cannot be used to draw firm conclusions.
The Alien Telescope Array for SETI
Has intellient life ever existed?
The Drake equation can be modified to determine just how unlikely intelligent life must be, to give the result that Earth has the only intelligent life that has ever arisen, either in our galaxy or the universe as a whole. Since star and planets counts are known, this leaves the only unknown as the odds that a habitable planet ever develops intelligent life. For Earth to have the only civilization that has ever occurred in the universe, then the odds of any habitable planet ever developing such a civilization must be extremely low.
The figure for the universe, however, implies that it is highly unlikely that Earth hosts the only intelligent life that has ever occurred. The figure for our galaxy suggests that other civilizations may have occurred or will likely occur in our galaxy.