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Hairspray Could Help Us Find Advanced Alien Civilizations
Hugh Pickens writes "Charles Q. Choi reports that hairspray could one day serve as the sign that aliens have reshaped distant worlds because one group of gases that might be key to terraforming planets are CFCs. 'Our hypothesis is that evidence of intelligent life might be evident in a planetary atmosphere,' says astrobiologist Mark Claire at the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science. CFCs are entirely artificial, with no known natural process capable of creating them in atmospheres. Detecting signs of these gases on far-off worlds with telescopes might serve as potent evidence that intelligent alien civilizations were the cause, either intentionally as part of terraforming or accidentally via industrial pollution. 'An industrialized civilization will be one that will use its planetary resources for fabrication, the soon-to-be-detectable-from-Earth atmospheric byproducts of which could be a tell-tale sign of their activity,' says astrobiologist Sanjoy Som. CFCs can be easily recognized in planetary atmospheres because their atmospheric 'fingerprint' (i.e. chemical spectra) is very different from natural elements, and are a tell-tale sign that life on the surface has advanced industrial capabilities. Using state-of-the-art computer models of atmospheric chemistry and climate, researchers plan to discover what visible signs CFCs and other artificial byproducts of alien terraforming or industry might have on exoplanet atmospheres. 'We are about a decade away of being able to measure detailed compositions of the atmospheres of extrasolar planets,' says Som."
...or it's just that the species has more than fifty arms and they invented the aerosol deodorant before the wheel.
Ezekiel 23:20
Well I guess we are alone in the universe. If no aliens found us in the 80's it's not looking good.
Chewbacca begs to differ.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
One planet is almost entirely sugar, and there's some sort of nebula that is basically alcohol.
Where are these wonderful places, and how soon can I get there?!!?
Didn't the Centuari Republic give Earth jump gate technology in exchange for our advanced hair mousse formulas?
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
They have significantly different materials to work with
You mean that instead of fluorine, chlorine, and carbon, they have unobtanium, duranium and mithril?
Ezekiel 23:20
Not only alien life, but proof that stupidity is universal.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
If it's from hairspray, they can't be all *that* intelligent.
Judge for yourself- here are some pictures of aliens we've discovered using the hairspray detection technique.
Their communications technology is still remarkably primitive though.
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