Hunt Intensifies For Aliens On Kepler's Planets

astroengine (1577233) writes "Could ET be chatting with colleagues or robots on sister planets in its solar system? Maybe so, say scientists who last year launched a new type of Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, project to eavesdrop on aliens. Using data collected by NASA's Kepler space telescope, a team of scientists spent 36 hours listening in when planets in targeted solar systems lined up, relative to Earth's perspective, in hopes of detecting alien interplanetary radio signals. "We think the right strategy in SETI is a variety of strategies. It's really hard to predict what other civilizations might be doing," Dan Werthimer, director of SETI research at the University of California Berkeley, told Discovery News. So far the search hasn't turned up any artificial signals yet, but this marks a change in strategy for radio searches for ETI with Kepler data taking a focused lead."

Comments

Re:What if there isn't any truth out there?

[NotSanguine]

why would any one enter conflict over a small planet

Maybe it's a convenient atmosphere for them. Maybe a large ocean can be converted into hydrogen quickly and you burn up the planet in the process. Maybe it's fun.

Any species capable of interstellar travel is going to be able to pull resources out of pure energy.

Well, that's what we mostly assume. Maybe they just scavenge stuff as they go.

They don't mine, or need our water. They don't care what we do, except maybe they observe us and snicker.

In all honesty, if we ever met truly alien life ... we have no idea of what we would find, and what they would think of us.

They may look at us as a slave race, food source, a place to lay their eggs or any of a zillion things.

We can make educated guesses by making assumptions about them. But given the sheer number of unknowns, they may or may not have any meaning should it ever happen.

I think it's great to do thought experiments and play what if. But the reality is, at the end of the day, we can't definitely say any of that is actually fact.

So, when you say "don't", "won't", "can't" or "do", "will" and "can" -- you pretty much have to subsitute that for "well, maybe, hopefully at least, that's what my best guess tells me, and it sounds good, so I'm going with it".

Hell, for all you know our kind of planet is needed for the equivalent of the "three seashells" for wiping the arse of some interstellar slug, and it'll just eradicate us while taking a dump without even knowing (or caring) we're here. ;-)

I invite you to apply Ockham's Razor in this instance.

Yes, it is possible that several species of brain-sucking, evil aliens are even now battling it out beyond the orbit of Jupiter over who has the right to eat our sweet, tasty gray matter.

Yes, it is possible that the decadent Galactic Empire has completely run through the entire galaxy's supply of tater tots, except for the massive reserves here on Earth, so they're coming to enslave us so we can make tater tots for them for the next 10,000 years.

Yes, it's possible that beautiful female aliens need our men to propagate their species, having murdered all of their men after mating with them and we're next.

Yes, it's possible that aliens with gigantic penises are on their way to have non-consensual butt sex with every male on the planet.

Are these scenarios very likely? Not really. Are yours? No.

I'll explain and I'll use small words so you'll be sure to understand: Given the distances involved and the relative abundance of raw materials in our galaxy, it's hugely unlikely that any extra-solar intelligence would have the need, means or desire to come here and wreak havoc upon us.

I suggest you do the math (in your case, I imagine you'll need to learn the math first) as to the probabilities to see how ridiculous you sound. Have a nice day!