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Finding Life In Space By Looking For Extraterrestrial Pollution
coondoggie writes: If what we know as advanced life exists anywhere other than Earth, then perhaps they are dirtying their atmosphere as much as we are. We could use such pollution components to perhaps more easily spot such planets. That's the basis of new research published this week by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. They say that if we could spot the fingerprints of certain pollutants under ideal conditions (PDF), it would offer a new approach in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence."
After all these years of running SETI@Home, we still haven't found any extraterrestial TV signals carrying alien porn. :/
Well, pollution as in atmospheric O2, not pollution as in SUV exhaust. Atmospheric O2 is not the Earth's "normal" state, its a byproduct of life.
... and so began global climate change 1.0.
If I remember correctly, Earth's original atmosphere was SO2 based and some photosynthetic creature with a sulfur based metabolism started emitting O2 as a waste product
Our first encounter with an alien civilization will be the EPA trying to fine them millions of dollars.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Pollution occurs wherever there is life.
True. Earth was populated for millions of years by organisms that polluted the atmosphere with oxygen.