Australia To Play Strategic Role in Biggest Ever Search For Extra-Terrestrial Life (abc.net.au)

Australia's role in the biggest ever search for alien life has officially begun, with the Parkes Telescope in central west NSW set to play a strategic part in the 10-year journey. From a report on ABC:The $100 million Breakthrough Listen initiative has been underway in the United States for about nine months. Overnight, the telescope -- affectionately known as the Dish -- achieved first light with an observation of an Earth-sized planet orbiting the nearest star to our Sun, Proxima Centauri. According to CSIRO program director John Reynolds, that so-called "exo-Earth" would be a good place to start looking for other life forms. "Alpha Centauri, or its little companion, Proxima Centauri, is actually the closest star to Earth -- it's only 4.3 light years away," Dr Reynolds said. "Just this year a planet was discovered around Proxima Centauri -- it's called an exo-Earth because it has some of the properties of Earth."

Comments

The Galaxy Song

[Harold Halloway]

"...And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth."

Re:The Galaxy Song

[KingBenny]

a men
im reading up on over a month of backlog slashdot and my original reaction is yea, you can clearly see when the elections were over by the lack of racial slur on top of every post, was that skankhunt42
off topic .. YAY, its good to hear some good news from the prison colony for once
wtg ,
mates :p

I bet ET would like to get baked

[Anonymous Coward]

legally!

Re:I bet ET would like to get baked

[Anonymous Coward]

See that's where we're doing it all wrong.

Who gives a fuck about radio signals - just send out munchies and legal weed to the aliens.

Makes sense

[ausekilis]

If any humans know how to live in a hostile environment where damn near every animal can kill you, it's the Australians.

Re:Makes sense

[quenda]

Funny, but a myth. Other continents have wolves, bears, lions ... land predators that will tear you apart. Nothing like that in Australia.
Here the dangerous predators are all in the oceans - sharks & saltwater crocodiles, and other dangers - box jelly fish and blue-ring octopus. So easily avoided.

Nobody dies from spider-bite since anti-venom was invented. India has 10,000 times as many snake-bite deaths. Yes, ten thousand times.
Just beware the dropbears and Southern Hoop Snake.

If you're looking for aliens

[Oswald McWeany]

Point your telescopes at DC.

Re:If you're looking for aliens

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't worry—we'll kick 'em out and build a wall so they stay out.

Re:If you're looking for aliens

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't keep aliens out with a wall, you need a glass ceiling.

Only 4.3 light years?

[110010001000]

What does "only 4.3 light years" mean? A human could never actually reach it. We cannot travel any significant percentage of the speed of light. How about concentrating about what is happening here on this fucking planet?

Re:Only 4.3 light years?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Oort cloud of Solar system is believed to reach as far as 3.2ly. That means Alpha and Proxima Centauri stars are so close that we don't even have to exit our Oort cloud before we are already inside their respective clouds.

Re:Only 4.3 light years?

[Anonymous Coward]

We have probably just discovered the first engine type which does not burn shit up then throw it behind to get more speed. Imagine that. All we have had so far are glorified camp fires as engines.

Re:Only 4.3 light years?

[Anonymous Coward]

It is no more ambitious to say "Let's terraform Mars" than it is to say "Let's go to Alpha Centauri", given that we haven't the faintest idea of how hard each respective project is.

So let's terraform Mars. It'd be way cool.

Re:Only 4.3 light years?

[Anonymous Coward]

Personal travel doesn't matter, it's about round-trip communications, dumbass. Furthermore, it's just a job creation scheme, shit-for-brains.

Re: Only 4.3 light years?

[Anonymous Coward]

Every space propulsion system ever made relies upon newton's third law of motion, dipshit.

Re: Only 4.3 light years?

[popo]

Someone hasn't been reading the news lately.

Defense strategy

[halivar]

If the aliens are hostile, we hope they land in Australia, see the wildlife, and bug out.

we welcome our relative life forms

[Anonymous Coward]

cleaning up our act here so as not to seem as threatening to our friends from near & afar.... give until it stops hurting...

burger and fries

[Anonymous Coward]

damn if i were a fuckin alien i would say yeah give me a burger and fries! sure, why not? I mean, you're a fuckin alien so you have that going for you then you're offered some tasty food! i mean shit you can't deny that. plus some legal weed.

CSIRO is to freedom what Sauron was to sweetness

[gavron]

If CSIRO is involved you can bet whatever they find they'll coat it with so many layers of "intellectual property" nobody will be able to get it without paying through the nose. CSIRO is pure evil.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...

E

e mail marketing

[Disparo Digital]

e mail marketing Turbine suas vendas com e-mail marketing e potencialize suas oportunidades de negócio!

A dingo stole my money

[Anonymous Coward]

I sure hope my taxed income isn't paying for this crap

Re:CSIRO is to freedom what Sauron was to sweetnes

[Anonymous Coward]

wrong, bullshit, lie, and wrong

you must be an American