If technologically-advanced alien civilizations are indeed out there, would they be friendly explorers, or destroyers of worlds? According to prominent astrophysicist Lucianne Walkowicz, who works on NASA's Kepler mission, making contact could be catastrophic for the human race: "There's a possibility that if we actively message, with the intention of getting the attention of an intelligent civilization that the civilization we contact would not necessarily have our best interests in mind."
Now, thanks both to
space-based projects like NASA's Kepler Mission, as well as research teams
searching with Earth-bound telescopes (such as the one that recently discovered
a planet orbiting our neighbor star, Proxima Centauri)," Walkowicz, an
astronomer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago who studies stellar magnetic
activity and its influence on planetary habitability using data from NASA's
Kepler Mission.
Walkowicz wrote in the
Scientific American blog, “We know that the Galaxy is awash in planets. There
are literally so many planets, in fact, that when you gaze into the night sky,
each star is likely the sun of another world. By and large, these planets are
worlds roughly the size of Earth-- a tantalizing hint that, while we have yet
to find life elsewhere, the potential real estate abounds."
About the recently discover
planet Proxima b orbiting our closest neighboring star, she writes: "We
have an example of the kind of environment that might be typical: one lit
mostly by soft, infrared light, but also zapped frequently by high energy
radiation. Let me tell you: if you ever want to make a room full of Department
of Defense employees laugh nervously, tell them the nearest life to Earth might
be radiation-hardened aliens who have naturally evolved infrared heat
vision."
The Kepler astronomer's
favorite thought experiment is to "consider the implications of
challenging planetary environments on our chances for recognizing— or
communicating with— intelligent life beyond our own world. I imagine a universe
filled with rocky planets around little red stars, and on days I'm feeling
optimistic, I imagine the atmospheres of these worlds have survived. Global
oceans protect surface life from the vagaries of stellar irradiation, and
intelligent (even technologically advanced) life might be more akin to the
dolphins of our own planet. What would the relationship of this underwater life
be to the sky, and to its place in space?"
Walkowicz learned to love
the dark stellar denizens of our galaxy, the red dwarfs, which became the topic
of her PhD dissertation at University of Washington.
Today, she works on NASA’s
Kepler mission, studying starspots and the tempestuous tantrums of stellar
flares to understand stellar magnetic fields. She is particularly interested in
how the high energy radiation from stars influences the habitability of planets
around alien suns. Lucianne is also a leader in the Large Synoptic Survey
Telescope, a new project that will scan the sky every night for 10 years to
create a huge cosmic movie of our Universe.
"It could be something
that ends life on Earth, Walkowitz concludes, "and it might be something
that accelerates the ability to live quality lives on Earth. We have no way of
knowing." But our current searches for intelligent life have pressed
onward with only limited time and funding, searching for a relatively
conscribed set of specific signals.
"While scientists are
often loathe to say that we live in a special time," she observed,
"in some sense we do: we stand at the dawn of knowing that the universe
teems with worlds, but not yet knowing if we are alone. At this moment, we must
be keenly cognizant of how far we have to go. Otherwise, our assumptions about
the completeness of our search, the universality (or not) of the values we
hold, and our inability to communicate even with species we share the same
swimming space with, will blind us to the possibilities— and limitations— of
what we might come to know about life in the universe."
Via DailyGalaxy
Why oh why do scientists have to equate human frailties and fault to a whole other species of being? It is shortsighted and not very bright. Just because someone has a degree in astrophysics does not make them a knower of all things and possibilities.
ReplyDeleteFirst assuming that e.t.’s are intelligent and have mastered their universe,means they have overcome obstacles and dangers associated with nukes and other technological risks. They would likely be aware that life is unique and rare, therefore moe respectful of life as a whole.
They have survived wiping out their own species and long ago found war nothing but pointless and cruel.
Why should we assume they will be hostile and take over for resources that they themselves have used up. They simply would have already destroyed themselves through wars over it or died from whatever cause that created the need in the first place. You cannot survive after your own environment has been destroyed, let alone have made the technology of space travel at possible light speeds a priority when everything else is dying.
Human beings are primitive, reptilian- brained and territorial and look how far we have come.
We are in the process of destroying our rare and precious planet through resource waste, contaminated our air, water, food. Not to mention our childish belief in a skygod and constant warring over it. How the hell will we make it at this rate?
This is why change is essential, peace is necessary and the realization that we are all connected to our one and only parent, The Cosmos.
Without this we and any other civilizations like ours are doomed to extinction.