Says Astronomy 330

•! "These are some of the things Hydrogen atoms do, given 15 billion years of evolution" •! "We are, in the most profound sense, children of the Cosmos" •! "We are star stuff contemplating the stars“ •! “Tell a man that there are 100 billion stars in our Galaxy and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint and he has to touch it.” Warning, not really Carl Sagan quote.

Music: Rocket Man– Elton John

May 5, 2009 Astronomy 330 Spring 2009

Final Papers Final

•! In this classroom May13th, 1330-1630. •! Final papers due at BEGINNING of discussion • Will consist of class on May 6th. ! –! 20 questions on Exam 1 material. •! You must turn final paper in with the graded –! 20 questions on Exam 2 material. rough draft. –! 40 questions from new material. •! Unless you are happy with your rough draft grade –! +4 extra credit questions as you final paper grade, then don’t worry about it. •! A total of 210 points graded out of 200 points. •! A normal-sized sheet of paper with notes on both sides is allowed. •! I will post Exam1 and 2 online on class website. •! I will post a review sheet Online ICES Question

Are you going to fill out an ICES form before the •! ICES forms are available online. deadline? •! I appreciate you filling them out! •! Please make sure to leave written comments. I a)! Yes find these comments the most useful, and typically that’s where I make the most changes to the b)! No course. c)! I don’t want to tell you. •! So far 39/97, so fill them out!

Outline Issues and Incentives

•! Okay, interstellar travel is hard. •! Assume there is intelligent life out there. •! But, our gives a good result •! Will they try to travel to us? •! Have we been visited? –! Is it worth it? –! Exploration? •! If a civilization has been around for 1 million more years than ours… •! But interstellar travel is HARD!!!! •! Back to thinking about autonomous probes.. ET’s Spacecraft? Nikolai Kardashev: Civilization Types Type 0: Not in complete control of planet’s energy •! We really don’t know yet how to get to the stars Understand the basic laws of physics realistically, so we don’t know what advanced Chemical and nuclear propulsion, solar sails civilizations might use. Type I: Harnesses energy output of an entire planet. •! But it is Laser sails. –! Smarter –! Cheaper Type II: Harnesses entire output of their host star. –! Still very informative and –can provide a trillion times more energy than we –! Realistic use on the Earth now. Antimatter drives?

to send an unmanned probe into the stars first Type III: Colonizes and harnesses output of an entire galaxy –! Lighter payload! Use a trillion times the energy of Type II civilizations •! Self-replicating probes? Use a trillion trillion times the energy of Type I civilizations

http://www.unm.edu/~astro1/ET109/types/types.html

Problems to Overcome? Going Interstellar! Maximum Speed Achieved 1.! Space is Big. –! Nothing we can probably do about this one. 2.! Time. –! Because of #1, interstellar travel would take a lot of time. –! But arguably do-able. •! Maybe lifetime is expanded, generation ships, suspended animation, or intelligent robots. Space Shuttle 3.! Cost –! Right now, colossal budget of a few trillion dollars. Impossible now, but in the future? Automobile Plane –! Medieval blacksmiths could have made an oil tanker, but too costly. 500 years later, piece of cake. Train –! In future, cost of interstellar travel may also go down. Horse

Apr 24, 2008 Astronomy 330 Spring 2008 1000 Years? Getting Out of Here •! Distances between stars are much greater than we can •! So in 1000 years from now, we should be able to imagine– freaky big distances, plus difficult environment travel to other stars. But will we? and time consuming makes interstellar travel hard to •! It would be nuts to speculate on what will conceive. •! SciFi books and movies have dramatized space travel to motivate our descendents (if any) 1000 years from make it seem possible now. But if interstellar travel really is easy and –! But, interstellar travel may never happen cheap, surely someone will give it a go?

Getting Out of Here Galaxy Colonization

•! Even the Voyager spacecraft (one of the fastest ever •! If our Drake equation estimate is roughly right, flown) travels at only 20 km/s through space - not even 1% there should be civilizations that are 1 billion of the speed of light. They would take 60,000 years to years old! reach even the nearest star. •! Think of the accomplishments. •! In our discussions, we argue that with foreseeable technology 10% the speed of light is possible. •! Even if interstellar travel is limited to 0.1c, •! Is that enough to expect to see aliens on Earth? civilizations with advanced telescopes could send colonizing craft to new “Earth-like” planets. •! That group regenerates for 500 yrs and sends out another craft. •! An advanced civilization could colonize the entire galaxy in maybe only 5 million yrs! How long to colonize the Galaxy? •! With 0.1c, we can travel 10 Optimistic light years in 100 years •! We can reach the nearest star in 43 years Every 500 years, the colonization craft makes it •! Allow each new colony 500 to the next suitable solar years to duplicate the system– small delay. technology Then, it only takes about 4 •! Colonies could spread out million years! about 50 light years every 3,000 years

Be even more Slow Long Haul Space Travel Or how long pessimistic and use 100,000 years •! Spacecraft that we can to colonize per 50 light years. envision easily would take a lifetime to get to the slower? nearest star. •! Colonizing missions would have to be multi-generation missions. •! Space colonies with propulsion systems would Total time to cover the slow down things, so Galaxy: maybe it would take 1000 yrs or 100,000 for each trip. 1500 hops x 100,000 years •! How many of you would = 150,000,000 years sign up today? A) Yes B) No Apr 24, 2008 Astronomy 330 Spring 2008 The The Fermi Paradox

•! Our estimate for communicable civilizations was around The Drake Equation – Even for 39,700. a few hundred technical •! Given such a large number, one of them must have civilizations. developed earlier than we did. •! So “Where are they?” Only 150 million years •! Even if interstellar travel is very slow and difficult, there to colonize the Galaxy. has been a lot of time to do it. •! Furthermore, many of the objections to interstellar travel do not apply to artificial intelligence WHERE IS EVERYBODY????? (intelligent robots.)

Life on Earth is of One Type? Timescales

•! Life got started on Earth pretty quickly. To some, •! For pessimist: 150 million years to colonize the Galaxy. this suggests that life forms easily, whenever •! For optimist: 4 million years to colonize the Galaxy. conditions are right. •! This may seem like forever, but it is actually pretty tiny •! So why are all creatures on Earth descended from compared to the time it takes evolution (about 0.1%). the same microbe? •! So, if we believe our condition, there should only be one intelligent family of species in our galaxy - whoever •! You can tell from the similarities in our DNA and reached intelligence first should have spread everywhere cells that all living things come from the same before anyone else reaches intelligence. ancestors. Why? •! This is the main point of the Fermi Paradox. • The average time needed to spread over the Earth ! •! Where are they? was much less than the average time to evolve. Not true for the Galaxy. Limits Where is Everyone?

•! So, if we go back to two alternatives - a galaxy packed with billions of intelligent life-forms, and a •! They are around, but we can’t tell yet cold and lonely empty one, Fermi is suggesting –! They are too advanced or alien to recognize or detect that the truth lies closer to the second alternative. –! They don’t bother with us (or traveling or •! Does this seem reasonable? broadcasting) •! There may be a few (or a few hundred) intelligent –! Do civilizations hide to avoid a “galactic scourge?” species out there. –! They are keeping us “quarantined” (the “zoo” or prime directive hypothesis) •! But if there really were billions, we would have –! They’ve been here (or are here), and we don’t know it surely have been visited? –! They are not “technical” in a way we can understand.

Where is Everyone? Or…

There is no ET life on Earth, so there may be 5 possible •! They are not around explanations (according to Michael Hart): 1.! Space travel is not feasible. –! Some factors in Drake equation may be much smaller than we believe – life, or intelligent life, is very rare 2.! Other civilizations have chosen not to colonize. 3.! Other civilizations have not had time to colonize the –! They wipe themselves out too quickly Galaxy. –! Other factors wipe them out too quickly 4.! The Earth has been visited in the past, but we do not –! Life hardly ever develops technical civilizations observe any visitors now. –! There is very little life out there 5.! There are no other advanced civilizations in the Galaxy. –! We are among the first to develop Hart argues against all but #5. He is saying that our Drake Equation result is wrong! Maybe Life is Hard Class Conclusions?

1.! Maybe colonization is much more •! There is no reliable evidence that leads us to difficult than we assume. Might expect robotic probes first, which slows down believe that life exists somewhere else in the the process. universe. 2.! Maybe travelers prefer to explore more than colonize. Overpopulation is not the •! As this class has shown, life is possible, but that is issue. all we know now! 3.! Are planets suitable for life? If one of the 20 amino acids is missing in that life •! May the future enlighten us! system, food is a problem. •! Still, let’s use what we do know and see what sort 4.! By colonization timescale, the space of conclusions we can make. creatures may prefer to stay in space– weightlessness evolution. Comfy •! Is it possible that someone may see a UFO? clothes.

http://www.wesclark.com/am/life.jpg

Fact 1 Fact 2

•! It is possible that ETI life is abundant in our •! If ETI is abundant in our Galaxy, then we expect galaxy that, statistically, there exists or have existed ET civilizations that have achieved a technological –! With 300 billion stars and plenty of opportunities for capability greater than that which we now life to develop. demonstrate– an advanced civilization! –! Our estimate for civilizations was 39,700 right now! –! So, there are clearly arguments for common life. –! The time to reach Type 0 status was about 4.5 billion years on Earth, but it could easily be only 3.5 billion years somewhere else –! An intelligent civilization can do a lot in a billion years Fact 3 Fact 4

•! The distances and times associated with •! It is possible therefore that an ET civilization has interstellar travel are great, but as far as we know, explored our region of the Galaxy, the Sun, and it is conceivably possible that a civilization even our Earth at some point in its history conducts significant interstellar exploration, –! This is not pseudo-science but real logical especially with enough time. consequences of abundant ETI. –! At very least, a more advanced civilization could have sent out nanoprobes across the Galaxy.

Fact 5 What are we left with?

•! We have no reason to believe that this has not •! These are two distinct but still very happened significant claims –! We also have no reason to believe that it has. –! The Earth has been visited by ETs. –! It is an open question. –! The Earth has not been visited by ETs. •! Neither of these statements has been validated. •! So, the only statement we can make is –! We do not know whether or not the Earth has been visited by ETs.

http://www.cgl.uwaterloo.ca/~csk/washington/graphics/logos/validated.gif The ET Visitor Hypothesis UFO Before

•! So far no reliable evidence exists for ET visitation •! First idealized UFOs around 1900. •! In Sacramento in 1896 •! But, the idea that we have been visited and traces •! In England in 1906 exist somewhere is a valid THEORY •! Blimp-like objects with search lights. –! Maybe improbable but still valid

•! Don’t expect people to believe your theory unless it is substantiated with reliable evidence

Flying Saucer UFOed

•! Modern sighting phenomenon •! The popularity is not very from Kenneth Arnold in 1947 surprising who told reporters that while –! Jet planes first introduced at flying a private airplane near the end of World War II Mount Rainier, he saw nine –! Public aware of fast-moving objects that moved like "a aircrafts saucer skipping across the •! 50% of the public believe in water." the existence of UFOs as •! He actually thought they were aliens visiting Earth. government projects. –! Where there’s smoke… •! Picked up by the pulps, and the –! Not all of them can be wrong… number of sightings jumped. UFOs Close Encounters?

•! What is a UFO? Scientific approach– you gotta classify •! Can all/any of these sightings be traced to ETIs? Carl Jung 1.! Nocturnal lights: bright lights •! Stands for Unidentified Flying Object. •! Was introduced as neutral 2.! Daylight lights: usually cigar or disk-like shaped. bureaucratese term to replace the 3.! Radar-visual: those detected by radar emotionally charged term “flying st saucer” 4.! Close encounters of the 1 kind: visual sighting of an •! Originally, the term UFO did not have unidentified object. anything to do with extraterrestrials. 5.! Close encounters of the 2nd kind: visual sightings plus •! Scheme did not work, and now UFO physical effects on animate or inanimate objects has all of the connotations that “flying rd saucer” originally carried. 6.! Close encounters of the 3 kind: sightings of occupants http://www.screensavershot.com/misc/ufo-02a.jpg in or around a UFO.

UFO Study Problems Occam’s Razor

•! Why are UFO sightings hard to explain? •! Sightings must be explained “after the fact” –! Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate [Latin] without complete information. –! Given two equally predictive theories, choose the •! Sightings are based on eyewitness accounts, which simpler. are notoriously unreliable. Or •! Inconsistencies are often ignored. –!The simplest explanation is usually the best. •! Humans seem to have a psychological need to believe in superior beings (!religion?). •! Failure to find a “normal” explanation is not evidence for alien visits. We Need Hard Evidence? UFO Phenomenon •! Some argue that we have proof: •! A probe or remains of a probe somewhere on our planet or in our –! UFO sightings. solar system –! Strange historical accounts or grand technological accomplishments of humans in the past. •! The remains of ET biological activity –! Alien abductions. somewhere on our planet or in the •! This all falls into the realm of pseudo-science. solar system. •! There has never been any concrete evidence of •! ET clearly announce themselves. extraterrestrials having anything to do with UFOs. •! If you expect to have your scientific •! UFOs could be so very many things. Why assume investigation received seriously, you automatically that there is an otherworldly explanation? have to follow simple logic and But those who want to believe will do so even despite common sense evidence to the contrary. –! The rules for the scientific method are just logic and common sense •! In this class, we think that "Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence" - Carl Sagan. http://www.biochem.wisc.edu/wickens/jpgs/2001_spac_odd.jpg

Witness This Pictures •! Pictures are getting close to evidence… •! In a court of law, testimony is used and –! What is in the picture? it has to be judged for legitimacy •! It could be forged (photoshop-ed) –! Bad testimony often gets judged as good and •! It could be a misprint vice verse •! It could be real •! Science is not a court of law –! We don’t know. –! We know that testimony can be flawed, so •! Even if we have a picture or a reliable we can not rely on it as a reliable source of sighting of, say, a space craft the most information logical explanation is still that a human- –! The mind can deceive or be deceived or it made object was seen. can relate observations accurately –! Occam's razor. •! We don’t ever know which for sure –! We know that governments work on advanced projects in secret. –! Without evidence of ET life, this explanation

http://www.buttonhouse.com/catalog/aliens-ufo.html is simplest. http://home.tiscali.be/mathias.appelmans/alien.jpg Ancient ET Visits? Cave Paintings

Wondjina: The •! There are a number of ancient images and artifacts Australian mouthless God of creation. that have been associated with UFOs by modern “UFO researchers”. •! Let’s look at some of those. They’re easy to find on the web– too easy.

•! If we can’t really trust modern isolated More Wondjina photographs…maybe ancient or renaissance paintings?

Some cave pattern from History channel.

Images from an ancient eastern text The Madonna with Saint Giovannino Prajnâpârâmita - Suna

Domenico Ghirlandaio– 15th century. The Annunciation with Saint Emidius The Crucifixion

Carlo Crivelli– 15th century. A fresco above the altar at the Visoki Decani Monestary in Kosovo, Yugoslavia– 14th century.

Apr 29, 2008

Glorification of the Eucharist Symbolic Symbolism

•! Biblical references have become completely incomprehensible to modern man. •! The symbols were a way to express meaning Bonaventura to illiterate populace. Salimbeni – •! Early humans needed a way to express in the Church symbols of god, weather, or whatever and the sky is magical. of San Pietro in 1600 AD.

http://www.sprezzatura.it/Arte/Arte_UFO_6.htm

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jackaram/ Amazing or Psuedoscience Ordinary? •! Although there are numerous examples of interesting paintings, drawings from •! We have no reliable evidence that ET’s helped to build the the middle ages or ancient times can not pyramids or any other amazing artifacts. sensibly be used as evidence of UFO •! We do have plenty of evidence of humans doing extraordinary visitation! things when working in concert –! What is the most logical explanation? •! The most logical explanation is that people saw something in the sky (a comet or meteorite or clouds) and let their imaginations run wild. •! Strange sights do not mean aliens.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jackaram/ http://www.aegypten-online.de/images/giza/pyramid.jpg

Crop Circles Give Me Real Evidence!

•! Evidence: •! Clearly shown to be man-made –! A piece of a probe or spaceship structures. –! Some trace that can be uniquely •! No one has seriously studied them. linked to an ET probe –! Biological material. –! A reliable, logical calculation

•! That is the same we require of ANY scientific investigation http:// www.enterprisemission. jjj http://www.alien-ufos.com/images/ufos/ com/glyph.htm miscufo4.jpg An Example: Meteor 1972 Yikes, a Near Miss

•! A bus sized object entered atmosphere over Utah and exited over Canada •! Velocity of 15 km/sec •! Missed Earth by 58 km

http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/

But… Problems? The large number of sightings argues against alien spacecraft. •! Event was completely unexpected •! Crossed relatively sparsely-inhabited region •! Space is freaky big. •! Only visible for a total of 101 seconds •! There are extreme difficulties of interstellar space travel and the number of planets to explore. •! Visible for no more than 30 seconds at any • So, why would so many alien spacecraft be visiting the earth one spot ! constantly? •! Nonetheless, we have dozens of clear –! There are other planets to check out. photographs of this event –! What makes us so interesting? •! Still we have no comparable images of UFOs. –! We should not overestimate our significance. •! And today digital cameras and camera phones should make unusual events even more seen.

Apr 29, 2008 Propulsion Detection Condon Report

•! Only if interstellar techniques •! There were numerous government studies on the become really easy will visits be possible. topic of UFOs– some very biased. •! We would probably see them •! The main one of importance was the only coming. scientific study of UFOs called the Condon report •! Nuclear fusion and antimatter (1969). propulsion would produce copious gamma rays– easily •! “The report concludes that there is no evidence to detected. justify a belief that extraterrestrial visitors have •! If a spacecraft decelerated from penetrated our skies and not enough evidence to c within 1 AU of the Earth with warrant any further scientific investigation.” mass > few tens of grams would be detected.

http://www.yougottareadthis.com/img/51-on-ufo.jpg

Conspiracy or Science Some Real Facts Disinterest? •! The fact that the majority of humans live in cities with very little familiarity with the sky goes a long way to explaining most •! Government Cover-up? UFO sightings. –! Motive to avoid alarm? •! How many of you have ever seen ball lightning? –! But, 50% already think that aliens have landed •! The planet Venus is mistaken for a UFO all the time because it –! But, U.S. Government notoriously unable to keep is very bright, is often viewed low to the horizon and therefore secrets known by many for a long time experiences atmospheric scintillation which makes its color change rapidly. –! All other governments need to participate in a large- scale conspiracy •! Scientific disinterest? –! Stems from lack of real evidence, not disinterest –! If there was serious evidence, or the chance to obtain

serious evidence, scientists would jump at it http://www.meteoros.de/ufo/venus.htm

Apr 29, 2008 Some Real Facts Alien Abductions •! Have you ever seen a stealth fighter or bomber in flight? •! What about swamp gas? •! Alien abduction stories bare a –! decaying organic matter turns gaseous and on extremely rare resemblance to post traumatic occasions takes on certain properties of luminescence stress disorder. •! Insect swarms flying through electric fields? •! People experience something horrible in their lives and their •! All of these things are in the sky and most people have no idea brains suppress the memories. what they are looking at when they see them. •! The memories remanifest in dream-like states where the mind is highly susceptible to confabulation and fantasy. •! The stories often involve elements that sound like a condition called sleep paralysis.

Apr 29, 2008

Alien Abductions Expect to See

•! When you are in REM sleep and are dreaming your body •! Descriptions of aliens do not reflect the expected diversity paralyzes the major voluntary muscles so that you cannot of life elsewhere, but do reflect psychological biases of injure yourself while you dream. observers. Descriptions are almost always humanoid and •! Sometimes we can fall into dream states before we have usually male become completely unconscious. Our bodies become paralyzed and we can even dream in the state, but yet we are also partially awake. It's called waking dreams it's a real and studied phenomenon. Your Call Open Your Mind?

•! We have no reliable evidence to support actual ET •! Yes, as we have justified, it is possible that an ETI contact. civilization has visited the Earth at some point in •! We have evidence that people historically make its history up stories about things they imagine to be linked •! It is a legitimate scientific question to investigate to a light in the sky this –! So, what is the most logical explanation? •! We need legitimate scientific evidence in order to believe this theory

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