The Great 1947 Sunspot, Roswell, and Coronal Mass Ejections

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Great 1947 Sunspot, Roswell, and Coronal Mass Ejections The Great 1947 Sunspot, Roswell, and Coronal Mass Ejections THE GREAT 1947 SUNSPOT, ROSWELL, AND CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS What Caused the UFO Crash? the Wanderling Just prior to midnight on July 4, 1947 in a scarcely populated area southeast of Corona, New Mexico, a mysterious object apparently disintegrated in the sky, scattering pieces of debris over a wide area of scrub brush and desert ranchland. About thirty-five miles away in the Capitan Mountains and about fifty miles west of Roswell, New Mexico, a second and much heavier object, thought to be connected with the debris found on the ranchland, crashed into the rocks and boulders along the lower north slope of the mountains. The heavier object was neither meteor nor conventional aircraft, but what some have come to believe was a UFO, an Unidentified Flying Object, a flying saucer or flying disc if you like, which since has become known as the ROSWELL UFO. On Tuesday, July 8, 1947 the local http://www.angelfire.com/indie/anna_jones1/roswell-sunspots.html (1 of 14)2/18/2015 3:12:53 AM The Great 1947 Sunspot, Roswell, and Coronal Mass Ejections paper printed a story that a crashed flying saucer had been found on a nearby ranch. The very next day the same local newspaper, the Roswell Daily Record, July 9, 1947, after what has been reported as undue influence from the military, basically retracted the story, saying it was not a saucer or disc, but a weather balloon. According to the Roswell Incident: Updated and elsewhere, two months later, in September, 1947, famed meteorite hunter and scientist Dr. Lincoln La Paz from the University of New Mexico and the founder of the Institute of Meteoritics, and who, while on leave from Ohio State during World War II, served as Research Mathematician at the New Mexico Proving Grounds and as Technical Director, Operations Analysis Section, for the Second Air Force, was selected by the U.S. Army Counter-Intelligence Corps to determine the speed, direction, and trajectory of the craft prior to its crash down --- unusual for an object that officially was construed to be no more than a slow moving wind-borne weather device. Regardless of the officially released party line, the problem for La Paz was twofold. First, he was used to figuring out the trajectories of meteors, so his approach was somewhat unorthodox compared to determining flight paths of aircraft. Secondly, the military recovery teams had done their jobs so well eliminating or smoothing over the sites and creating reluctant witnesses it was difficult initally for him to pinpoint much of anything, accurate trejectory or otherwise. To get around the reluctant witness problem La Paz interviewed a fairly large number of spanish speaking people in and around the general Roswell-Corona area, especially along the suspected flight path, a group that was somehow collectively overlooked by the powers that be. As for the other part, La Paz brought in a mysterious bio-searcher (see) who knew southwest indiginous plants intimately, in order to have him determine if and where any of the growth may have been moved, removed, replanted or tampered with. It was a long and time consuming job covering a span of many days, but eventually the trajectory was figured out. With the trajectory finally in the hands of La Paz and his cohorts they were able to physically backtrack along the flight path. In the process they came across a previously unknown and totally undisturbed area where plants on both sides of a wide swath were wilted and burned, sand fused to glass, and the surface radiating a slight blue hue similar in color to the blue of a swimming pool. No slight blue hue to the ground surface had been observed or reported previously at either the debris field or the impact site, raising the specter that both sites had been reworked. More importantly, the wide swath along the desert floor at the new site was directly in line with the debris field and the Capitan Mountains impact site. http://www.angelfire.com/indie/anna_jones1/roswell-sunspots.html (2 of 14)2/18/2015 3:12:53 AM The Great 1947 Sunspot, Roswell, and Coronal Mass Ejections Photo with thanks to the Clines Corners Operating Company Many, many years later, in a meeting unrelated to any of the above, a discussion between La Paz and the bio-searcher turned to the events at Roswell. The meeting occurred late one afternoon or evening over coffee (beers?) at Clines Corners at the intersection of Route 285 and old Route 66 (now I-40) some 60 miles east of Albuquerque, New Mexico. In conversation with the bio-searcher La Paz concluded the object that went down in the dark that night over New Mexico was an unoccupied probe from another planet. The bio-searcher speculated at most it was probably a Sputnik type thing, an artificial satellite, which at the time of the conversation was a relatively new reality for almost everybody, but some ten years before, in 1947, was something nobody ever heard of --- AND probably why nobody could figure out what it was --- rather than an entry probe of some type. More than likely its orbit began decaying, it started dragging the upper atmosphere, then broke apart scattering the lightweight and apparently what was left over unburnable material, including a few pieces described as I-beams inscribed with Hieroglyphic Writing, all over the desert floor. The much larger and heavier object, possibly a shuttle craft, entry vehicle, remote control drone, or unmanned search unit of some sort, ending up on the side of the Capitan Mountains, going down for unknown reasons in an effort to locate or retrieve the downed satellite --- AND no doubt, the primary reason for so much radar activity reported over the central New Mexico area in the days preceding the crash. The bio-searcher suggests to La Paz it was quite possible the craft may have landed previously, and maybe even on more than one occasion to pick up or obtain the most important material or parts, thus the reason why only so much of nothing but scraps and pieces remained at the debris field. (source) The question is, if it was an artifical satellite of some type WHY did its orbit began http://www.angelfire.com/indie/anna_jones1/roswell-sunspots.html (3 of 14)2/18/2015 3:12:53 AM The Great 1947 Sunspot, Roswell, and Coronal Mass Ejections decaying and start dragging the upper atmosphere? If it was of non-Earth origin why wouldn't the technology of whoever or whatever put it into orbit be at such a level that such an occurrance would not happen? We put satellites into orbit around the Moon, Mars, and other planets regularly nowdays, but we always do so remotely. And when we do, we put them into place taking into consideration the various space and space related environmental factors as they exist at the moment, or at least, to the best of our ability to predict. Plus, there is always a half time and round trip time delay between the communication control factor at the receiving end and back that must be considered. The same would probably be true for whoever or whatever was responsible for what came down over Roswell. At the time of the reported crash the Sun was just at the peak of its sunspot cycle and that year, 1947, the largest sunspot ever recorded on the surface of the Sun appeared, lasting for months, an event that may not have been built into any orbital equation. If you look at the graph below you will see how large it was and how much larger it was over any previous time or since: 1947 http://www.angelfire.com/indie/anna_jones1/roswell-sunspots.html (4 of 14)2/18/2015 3:12:53 AM The Great 1947 Sunspot, Roswell, and Coronal Mass Ejections So, what does that have to do with anything? Areas on the Sun near sunspots often flare up, heating material to millions of degrees in just seconds, causing Coronal Mass Ejections (CME's) which blast billions of tons of ionized gas into space millions of miles per hour. If the gas bundle goes off at the right spot on the sun so it can intercept the Earth it can set off geomagnetic storms that can damage satellites in space and shut down electrical power and power grids.[1] The Sun is also the source of the solar wind; a flow of gases from the Sun that streams past the Earth at speeds of more than a million miles per hour. Disturbances in the solar wind shake the Earth's magnetic field and pump energy into the radiation belts. http://www.angelfire.com/indie/anna_jones1/roswell-sunspots.html (5 of 14)2/18/2015 3:12:53 AM The Great 1947 Sunspot, Roswell, and Coronal Mass Ejections The largest sunspot ever recorded.** It stayed active for months in 1947. Pictured above in a photograph taken April 7th. The solar wind and space plasma storms induce massive electrical currents that can affect power systems. In 1989 a massive solar storm was the genesis of currents in the northeastern part of the North American continent that caused a failure in the Hydro-Quebec power system depriving six million people of power for over nine hours in Canada and the United States. The same storm expanded the upper atmosphere and increased drag on a NASA satellite, although NASA was able to recover it before it re-entered the atmosphere.
Recommended publications
  • Cosmic Search Issue 02
    North American AstroPhysical Observatory (NAAPO) Cosmic Search: Issue 2 (Volume 1 Number 2; March 1979) [All Articles & Miscellaneous Items] Webpage Table of Contents (Bookmarks) (Internal links to items in this webpage) [Note. Use Back button (or <Alt>+<Left Arrow>) to get back to this Table of Contents after you have clicked on a link and viewed the article.] Codes Used Below: P: Starting page of article in magazine; A: Author(s); T: Title of article P: 2; A: Carl Sagan; T: The Quest for Extraterrestrial Intelligence P: 9; A: Editors; T: Letters; SETI Courses P: 10; A: Don Lago; T: Circles of Stone and Circles of Steel P: 15; A: Bernard M. Oliver; T: Editorial: Let's Get SETI Through Congress P: 16; A: Gerard K. O'Neill & John Kraus; T: Gerard K. O'Neill on "Space Colonization and SETI" P: 24; A: Editors; T: A Single Vote (An Historical Fable by Sedgewick Seti) P: 25; A: Richard Berendzen; T: The Case for SETI P: 30; A: Editors; T: The SEnTInel (SETI News) P: 35; A: Jerome Rothstein; T: Generalized LIfe P: 39; A: John Kraus; T: ABCs of SETI P: 47; A: Editors; T: In Review: P: 48; A: R. N. Bracewell; T: Man's Role in the Galaxy P: 52; A: Mirjana Gearhart; T: Off the Shelf P: various; A: Editors; T: Miscellaneous: Information from the Editors, Quotes & Graphics ● Information About the Publication (Editorial Board, Editors, Table of Contents) ● Coming in COSMIC SEARCH ● Cosmic Calendar ● Distance Table ● Glossary ● SEARCH AWARDS ● SEARCH PUZZLE; Solution to Jan. 1979 Puzzle ● Miscellaneous Quotes ● Miscellaneous Photos ● Miscellaneous Graphics The Quest for Extraterrestrial Intelligence By: Carl Sagan [Article in magazine started on page 2] A masterful overview of SETI and its meaning to humanity — a classic — Eds.
    [Show full text]
  • Artificial Intelligence for Interstellar Travel
    Artificial Intelligence for Interstellar Travel Andreas M. Hein1 and Stephen Baxter2 1Initiative for Interstellar Studies, Bone Mill, New Street, Charfield, GL12 8ES, United Kingdom 2c/o Christopher Schelling, Selectric Artists, 9 Union Square 123, Southbury, CT 06488, USA. November 20, 2018 Abstract The large distances involved in interstellar travel require a high degree of spacecraft autonomy, realized by artificial intelligence. The breadth of tasks artificial intelligence could perform on such spacecraft involves maintenance, data collection, designing and constructing an infrastructure using in-situ resources. Despite its importance, exist- ing publications on artificial intelligence and interstellar travel are limited to cursory descriptions where little detail is given about the nature of the artificial intelligence. This article explores the role of artificial intelligence for interstellar travel by compiling use cases, exploring capabilities, and proposing typologies, system and mission archi- tectures. Estimations for the required intelligence level for specific types of interstellar probes are given, along with potential system and mission architectures, covering those proposed in the literature but also presenting novel ones. Finally, a generic design for interstellar probes with an AI payload is proposed. Given current levels of increase in computational power, a spacecraft with a similar computational power as the human brain would have a mass from dozens to hundreds of tons in a 2050 { 2060 timeframe. Given that the advent of the first interstellar missions and artificial general intelligence are estimated to be by the mid-21st century, a more in-depth exploration of the re- lationship between the two should be attempted, focusing on neglected areas such as protecting the artificial intelligence payload from radiation in interstellar space and the role of artificial intelligence in self-replication.
    [Show full text]
  • AST 309L Fall 2008: Scalo TOPIC 1. Convergence of Intelligence
    AST 309L Fall 2008: Scalo Review sheet for fifth (and last) exam Outline of topics and readings; suggested end-of-chapter questions; sample exam questions. TOPIC 1. Convergence of intelligence Textbook sec. 6.5 Human evolution. The primary thing to look for are the most important developments that the authors list, and that I listed in lecture, that may have led to the development of our kind(s) of intelligence. You should know roughly how long ago the following occurred: modern humans; hominids; great apes; prosimians. What is the characteristic most associated with Homo habilis? Homo erectus? 12.2 Intelligence Convergence or string of fluky events? That is the (main) question. You should be able to argue it either way. ---> Material already completed in lecture. In addition to the material in the book (mostly encephalization quotient trends), we discussed the genome- perspective on convergence of intelligence. Since this is not in the text, a two- page summary will be made available as a handout (and online). TOPIC 2. SETI searches Textbook 12.3 Searching for intelligence, pp. 410-425. (SETI) You should be familiar with: Search strategies, proposed encoding and signaling techniques, bandwidth, “magic frequencies,” ongoing SETI programs. SETI programs past and present: You should know something about Ozma, Ohio State “wow signal,” Phoenix, SERENDIP, SETI@home, Allen Telescope Array, and optical SETI in general (but no specific programs). You don’t need to know any numbers related to these programs. ---> We will finish this up at beginning of Tuesday's lecture. A full pdf of the lecture material on SETI is available at the course website (put there Monday).
    [Show full text]
  • De Fermi-Paradox De Fermi-Paradox
    De Fermi-paradox De Fermi-paradox Waar zijn ze dan?????? • Vraag!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! • 0/ oorsprong v/d Fermi Paradox • 1/ het idee van ETI zelf • 2/ onderliggende principes • 3/ Is er elders leven? (elders dan op Aarde) • 4/ Maar is er hoger/intelligent leven? • 5/ Als ze er zijn, hadden ze al hier moeten zijn! • 6/ De Drake nonsens (?) • 7/ Van OZMA tot nu • 8/ Waarom zijn ze er niet? • 9/ De boodschap zelf • 10/ Stilte… op de radio • 11/ Stuur een ‘self replicating’ probe • 12/ Zelf op weg • 13/ Ze zijn er niet… alias… Hoe zit het met… ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence ETI Buitenaards intelligent leven ETI Zonder twijfel: Het meest fascinerende onderwerp in sterrenkunde met allicht bijzonder belangrijke inzichten voor de toekomst van de mensheid Eerst een snelle ‘poll’ Wie is ervan overtuigd dat er elders, buiten de Aarde, intelligent leven is? Wel / Niet Attentie: ‘overtuigd’ De vraag is niet: ‘wie gelooft dat er elders…. etc.’ WAAROM? Op welke basis heb je die overtuiging opgebouwd? Feiten? Bewijzen? Probleem… Als ‘ze’ er zijn… Waar zijn ze dan? Waarom zijn ze niet hier, bij ons????? De Fermi Paradox O/ Oorsprong v/d Fermi Paradox Enrico Fermi • 1901 – 1954 • Italo-Amerikaan • 1938 Nobel Fysica • Chicago Pile-1 / 2 dec 1942 • Manhattan Project / Los Alamos • O.a. Fermilab (onder tribune van ‘football’ veld) Tijdsgeest • Post WO II & Koude Oorlog • Spanningen / schrik /angst: USA<>USSR • Nieuwe vliegtuigen, prille technol (radar…) • Begin van ‘moderne UFO waarnemingen’ • = Kenneth Arnold 24 juni 1947 Ook in België… “Where is everybody?” •
    [Show full text]
  • Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP)
    Journal of Scientifi c Exploration, Vol. 27, No. 3, pp. 415–453, 2013 0892-3310/13 RESEARCH ARTICLE Unidentifi ed Aerial Phenomena (UAP) A New Hypothesis toward Their Explanation DANIEL M. GROSS 15 rue Bachelin, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland [email protected] Submitted 12/4/2012, Accepted 4/11/2013, Pre-Published 8/15/2013 Abstract—For six decades now luminous and other unidentifi ed aerial phe- nomena (UAP) have been sighted worldwide in large numbers. Extensive scientifi c unidentifi ed aerial phenomena observations have been made over the last 26 years in Hessdalen, Norway. The optical properties of lumi- nous UAPs have been described in detail, but all eff orts to explain them by terrestrial causes have failed. Earlier scientifi c attempts to explain UAPs by extraterrestrial visitation (ETV) have failed as well. A new ETV hypothesis is proposed which aims at causally explaining all luminous UAP sightings in Hessdalen and most elsewhere. To this end a galactic neighborhood sce- nario and model is defi ned. It explains why a stealth ETV probe equipped with artifi cial intelligence (AI) has been built by an exo-civilization and sent in a historical past into our solar system. It states that this extraterrestrial visitation probe (ETVP), now orbiting the earth, occasionally sends a stealth electromagnetic beam (SEMB) down into the atmosphere. It explains in de- tail how such an SEMB produces luminous UAPs by means of a nonlinear photonic mechanism which, as such, has been known and investigated since 1995 as a branch of current femtosecond physics. This photon mecha- nism is further developed into a UAP-A and a UAP-B model.
    [Show full text]
  • The Initiative and Institute for Interstellar Studies Issue 29 | May 2020
    PRINCIPIUM The Initiative and Institute for Interstellar Studies Issue 29 | May 2020 ISSN 2397-9127 www.i4is.org ■ Cassidy Cobbs - Bioscientist ■ Interstellar News ■ The Interstellar Ram Jet at 60 ■ IAC2019 the Interstellar Papers #3 ■ FAST radio telescope & Breakthrough Listen ■ Rings round exoplanets - possible megastructures R O ■ Mariner model part 2: The initial construction phase F E V ■ i4is Members Page I T A I ■ Freeman Dyson (1923-2020) T I N I ■ Feasibility of self-replicating probes for interstellar exploration ■ Book Review: Religions and Extraterrestrial Life S T U D I E S Scientia ad sidera Principium | Issue 29 | May 2020 1 Knowledge to the stars our own planet, see the review of Seveneves by Neil Stephenson in P20. Editorial Andreas Hein celebrates the life of Freeman Dyson Welcome to issue 29 of Principium, the quarterly (1923-2020), deviser of both profound mathematics about all things interstellar from i4is, the Initiative and mind boggling structures - and a founder and Institute for Interstellar Studies. member of our Advisory Council. The front cover image is a new visualisation of The book Religions and Extraterrestrial Life by a Bussard ramjet by an old friend and colleague, David Weintraub looks at the reaction we might Alex Storer (thelightdream.net). This year we mark expect to a successful SETI. John Davies reviews it the 60th anniversary of the publication of the paper and recommends it with a few reservations. Galactic Matter and Interstellar Flight by Robert China has built the gigantic FAST radio telescope. W Bussard (Acta Astronautica, VI, pp 179-195, We examine how this will work with the 1960), The distinguished spacecraft engineer and Breakthrough Listen SETI initiative.
    [Show full text]
  • UGS303 Extraterrestrial Life Review Questions for Fourth Exam Spring 2014
    UGS303 Extraterrestrial Life Review Questions for Fourth Exam Spring 2014 This test covers Chapters 8 through 10 plus Contact. That means it covers the results for the Drake equation, communication, and travel. It will ask you for your values for N and r, and for an analysis of the consequences of your numbers. Bring your Drake Equation to the test with only the numbers filled in and turn it in with the test. A. Evaluation of the Drake Equation 1. Two students have evaluated their Drake Equations. Happy Feller gets N = 2.5 × 1011, while Mr. Average Guy gets N = 9.4 × 105. Who will calculate the larger r? How many stars would one have to search before finding the nearest civilization, given each of their estimates for N? 2. Another student, Angela Angst, takes L = 100 years. Does Angela think two-way messages are possible? What does it mean if your estimate for N is less than one? 3. Given your estimate for N, would you expect your estimate for r to go up or down if the Sun were closer to the center of the galaxy? B. Communication with Extraterrestrial Civilizations 1. Describe the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, identifying the various wavelength regions. Indicate which are higher in frequency and shorter in wavelength. 2. Why are radio waves generally favored as the wavelength region for interstellar communication? What range of frequencies is best? What are the arguments for this range? Answer for both planets with and without atmospheres like Earth’s. 3. Explain three suggestions for “magic” frequencies.
    [Show full text]
  • GLORY Nglorynglorynglorynglorynglorynglorynglorynglorynglorynglorynglorynglorynglorynglory GLORY 1
    GLORY nGLORYnGLORYnGLORYnGLORYnGLORYnGLORYnGLORYnGLORYnGLORYnGLORYnGLORYnGLORYnGLORYnGLORY GLORY 1 Glory is a starter scenario for Eclipse Phase. It sets seed AI capability and was later infected by the Ex- the player characters on the path of a missing person surgent virus. It is of particular interest to Firewall and leads them into a twisted den of horrors. It in- because some of the hardware from its primary locus, cludes numerous tips for gamemasters new to running a military satellite in an Earth-Moon Lagrange orbit, Eclipse Phase. was known to have survived the Battle of L4. Myrmidon was recovered by the Yokyai Kong, a Thai-led southeast Asian evac fleet. The Kong hoped MISSION HOOK to gain an edge in the desperate war against the Professor Magnus Qiao-sen Ming needs a team to TITANs by studying it. The hardware, including the investigate the fate of Tara Yu, who is both a colleague storage modules, was taken to the Thai government- of Ming’s at Titan Autonomous University (TAU) and a in-exile onboard Vishnukam, the Yokyai Kong’s main Firewall proxy. Yu was a crow (an investigator into po- habitat, under control of Air Marshal Viprakasit. tential x-risks; see p. 358, EP). She was last heard from Before the hardware could be studied, however, it while on the trail of a set of hardware memory modules was lost during an infamous incident known as the thought to contain a partial archive of Myrmidon, a Oxygen Deck Riots. pre-Fall military AGI that became one of the TITANs. The Oxygen Deck Riots were a minor but tragic Studying its code might provide important clues as to incident sparked by the Thai government’s controver- the origin of the TITANs—and possibly their fate.
    [Show full text]
  • Astrobiológia
    Astrobiológia UTV, 18.3.2021 RNDr. Tomáš Paulech, PhD. KAFZM, FMFI UK „Jediné zrno na veľkom poli je rovnako čudné ako jediný svet v nekonečnom vesmíre“ Metrodorus (400BC, študent Demokrita) Vo vesmíre sú rádovo stovky miliárd galaxii. V každej galaxii sú stovky miliárd hviezd a ešte viac planét. Existuje iba jediný život? Astrobiológia – základné otázky • Čo je život? Ako na Zemi vznikol a ako sa vyvíjal? • Existuje život inde vo vesmíre? Je unikát alebo zákonitosť? • Akú limity sú pre život určujúce? Sú univerzálne? • Ako hľadať života na iných vesmírnych telesách a na akých? • Aká je pravdepodobnosť nájsť inteligentné formy života a ako s nimi komunikovať? • Môžeme osídliť iné vesmírne telesá a za akú cenu (pre nás aj pre hostiteľskú planétu)? Astrobiológia – mozaika disciplín Geo- a Chémia Biochémia Biológia Od neživého neživého Od a evolúcia a k živému života Pôvod Biomarkery: Astronómia Atmosferická Chemické stopy Definícia a chémia Prvotného života detekcia Proto Rover Mis ie Zem Planetarne Geológia Vesmírne vedy technológie Filozofia, Etika Adaptované podľa Gargaud et al., 2018 Definície a vlastnosti života Život – míľniky hľadania podstaty • -4. stor. - Empedokles : „ život má dušu, ktorá je z atómov ohňa “ • 17. stor. - Vitalizmus - „élan vital“ dáva život - spontánny vznik života vďaka „životnej sile“ • 1676 – A. van Leeuwenhoek - mikroskop a pozorovanie mikroorganizmov – baktérií a kvasiniek (jednobunkových húb) • 1859 - Charles Darwin – O pôvode Druhov • 1866 – Gregor Mendel – zákony genetiky • od 19. stor – organická chémia – život používa bežné molekuly (močovina, vitamín C,...) • 1920 – A.Oparin+J.B.S.Haldane – teória abiogenézy • 1939 – Winston Churchill – Are we alone? (novoobjavená esej) • 1944 – Erwin Schroedinger – What is life? • 1952 – Urey+Miller experiment (organické zlúčeniny) • 1953 – Franklinová, Watson, Crick – molekulárna štruktúra DNA • 2003 – Human genome projekt – sekvenovanie kompletného genómu Urey-Millerov experiment “A Production of Amino Acids under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions,” Stanley L.
    [Show full text]
  • Looking for Lurkers: Objects Co-Orbital with Earth As SETI Observables
    Looking for Lurkers: Objects Co-orbital with Earth as SETI Observables James Benford Microwave Sciences, 1041 Los Arabis Lane, Lafayette, CA 94549 USA [email protected] Abstract A recently discovered group of nearby co-orbital objects is an attractive location for extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) to locate a probe to observe Earth while not being easily seen. These near-Earth objects provide an ideal way to watch our world from a secure natural object. That provides resources an ETI might need: materials, a firm anchor, concealment. These have been little studied by astronomy and not at all by SETI or planetary radar observations. I describe these objects found thus far and propose both passive and active observations of them as possible sites for ET probes. 1. Introduction Alien astronomy at our present technical level may have detected our biosphere many millennia ago. Perhaps one or more such alien civilization was drawn in recently, by radio signals emanating from our world. Or maybe it has resided in our solar system for centuries, millennia or longer. Long-lived robotic lurkers could have been sent to observe Earth long ago. If properly powered, and capable of self- repair (von Neumann probes), they could report science and intelligence bacK to their origin over very long time scales. Long-lived alien societies may do this to gather science for the larger communicating societies in our galaxy. I will call such a probe a ‘LurKer’, a hidden observing probe which may respond to an intentional signal and may not, depending on unKnown alien motivations. (Here Lurkers are assumed to be robotic.) Observing ‘nearer-Earth objects’ would explore the possibility that there are nearby ‘exotic’ probes that we could discover or excite.
    [Show full text]
  • Fermi Paradox from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia Jump To: Navigation, Search
    Fermi paradox From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the absence of evidence for extraterrestrial intelligence. For the type of estimation problem, see Fermi problem. For the music album, see Fermi Paradox (album). For the short story, see The Fermi Paradox Is Our Business Model. A graphical representation of the Arecibo message – Humanity's first attempt to use radio waves to actively communicate its existence to alien civilizations The Fermi paradox (or Fermi's paradox) is the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilization and humanity's lack of contact with, or evidence for, such civilizations.[1] The basic points of the argument, made by physicists Enrico Fermi and Michael H. Hart, are: • The Sun is a young star. There are billions of stars in the galaxy that are billions of years older; • Some of these stars likely have Earth-like planets[2] which, if the Earth is typical, may develop intelligent life; • Presumably some of these civilizations will develop interstellar travel, as Earth seems likely to do; • At any practical pace of interstellar travel, the galaxy can be completely colonized in just a few tens of millions of years. According to this line of thinking, the Earth should have already been colonized, or at least visited. But no convincing evidence of this exists. Furthermore, no confirmed signs of intelligence elsewhere have been spotted, either in our galaxy or the more than 80 billion other galaxies of the
    [Show full text]
  • ASTROCHALLENGE 2016 SUMMARY BOOKLET Table Of
    ASTROCHALLENGE 2016 SUMMARY BOOKLET Table of Contents The Beginning of Everything ........................................................................................ 2 Basic Celestial Mechanics ............................................................................................. 4 The Solar System and Extrasolar Systems ..................................................................... 5 Stellar Evolution ........................................................................................................... 7 Relativity ...................................................................................................................... 9 Practical Astronomy ................................................................................................... 11 Observational Techniques in Astronomy and Empirical Applications.......................... 13 Astrobiology ............................................................................................................... 15 The Fate of the Universe ............................................................................................ 23 Further Readings ........................................................................................................ 24 Page 1 of 25 The Beginning of Everything In the beginning, there was nothing. Then, there was something… Starring: Everything we know, and everything that we don’t (dark matter and dark energy) Time, T+… Description 0 BANG! For the first few moments, conditions are so intense, we simply can’t describe
    [Show full text]