NASA: Humans Will Prove We Are Not Alone

Discussion in 'Astronomy, Exobiology, & Cosmology' started by StrangerInAStrangeLand, Jul 24, 2014.

  1. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    NASA: Humans Will Prove ‘We Are Not Alone In The Universe’ Within 20 Years

    Benjamin Fearnow July 15, 2014

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    NASA predicts that 100 million worlds in our own Milky Way galaxy may host alien life, and space program scientists estimate that humans will be able to find life within two decades.

    Cambridge, Mass. (CBS CONNECTICUT) – NASA predicts that 100 million worlds in our own Milky Way galaxy may host alien life, and space program scientists estimate that humans will be able to find life within two decades.

    Speaking at NASA’s Washington headquarters on Monday, the space agency outlined a plan to search for alien life using current telescope technology, and announced the launch of the Transiting Exoplanet Surveying Satellite in 2017. The NASA administrators and scientists estimate that humans will be able to locate alien life within the next 20 years.

    “Just imagine the moment, when we find potential signatures of life. Imagine the moment when the world wakes up and the human race realizes that its long loneliness in time and space may be over — the possibility we’re no longer alone in the universe,” said Matt Mountain, director and Webb telescope scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which plans to launch the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018.

    “What we didn’t know five years ago is that perhaps 10 to 20 per cent of stars around us have Earth-size planets in the habitable zone,” added Mountain. “It’s within our grasp to pull off a discovery that will change the world forever.”

    Describing their own estimates as “conservative,” the NASA planet hunters calculate that 100 million worlds within the Milky Way galaxy are able to sustain complex alien life forms. The estimate accounts for the 17 billion Earth-sized worlds scientists believe to be orbiting the galaxy’s 100 billion stars.

    The NASA panel says that ground-based and space-based technology – including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Kepler Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope – will be able to determine the presence of liquid water, an essential sign of potential alien life.

    “I think in the next 20 years we will find out we are not alone in the universe,” said NASA astronomer Kevin Hand, who suggested that alien life may exist on Jupiter’s Europa moon.

    “Do we believe there is life beyond Earth?” asked former astronaut and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “I would venture to say that most of my colleagues here today say it is improbable that in the limitless vastness of the universe we humans stand alone.”

    The NASA panel said efforts are focused on finding signs of alien life on planets on other stars outside of our solar system.

    “Sometime in the near future, people will be able to point to a star and say, ‘that star has a planet like Earth’,” said Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. “Astronomers think it is very likely that every single star in our Milky Way galaxy has at least one planet.”

    – Benjamin Fearnow
     
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  3. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    It's out there somewhere, sometime.
    If we were alone, then that would truly be a miracle, and raise far many more questions then it would, when we find other life.
     
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  5. andy1033 Truth Seeker Valued Senior Member

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    I still reckon at end of ww2 this was all decided. Thats why the whole cold war was made to weaponise the earth and make all the mind control techs to control all the masses.

    Shows you how long they plan for this, and i am sure it was planned long ago how long to wait, and how much control should be in place before they announce that stuff. So its interesting that nasa says this today, as i am sure the mind control techs are at a level of control that would keep the masses from freaking out to much.

    So if it comes in my life fine, but if not i do not really care as i beleieve they have always been here, but just in ww2 we became a threat to finding them with our new techs.

    Also shows how long it takes to condition the public to new things.
     
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  7. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    And if they are wrong who's to remember this statement 20 years from now? That's going to be a very expensive search and time consuming when other things are needed to be studied.
     
  8. Dinosaur Rational Skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    The history of the Earth strongly supports the notion that life exists elsewhere in the universe. It occurred here circa 3.7 billion years ago. That is close to the earliest time that it was possible, indicating that it will occur whenever conditons are suitable for tis existence.

    The more interesting issue is the existence of technological cultures elsewhere. Due to the following I expect tecnologicalcultures to be rare.

    The dinosaurs existed for circa 150 billion years. The last of them were no closer to a technological culture than the first ones.

    The Neandertals & Denisovans had as much potential as Homo Sapiens, but never developed past a Stone Age culture.

    The octopus seems to have a lot of potential for intelligence. However, it is incredibly successful in its enironment. It can move in 3 dimensions. It can easily capture its prey & has no serious predators or competition. There is no evolutionary pressure for improvement.​
    I have posted the above to other threads.
     
  9. dumbest man on earth Real Eyes Realize Real Lies Valued Senior Member

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    Dinosaur, I am fairly certain that you meant to state : 150 million years.
     
  10. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    Pretty much the same could be said for Homo Sapiens until very recently. The dinosaur & the octopus on Earth are absolutely no indication of what is out there on other planets. Looking at life on only 1 planet is no basis for knowledge or expectations of what life is like on hundreds or trillions of other planets.
     
  11. andy1033 Truth Seeker Valued Senior Member

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    Sacred geometry shows us that life and how it develops has rules. So although we cannot say for sure what life exists, we can say with same conditions of earth, its likely that similar things will have grown and developed.

    Conciousness probably is similar everywhere, well at least in our galaxy or universe.

    So you are right to say we cannot know what happened elsewhere, we can be sure certain rules were followed as conciousness everywhere will be the same, well at least in our galaxy at least and maybe our universe.
     
  12. StrangerInAStrangeLand SubQuantum Mechanic Valued Senior Member

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    What is sacred geometry???
     
  13. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    Sure, quite possible..quite rare.
    Now lets look at the question of this rareity.
    One time per stellar system?...one time per galaxy?...One time per galactic grouping?
    Even if we take the third unlikely possibility, that would still mean in the billions...
    But again, you raise your rather pessimistic attitude about SETI and ETL at least once every 6 months, and you have openly admitted to doing it to get a raise out of people. :shrug:

    The important thing to realise is that the likelyhood of ETI near to our own, and also above and beyond our own most likely exists or has existed.
    Searching for that intelligence, or signs of that Intelligence, is a great task that deserves far more praise then it currently gets.
    Even if that chance is one in a million.
    The same praise need also to be given to the many companies and orginizations undergoing alternative propulsion methods for eventual stellar travel.
    Companies such as Tau Zero, Planetary Resourses and the 100 year star ship company.
    To put it in basic layman's [paddoboy language] "We are not born to stagnate on this fart arse little blue orb"

    It's just a shame that those two evil variables [economics and politics] are at present holding back advances in both subjects I have touched on...ETI and stellar travel.​
     
  14. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    Sounds like we have another God botherer
     
  15. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    So improbable, that if it were true, it would indeed be a miracle.
    And I would get down on my knees shouting glory! glory! glory! Hallelujah !
     
  16. dumbest man on earth Real Eyes Realize Real Lies Valued Senior Member

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    'Sounds like we have another God botherer'
     
  17. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    Apologies dmoe...I keep forgetting how you have problems interpreting things I say correctly.

    You see the point I'm making is that life off this Earth, at all levels of intelligence is almost certainly factual, for many reasons I have stated before...Universal extent, Universal content and numbers, and the stuff of life being everywhere we look...add some simple Chemistry and voila!
    Just as we have scientific theories, that are so set in concrete, that to deny them, would be quite stupid and unreasonable....SR, GR, Evolution and Abiogenesis are in that group.

    So then me being a God Botherer is just plain inane and crazy to even suggest.

    I hope that helps.
     
  18. Beaconator Valued Senior Member

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    The history channel and the age of the universe suggests human life just isn't worth mention.
     
  19. Dinosaur Rational Skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    DumbestManOnEarth: From your Post #6
    You are 100% correct. I usually proof read my Posts, but was in a hurry for this one.

    The 20 year prediction is an interesting ploy. If no proof is found, the remark will have been forgotten. If proof is found, the author of the remark can say
    He cannot lose.
     
  20. dumbest man on earth Real Eyes Realize Real Lies Valued Senior Member

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    So...you "keep forgetting", but I am the one with problems?!

    As far as my 'quoting' your statement : Both single (in the U.S.) and double (in Britain) quotations are sometimes used as scare quotes, that is, as a way of emphasizing a word or phrase to indicate the writer is using it somewhat ironically.

    As for the rest of your Post, I am not at all sure that your repeating the same thing over and over and "hoping" that it will "help" you in any way...well...I refer you to the following "quote" :
     
  21. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    I see you are still baying for attention.
    The 20 year prediction refers to life in general and is based on what knowledge we have gained within our own Solar system, with regards to probable Oceans and water in general, and the copious amounts of extra solar planets that are now obvious.
    Predictions are predictions and most level headed people see why the 20 years has been predicted.
    Irrespective of it happening or not, at least the folk at SETI, JPL, and other orginisations and companies devoting their time to advance the human race, are doing something worthwhile, with incredible consequences if successful.


    “Your attitude is your altitude. It determines how high you fly.”
     
  22. paddoboy Valued Senior Member

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    Originally Posted by Albert Einstein
    Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

    Tsk tsk tsk, and yet you continue......sad.

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  23. dumbest man on earth Real Eyes Realize Real Lies Valued Senior Member

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    Dinosaur, no need to say that I am 100% correct, nor any need to capitalize my user name.

    I have to say that I basically agree with the rest of your Post #16, though.
    "NASA: Humans Will Prove ‘We Are Not Alone In The Universe’ Within 20 Years"...reminds me of the title of one of Shakespeare's best comedies : "Much Ado About Nothing".
     

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