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Spotting extrasolar civilisations on a par with us
Chums
Based on near future telescope and other detection technology - just how soon would it be realistic for us to spot a civilisation in our galaxy, like ours, constrained to a planet or two in the 'goldilocks' zone for life as we know it? At the moment it appears we can use some technologies to imply the existence of whopping big jovians near to their sun etc., but is it at all realistic for there to be civilsation like us relatively near to us, but us simply not having the technology to spot it? And presumably other galaxies could be teeming with life, but we would have now way of spotting it? M |
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Spotting extrasolar civilisations on a par with us
"Maurice W" wrote
At the moment it appears we can use some technologies to imply the existence of whopping big jovians near to their sun etc., but is it at all realistic for there to be civilsation like us relatively near to us, but us simply not having the technology to spot it? Well, apart from listening for radio transmissions and looking for laser beacons (Oprical SETI), neither of which have yet yielded, as far as I am aware, the other major means of searching for life is atmospheric spectroscopy, as employed recently when water was found in the atmosphere of a hot planet orbiting close to its star. That technique could also detect oxygen, CO2, methane, and other gases that would hint at the presence of life. However, bacteria, grass, and rats are all examples of life. Intelligent life is another matter, and probably not trivial to detect using the technique. Maybe it'd be possible to identify gases that are by-products, or results, of industrial activity, but the concentrations would likely be trace and undetectable. Martin -- M.A.Poyser Tel.: 07967 110890 Manchester, U.K. http://www.livejournal.com/userinfo.bml?user=fleetie |
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