Strange science 😦

[Fake Messiah]

A Bold Mission to Hunt for Aliens on Venus Is Actually Happening

A UK-based mission is aiming to settle, once and for all, whether life exists on Venus. The mission plans to send a probe to the planet in search of microbial life, not on the surface, of course, but in the Venusian clouds.

Over the past half-decade, scientists have detected the presence of phosphine and ammonia—two potential signs of biological activity—in Venus’s clouds. On Earth, both gases are produced only by biological activity and industrial processes, and scientists are unsure of their origin on Venus.

The mission, called the Venus Explorer for Reduced Vapours in the Environment (VERVE), will send a CubeSat-sized probe aboard the European Space Agency’s EnVision mission—a larger mission designed to probe Venus’s surface and interior, scheduled for launch in 2031. VERVE will detach upon arrival and carry out an independent atmospheric survey.

https://gizmodo.com/a-bold-mission-to-hu...2000627704


Which reminds me that some years ago Russians found scorpions on Venus



https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna46106343

[Fake Messiah]

Earth’s Airports Are Basically Lighthouses for Aliens

According to researchers from the University of Manchester, for several decades now, we may have been accidentally blasting directions into space that aliens can follow to find us here on Earth, and these signals have been coming from an unlikely source: airports.

New research out of the University of Manchester, led by astrophysics PhD candidate Ramiro Caisse Saide, shows that the electromagnetic noise from global airline and military radar is leaking into space, and aliens up to 200 light-years away could hear it. These signals aren’t just random background static. Their patterns are so specific and regular, they’d appear “clearly artificial” to any E.T. with a decent telescope and a physics degree.

That means, if there’s an alien race out there looking for radio signals from deep space, they would know that our sounds weren’t just the usual creeks and squeaks of the universe. They would know these were sounds made by intelligent creatures.

Military radar beams, in particular, are sweeping space in concentrated bursts that would stand out like a lighthouse to anyone watching from a nearby star system.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/earths-a...or-aliens/

[Ravenshire]

Earth’s Airports Are Basically Lighthouses for Aliens

According to researchers from the University of Manchester, for several decades now, we may have been accidentally blasting directions into space that aliens can follow to find us here on Earth, and these signals have been coming from an unlikely source: airports.

New research out of the University of Manchester, led by astrophysics PhD candidate Ramiro Caisse Saide, shows that the electromagnetic noise from global airline and military radar is leaking into space, and aliens up to 200 light-years away could hear it. These signals aren’t just random background static. Their patterns are so specific and regular, they’d appear “clearly artificial” to any E.T. with a decent telescope and a physics degree.

That means, if there’s an alien race out there looking for radio signals from deep space, they would know that our sounds weren’t just the usual creeks and squeaks of the universe. They would know these were sounds made by intelligent creatures.

Military radar beams, in particular, are sweeping space in concentrated bursts that would stand out like a lighthouse to anyone watching from a nearby star system.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/earths-a...or-aliens/

How could aliens up to 200 light-years away detect signals (radar) that weren't broadcast until the 1930s?!? Even if you count all the way back to the first radio broadcast ever, you only get to the the closing days of the 19th century, Dec. 23rd, 1900.

Our radio transmission bubble is just 125 light-years in radius, at a maximum. Due to signal attenuation, the effective detectable bubble is likely considerable less than that.

Even given an antenna that could pick up those very first radio signals, it'll be Dec. 2100 before they'll even reach an ET 200 light-years away.

[Thumpalumpacus]

A Bold Mission to Hunt for Aliens on Venus Is Actually Happening

A UK-based mission is aiming to settle, once and for all, whether life exists on Venus. The mission plans to send a probe to the planet in search of microbial life, not on the surface, of course, but in the Venusian clouds.

Over the past half-decade, scientists have detected the presence of phosphine and ammonia—two potential signs of biological activity—in Venus’s clouds. On Earth, both gases are produced only by biological activity and industrial processes, and scientists are unsure of their origin on Venus.

The mission, called the Venus Explorer for Reduced Vapours in the Environment (VERVE), will send a CubeSat-sized probe aboard the European Space Agency’s EnVision mission—a larger mission designed to probe Venus’s surface and interior, scheduled for launch in 2031. VERVE will detach upon arrival and carry out an independent atmospheric survey.

https://gizmodo.com/a-bold-mission-to-hu...2000627704


Which reminds me that some years ago Russians found scorpions on Venus



https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna46106343

Carl Sagan back in the 70s proposed an idea to terraform Venus starting with seeding the clouds there with single-celled lifeforms in order to slowly change the atmosphere, and thus undercut the runaway greenhouse that made it too hot to support life. I don't remember the details. I think he floated it in The Dragons of Eden; I could be wrong about that as well.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Earth’s Airports Are Basically Lighthouses for Aliens

According to researchers from the University of Manchester, for several decades now, we may have been accidentally blasting directions into space that aliens can follow to find us here on Earth, and these signals have been coming from an unlikely source: airports.

New research out of the University of Manchester, led by astrophysics PhD candidate Ramiro Caisse Saide, shows that the electromagnetic noise from global airline and military radar is leaking into space, and aliens up to 200 light-years away could hear it. These signals aren’t just random background static. Their patterns are so specific and regular, they’d appear “clearly artificial” to any E.T. with a decent telescope and a physics degree.

That means, if there’s an alien race out there looking for radio signals from deep space, they would know that our sounds weren’t just the usual creeks and squeaks of the universe. They would know these were sounds made by intelligent creatures.

Military radar beams, in particular, are sweeping space in concentrated bursts that would stand out like a lighthouse to anyone watching from a nearby star system.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/earths-a...or-aliens/

How could aliens up to 200 light-years away detect signals (radar) that weren't broadcast until the 1930s?!? Even if you count all the way back to the first radio broadcast ever, you only get to the the closing days of the 19th century, Dec. 23rd, 1900.

Our radio transmission bubble is just 125 light-years in radius, at a maximum. Due to signal attenuation, the effective detectable bubble is likely considerable less than that.

Even given an antenna that could pick up those very first radio signals, it'll be Dec. 2100 before they'll even reach an ET 200 light-years away.

I don't think the point is that putative aliens may have already detected us at 200 ly, I think the point is that they may well do so going forward. Because if their tech is sufficiently advanced, these signals will be available at least from the 1950s (and the advent of NORAD or its Soviet counterpart) up through today. Even that bubble, 140 ly across, encompasses what is clearly a lot of planets suitable for life even if we haven't found any life itself so far.

It should be remembered too that reception is a bit easier than transmission.

[Ravenshire]

How could aliens up to 200 light-years away detect signals (radar) that weren't broadcast until the 1930s?!? Even if you count all the way back to the first radio broadcast ever, you only get to the the closing days of the 19th century, Dec. 23rd, 1900.

Our radio transmission bubble is just 125 light-years in radius, at a maximum. Due to signal attenuation, the effective detectable bubble is likely considerable less than that.

Even given an antenna that could pick up those very first radio signals, it'll be Dec. 2100 before they'll even reach an ET 200 light-years away.

I don't think the point is that putative aliens may have already detected us at 200 ly, I think the point is that they may well do so going forward. Because if their tech is sufficiently advanced, these signals will be available at least from the 1950s (and the advent of NORAD or its Soviet counterpart) up through today. Even that bubble, 140 ly across, encompasses what is clearly a lot of planets suitable for life even if we haven't found any life itself so far.

It should be remembered too that reception is a bit easier than transmission.

Fair enough, but there's also this:
If you threw a dart at the map of the Milky Way, and wherever that dart landed is where an advanced alien species resides, there would be a cosmically small probability that they live close enough to be aware of our existence. Even if you threw 100 darts, it's a near certainty that none would land in the little blue bubble of our radio waves.

A 200 ly bubble, while it is a mind bendingly large volume of space at human scale, is a mere rounding error at the galactic scale.

[Paleophyte]

Fair enough, but there's also this:
If you threw a dart at the map of the Milky Way, and wherever that dart landed is where an advanced alien species resides, there would be a cosmically small probability that they live close enough to be aware of our existence. Even if you threw 100 darts, it's a near certainty that none would land in the little blue bubble of our radio waves.

A 200 ly bubble, while it is a mind bendingly large volume of space at human scale, is a mere rounding error at the galactic scale.

You'd have poor odds even if you were aiming. A bubble 200 ly wide in a galaxy 100,000 ly across is like trying to hit a specific square millimeter on a dart board.

[AFTT47]

Honestly, the whole radio transmission thing is irrelevant to even marginally advanced aliens. The James Webb telescope is mind-boggling to us now. Just thirty years ago, it was the comparatively puny Hubble that wowed us. Imagine an alien civilization just a hundred or so years more advanced than us. I'm not talking about a Star Trek race with faster than light capability (assuming physics even allows that). I'm just talking about a civilization that has spread out from its home planet to establish artificial habitats to live in and mining and industrial bases on their equivalent of the moon and/or asteroids. They will be capable of building space-borne telescopes that make the Webb look like a small pair of binoculars. They will be able to image Earth directly, spectroscopically analyze the atmosphere and determine beyond any doubt that a technological civilization lives here.

If there are any nearby alien civilizations even marginally more advanced than we are, they know we're here. If they are thousands of light years away, they only know that complex life has developed here. If complex life is rare, that alone will make our planet very interesting.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I don't think the point is that putative aliens may have already detected us at 200 ly, I think the point is that they may well do so going forward. Because if their tech is sufficiently advanced, these signals will be available at least from the 1950s (and the advent of NORAD or its Soviet counterpart) up through today. Even that bubble, 140 ly across, encompasses what is clearly a lot of planets suitable for life even if we haven't found any life itself so far.

It should be remembered too that reception is a bit easier than transmission.

Fair enough, but there's also this:
If you threw a dart at the map of the Milky Way, and wherever that dart landed is where an advanced alien species resides, there would be a cosmically small probability that they live close enough to be aware of our existence. Even if you threw 100 darts, it's a near certainty that none would land in the little blue bubble of our radio waves.

A 200 ly bubble, while it is a mind bendingly large volume of space at human scale, is a mere rounding error at the galactic scale.

Absolutely agreed, but these radio waves aren't darts flung out at random. NORAD emissions, which are 24/7, are thrown all over the sky. If there's a capable civilization with 70 or so lys, their reception is likely, assuming that capability is actually in place. And that bubble will only grow with time.

Especially nowadays, there's a constant emission pattern we give off that would provide any other technological species decent baseline and therefore insight. Whether there's any civilization in reach and capable is clearly not evidenced at all -- but if they're there, we can be analyzed.

[Paleophyte]

Fair enough, but there's also this:
If you threw a dart at the map of the Milky Way, and wherever that dart landed is where an advanced alien species resides, there would be a cosmically small probability that they live close enough to be aware of our existence. Even if you threw 100 darts, it's a near certainty that none would land in the little blue bubble of our radio waves.

A 200 ly bubble, while it is a mind bendingly large volume of space at human scale, is a mere rounding error at the galactic scale.

Absolutely agreed, but these radio waves aren't darts flung out at random. NORAD emissions, which are 24/7, are thrown all over the sky. If there's a capable civilization with 70 or so lys, their reception is likely, assuming that capability is actually in place. And that bubble will only grow with time.

Especially nowadays, there's a constant emission pattern we give off that would provide any other technological species decent baseline and therefore insight. Whether there's any civilization in reach and capable  is clearly not evidenced at all -- but if they're there, we can be analyzed.

The difficulty is that there isn't likely to be a civilization like ours within 200 light years. It has to be advanced enough to be capable of detecting our radio waves but primitive enough to still think that they're cool. Consider that just 100 years ago we barely had radio. We'd just finished fighting The Great War, Pluto hadn't been discovered, and H.G. Wells hadn't terrified the public with his War of the Worlds broadcast. I can't begin to speculate on where we'll be 100 years from now, but it's good odds that one way or another we won't be using this EM rubbish. 200 years out of billions isn't even a flash in the pan. We aren't consequential on the scales of the cosmos.