IT IS no longer a case of if but more likely when we will answer the question: "Are we alone?".
Even in our own cosmic backyard our solar system there are numerous potential candidates for life.
2
2
From the red planet Mars which scientists understand was likely much warmer and wetter in life, and may have had the conditions for simple microbial life.
To Europa and Enceladus icy moons of the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, which have probable liquid oceans beneath their frozen surfaces.
Even the planet Venus previously deemed an inhospitable world has been subject to scrutiny about the possibility of simple life in its clouds.
But when it comes to intelligent life, to the likes dreamed up by science fiction, or perhaps something even beyond the imagination, we just dont know.
For pretty much every star you can see when you look up, there is at least one planet orbiting around it.
On the face of it the universe is full of candidate places for life to exist.
Whether we make contact with any intelligent life beyond is yet to be seen.
This could happen tomorrow, or it could happen 1,000 years from now. It could have already happened.
We just dont know and we are yet to have the evidence.
Say an intelligent alien race one likely far more advanced than ourselves given the fact that it would have developed capabilities to travel across the universe made contact with us.
Then what would happen?
Experts such as the late Professor Stephen Hawking have suggested that an intelligent alien life reaching Earth would be bad news for us.
Meeting an advanced alien civilisation could be like Native Americans encountering Columbus. That didnt turn out so well.
But this is not a view shared by everyone, myself included.
Especially given the fact that if a civilisation has already developed the enormous capabilities required for intergalactic travel, than they are likely already aware of our existence, given the radio signals we have been emitting for over a century.
But say a signal was found. And contact was made by an alien race with Earth? Then what?
While we are divided so much on Earth race, politics, archaeology. In the vastness of space we all call the same planet home.
Perhaps though aliens are aware of our exitance and they have just passed us by. Much in the same way that you wouldnt stop to talk to a colony of ants in the street, aliens might see us as no different.
To an alien civilisation any communication we made would have to represent one planet, not one nation.
There have already been recent sightings which have caused concern.
Such as the now infamous 2004 Nimitz incident where video showed pilots tracking a strange Tic Tac like object in the night sky.
Pentagon officials later admitted the videos are real and they cannot explain them.
And earlier this year Washington got back into the "UFO Business", with the establishment of a new office - signed into law to study "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena".
Perhaps the biggest hurdle though would be that if contact was made, we wouldnt likely agree on how to respond.
While there is a UN Department for Outer Space Affairs, there is no protocol on how we would respond as one planet. We would have to agree on what to do internationally.
In all likelihood though, we would have some time.
While the movies depict aliens visiting us, it is perhaps far more probable that we would detect a signal from them far in the universe.
Then the process of communicating with an alien civilisation would be comparable not to Star Wars, and other movies, but to archaeology.
Given the mind boggling vastness of the cosmos by the time a signal from an alien civilisation has reached us, and we have figured out a way to reply, the timeframe from when it was sent could be tens perhaps hundreds of years.
Our way of learning about a far of civilisations, could almost be thought of as how we learned about the Romans.
Perhaps though aliens are aware of our exitance and they have just passed us by.
Much in the same way that you wouldnt stop to talk to a colony of ants in the street, aliens might see us as no different. We just dont know.
Intelligent life may even be a fluke and our existence a mere cosmic coincidence, which presents the most terrifying possibility of all WE are the most intelligent beings in the universe.
I really hope this is not true.
Sarah Cruddas can be seen on Craig Charles: UFO Conspiracies which is available on catch up services on Sky HISTORY.
For more UFO based programming head over to Blaze TV for UFO Week featuring new UK and Free TV premieres every single night from MondayMarch 28 to Sunday April 3.
More here:
- 'For All Mankind' season 4 episode 1 review: Lots of moving parts ... - Space.com - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Five Surprisingly Perfect Song and Sci-Fi Book Pairings - tor.com - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Retired Apollo program physcist to speak at First Colony Branch ... - Fort Bend Star - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Have Elon Musk Been To Mars? - TickerTV News - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- The Bodily Indignities of the Space Life - The New York Times - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Can Elon Musk Buy The Moon? - TickerTV News - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Report: SpaceX Safety Lapses Leading to Severe Staff Injuries - Gizmodo - November 15th, 2023 [November 15th, 2023]
- Luke O'Neill: 'Diverse' group needed to form Mars colony - Newstalk - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- Lessons learned from first season with pitch timer, new MLB rules - MLB.com - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- Opinion | Elon Musk, Geoff Hinton, and the War Over A.I. - The New York Times - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- Warhammer 40K: The Imperium Is Ignoring A Lot Of STCs Sitting ... - BoLS - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- Every Major City & Town In Starfield, Ranked By Vibes - Screen Rant - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- Starfield Could Learn A Lot From Fallout: New Vegas' Wild Wasteland - DualShockers - September 29th, 2023 [September 29th, 2023]
- 'Tech Week' summer program concludes at Kurn Hattin Homes for ... - Brattleboro Reformer - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- The 'Reality Check' Era Of The EV Transition Is Upon Us - The Autopian - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- Humanity's Return To The Moon And The Prospect Of South Pole ... - Hackaday - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- The Biggest Horror Movie Flops of the 2000s - MovieWeb - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- The Future of Space Exploration: Upcoming Missions, Technologies ... - Medium - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- Steam free games: download and keep 12 titles right now - GAMINGbible - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- Elon Musk Emerges as the Wealthiest Individual on Earth - Clayton County Register - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- I'm Hooked on The Banished Vault's Bad Times Generation - Paste Magazine - July 26th, 2023 [July 26th, 2023]
- Everything We Know About Stars On Mars - Screen Rant - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- United Arab Emirates Announces New Mission to the Asteroid Belt - Sky & Telescope - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- Best space settlement games: Manage bases & build cities on other ... - Space.com - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- Dr. Bruce Bugbee Returns to Cannabis Conference to Share Latest ... - Cannabis Business Times - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- 25 states Americans visit the most | | thewetumpkaherald.com - Wetumpka Herald - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- 25 Best Blockbusters of the 2010s, Ranked - Collider - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- Inside Bungie's First Ship Beset by Aliens and Rogue AI - The UESC ... - BoLS - May 31st, 2023 [May 31st, 2023]
- Starship Explodes During Test Flight: What to Know About SpaceX's ... - Smithsonian Magazine - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- "Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly": Image Shows the Moment ... - Inverse - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- Did the Curiosity rover find alien bones on Mars? - Syfy - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- SpaceX releases simulation video of trip to Mars - Travel Tomorrow - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- Fired on Mars cast: Who stars in the animated comedy series - Hidden Remote - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- Thanks to NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, you can now circumnavigate the Martian surface - Syfy - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- Interpreting the space travel craze | WORLD - WORLD News Group - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- From Wall Street to the Vatican, no one has been spared Twitters paid blue tick policy - The Economic Times - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- 6 best meme coins to buy in 2023 | Bitcoinist.com - Bitcoinist - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- Ved Chirayath is on a mission to map the worlds oceans - Newswise - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- 10 Movies to Watch if You Loved 2001: A Space odyssey - MovieWeb - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- This nonprofit wants to reduce plastic waste one Austin business at ... - KUT - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- To the countryside or into outer space? 1970s utopias about escaping the city - Domus IT - February 2nd, 2023 [February 2nd, 2023]
- Tiverton firm making more parachute fabric for Mars - January 25th, 2023 [January 25th, 2023]
- Goofy Mars Rock Spotted by NASA Rover Might Be a Meteorite - January 17th, 2023 [January 17th, 2023]
- Mars rover Perseverance spots Ingenuity helicopter resting on sand dune ... - January 17th, 2023 [January 17th, 2023]
- Newsroom Discovery, Inc. - December 26th, 2022 [December 26th, 2022]
- Nostradamus' New Year 2023 Predictions: From Cannibalism On Earth And World War 3; Heres Some Shocking Claims Made By The French Astrologer - SpotboyE - December 26th, 2022 [December 26th, 2022]
- Mars Base Simulation in Poland to Lock People in a Habitat ... - Insider - December 21st, 2022 [December 21st, 2022]
- Colonizing Mars: Practicing Other Worlds on Earth | Origins - December 21st, 2022 [December 21st, 2022]
- You Can Build Colonies On Moon, Mars, With Help From... - NDTV - December 16th, 2022 [December 16th, 2022]
- The death of Twitter has dragged on too long. Please, Elon, put us out of our misery - The Guardian - December 4th, 2022 [December 4th, 2022]
- Musk trial over Tesla pay package looks considers his attention span and his friendships with board members - Los Angeles Times - November 19th, 2022 [November 19th, 2022]
- What happens if you grow plants on the Moon? New study shows how they react - Interesting Engineering - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Visualized: The Best Universities in America - Visual Capitalist - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Build and defend a base on an alien world in this surprisingly deep survival sim - PC Gamer - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- Elon Musk and ex-lover Grimes believed she was an IMAGINARY character created to be his perfect g... - The US Sun - October 15th, 2022 [October 15th, 2022]
- SpaceX Mars program - Wikipedia - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Human mission to Mars - Wikipedia - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Underground Microbes May Have Existed in Ancient Mars [Study] - Nature World News - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Elon Musk dreams of dying on Marsnow he might be one of the pioneering colonists - Fortune - October 11th, 2022 [October 11th, 2022]
- Twitter Employees are SHOOK Once Again About Elon Musk's Takeover, Even as the Deal Might Still Fall Through - Barstool Sports - October 11th, 2022 [October 11th, 2022]
- Exclusive First Preview Garbage Pail Kids: Mad Mike And The Quest For Stale Gum - Game Informer - October 11th, 2022 [October 11th, 2022]
- Artificial Gravity Lowers Spaceflight's Health Toll on Fruit Flies - Intelligent Living - October 11th, 2022 [October 11th, 2022]
- Dinner on Mars: How to grow food when humans colonize the red planet - CBC.ca - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Why the Space Race Isn't the Answer to the Climate Crisis - Green Queen Media - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Garbage Pail Kids: Mad Mike And The Quest For Stale Gum coming to consoles and PC as well as the NES - Real Otaku Gamer - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- 15 film recommendations for Indy's Heartland Film Festival - IndyStar - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Nasa investigating mystery object that has attached itself to Mars helicopter... - The US Sun - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- History mars ties between queen, ex-colony Cyprus - Breitbart - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Mars looks blinding as Webb telescope zooms in on Red Planet for the first time - India Today - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- Space cement could be used to build houses on Mars and the Moon - Interesting Engineering - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- From space to the third world war, these are Nostradamus's top 5 predictions for 2023 - News Day Express - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- More People Need to Watch The Absolute Best Sci-Fi Show on Prime Video - CNET - August 2nd, 2022 [August 2nd, 2022]
- Should We Create a Permanent Base On The Moon? Explorersweb - ExplorersWeb - August 2nd, 2022 [August 2nd, 2022]
- Heres Why NFTs Are Poised To Witness Hypergrowth, Per John G - News Ghana - August 2nd, 2022 [August 2nd, 2022]
- 6/30 Flashback: It's the freakiest show | Fred Clark - Patheos - June 30th, 2022 [June 30th, 2022]
- WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion UnicornThe fantasy of kibbutz capitalism - WSWS - June 30th, 2022 [June 30th, 2022]
- The Ultimate Guide To An Adventurous Antarctica Vacation - Maxim - Maxim - June 30th, 2022 [June 30th, 2022]
- NASA Astronauts Prepare For Mission To Mars By Spending Year Living In Simulated Colony On Venus - The Onion - June 15th, 2022 [June 15th, 2022]
- Build on Mars and get rewarded: Mars4 releases their first game demo - AMBCrypto News - June 15th, 2022 [June 15th, 2022]
- Elon Musk, Mars and the Holy Shechinah - Yated.com - June 15th, 2022 [June 15th, 2022]