welcome to lab 360 for all the latest happenings in the world of astronomy
for a long time earth was believed to be at the center of the universe
but time and amazing advances in science have humbled this notion and proved that there are
thousands of planets outside of our solar system and trillions in our galaxy itself the idea
that there is life beyond our planet has fascinated scientists for centuries
and led to a serious and persistent search for alien civilizations however despite new findings
and observations of exoplanets many the size of earth our planet still stands alone while earth is
replete with persistent and pervasive life forms from lush green landscapes to dry arid regions and
from wet marshlands to snow-capped valleys we have still not found any evidence of life beyond earth
as the dazzling cosmos stretches into eternity in all directions it echoes a silence that is often
deafening to the avid seekers of extraterrestrials but are we really alone in this universe
we know that there are more than 4 000 exoplanets in our galaxy many of them the size of the earth
we also know that the building blocks of life including water energy and elements
associated with life are in existence throughout the solar system and the cosmos
but what we do not know is how readily life begins is it a common occurrence or a rare one
or how long does it last for and if we were to start conjecturing on the existence of intelligent
life curiosity compounds this leads us to one of the most famous and hotly debated questions
of all time where is everybody the question first posed by physicist enrico fermi during a
casual lunch meeting in 1950 has led to decades of debate in what is known as the fermi paradox
the idea goes something like this given that our solar system is relatively young
roughly only about 4.5 billion years old compared to the rest of the universe
which is about 13.8 billion years old and that interstellar travel might be achievable in time
the chances of earth already having been visited by aliens is rather high alien civilizations have
had plenty of time to rise up come to earth and even spread fermi believed that any civilization
with a modest amount of rocket technology has the power to colonize the entire galaxy
fermi died in 1954 leaving behind the legacy of the fermi paradox for others to decipher
if at all the possibility that aliens exist is true the reason we have been unable to
find them is perhaps that they have no desire to communicate with us or even visit earth
perhaps we as a race are not interesting enough for them
else perhaps they are simply observing us and keeping silent not wishing to risk contact with
their cosmic neighbors in the fear of starting a potential war but let's assume that there were
aliens interested in finding us and curiosity got the better of them how would they spot us
just like our earth which goes around the sun there might be other planets with civilizations
using the same technique a paper published in 2016 talked about 82 stars which would have the right
view of the earth making it recognizable from the cosmos the inhabitants could be watching earth
and maybe even thinking of communicating with us the research was thus conducted on a local
cosmic neighborhood within 300 light years of the sun which contains more than 300 000 stars
from these it was seen that 1 700 stars were in a position to have observed earth within
the last 5 000 years any one of them could have had life and if so they may have known of earth
and the intelligent life at harpers especially in the last hundred years as human-made radio waves
have made quite an impact in outer space to narrow the search researchers chose only those stars that
were close within 100 light years wherein radio waves coming from earth would reach there were
46 stars that could see earth transiting the sun while also being near enough to detect radio waves
yet it is impossible to say for sure if any of these have intelligent life like ours having
said that we have to take into account that light and radio signals traveling from one
star system to another are doing so through the vastness of space and may take time
seti or the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a field that has been
listening for possible messages from alien technological beings since the middle of the 20th
century in 1977 a strange signal consisting of a minute-long burst of radio energy was detected
it blared briefly through a radio telescope and lasted for 72 seconds
the signal contained an alphanumeric code and was dubbed the wow signal fifty years later
researchers believe that they know the source of this so-called alien broadcast a sun-like star one
thousand eight hundred light years from earth in the constellation known as sagittarius according
to alberto caballero an amateur astronomer this signal is the closest sign to indicate
the presence of extraterrestrial life since the time our search for life beyond our planet began
more than six decades ago in a paper that he published he claims that there are at least four
alien civilizations in the milky way that could attack our planet his research though is more of
a thought experiment he says that his research is meant to warn other scientists of a possible
attack and put a number to the civilizations that could respond to the messages sent out by humans
he based his thinking and research on the number of invasions that have happened on earth including
the wow signal and then use the data to estimate the number of exoplanets in the milky way having
concluded that there could be four likely enemies he has asked scientists to be cautious in their
enthusiasm to send messages to extraterrestrial beings as it might instigate an alien invasion
while this is a scary scenario the odds of an alien invasion annihilating earth are as many
as being hit by a killer asteroid and getting destroyed alberto caballero has also stressed
that such events if they were to occur would take place about once in a 100 million years so
i guess we are safe for a long long time according to a study there may be only one or two hostile
extraterrestrial civilizations in the milky way that may have also mastered interstellar travel
moreover with advances in science and technology the incidences of societies be it human or alien
indulging in warfare is significantly lower on the whole however sending messages to other worlds
beyond our planet and not of our knowing can be risky we're definitely not ready for an
intergalactic war after all these years our knowledge about space is still very limited
but that will change sooner rather than later with the james webb space telescope
ready to start full operations in a few weeks time in fact the process has already started
the jwsd is going to be releasing its first color photos and new spectroscopic data on the
12th of july 2022 webb will look at every aspect of cosmic history from the inner workings of the
solar system to the farthest detectable galaxies in the early cosmos and everything in between so
let's see if the webb telescope is able to detect any signs of alien life
during its lifetime what do you guys think drop in your comments below and don't forget
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