The Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, announced on Monday that over the next 10 years will spend $ 100 million on the search for extraterrestrial life in the SETI project ( Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence; e. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence ) . The official conference accompanied by prof. Stephen Hawking, who at the event said that early detection of life on other planets may be crucial for the survival of mankind.
Preview Milner is the first major push for SETI project since its inception. With it, the researchers will have access to the most powerful radio telescopes and the latest equipment, whose use until now they could not afford. Moreover, at the end of the SETI will afford to hire additional analysts, so that in the next 10 years mankind listens to signals from one million star systems. Given that the last 50 years were able to check only a few thousand, it looks impressive.
In addition prof. Stephen Hawking, the SETI project will support the royal astronomer and lecturer at Cambridge University professor. Martin Rees, a former director of NASA Glenn Research Laboratory. Ames and Professor Peter Worden. Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California.
Why are we looking for?
The SETI de facto began to operate in 1960, when the astronomer Frank Drake first used a telescope in search radio signal sent from outside our solar system. In turn, since 1999, volunteers can join the program SETI @ home, which uses the unused computing power of our home computers to search for signals. To date, the project listened to radio waves and optical signals of several thousand stars, and this is only a drop in the ocean, because in our galaxy is from 100 to 400 billion stars.
Do you find it?
One of the most important questions that we raised is whether such searches as part of SETI at all make sense. On the one hand, the existence of intelligent life beyond Earth is obvious, at least considering the vastness of the Milky Way itself and the fact that within it there are about 10 billion planets with conditions similar to the Earth. Moreover, many of these planets is even billions of years older than Earth, so life was a lot more time to develop, achieve a high level of technology (recall how our technology has evolved over the last 100 years, and then imagine two billion years difference), and even become extinct.
But it is possible that mankind uses a completely different technology than alien civilizations that’s not necessarily send radio signals. It is possible that we are the most advanced civilization in our galaxy, or even the most backward, which is not worth us deal with. Most scientists agree on one thing: we should first listen and abstain from sending their signals into space, which do not really understand it, and at the SETI project can prepare us. He said prof. Stephen Hawking: “If aliens visit us, the outcome could be similar to when Columbus discovered America. It did not end well for its people.”
“If people reject science and technology, This civilization shrink in development “
Read our interview with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson & gt; & gt; & gt;
Read the autobiography Stephen Hawking “My short story” & gt; & gt;
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