ET Visitors: Scientists See High Likelihood
Fermi's brooding on the topic was later labeled "Fermi's paradox."
It is a well-traveled tale from the 1950's when the scientist broached the
subject in discussions with colleagues in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Thoughts
regarding the probability of earthlike planets, the rise of highly advanced
civilizations "out there," and interstellar travel -- these remain
fodder for trying to respond to Fermi's paradox even today. Now a team of American scientists note that recent astrophysical discoveries
suggest that we should find ourselves in the midst of one or more
extraterrestrial civilizations. Moreover, they argue it is a mistake to reject
all UFO reports since some evidence for the theoretically-predicted
extraterrestrial visitors might just be found there. The researchers make their proposal in the January/February 2005 issue of the
Journal of the British Interplanetary Society (JBIS). Curious situation Pick up any good science magazine and you're sure to see the latest in
head-scratching ideas about Superstring Theory, wormholes, or the stretching of
space-time itself. Meanwhile, extra-solar planetary detection is on the verge of
becoming mundane. "We are in the curious situation today that our best modern physics and
astrophysics theories predict that we should be experiencing extraterrestrial
visitation, yet any possible evidence of such lurking in the UFO phenomenon is
scoffed at within our scientific community," contends astrophysicist
Bernard Haisch. Haisch, along with physicists James Deardorff, Bruce Maccabee and Harold
Puthoff, make their case in the JBIS article "Inflation-Theory Implications
for Extraterrestrial Visitation." The scientists point to two key discoveries made by Australian astronomers
and reported last year that there is a "galactic habitable zone" in
our Milky Way Galaxy--and more importantly that Earth's own star, the Sun, is
relatively young in comparison to the average star in this zone -- by as much as
a billion years. Therefore, the researchers explain in their JBIS article that an average
alien civilization would be far more advanced and have long since discovered
Earth. Additionally, other research work on the supposition underlying the Big
Bang -- known as the theory of inflation -- shores up the prospect, they advise,
that our world is immersed in a much larger extraterrestrial civilization. Point-to-point distances Given billion-year advanced physics, might not buzzing around the galaxy be
possible? Even today Superstring Theory hypothesizes other dimensions, which could be
habitable Universes adjacent to our own, the researchers speculate. It might
even be possible to get around the speed of light limit by moving in and out of
these dimensions. "What we have done is somewhat of a breakthrough," Haisch told SPACE.com.
"We have pulled together various recent discoveries and theoretical issues
that collectively point to the strong probability that we should be in the midst
of one or more huge extraterrestrial civilizations," he said. Haisch said that superstring dimensions and wormhole and space-time
stretching possibilities address the "can't get here from there"
objection often argued in view of the interstellar, point-to-point distances
involved. Also, diffusion models predict that even a single civilization could
spread across the Galaxy in a tiny fraction of the age of the Galaxy - even at
sub-light speeds, he said. ET signature in the data Can the scientific community bring itself to consider any evidence coming
from mysterious sightings of strange things by the public? In large measure, the scientific community seemingly has eyed ET visitation
as far from being serious stuff to cogitate over. Why so? "The dismissal has several causes, all reinforcing each other,"
Haisch responded. "Most of the observations are probably
misinterpretations, delusions and hoaxes. I have seen people get confused by
Venus or even Sirius when it is flashing colors low in the sky under the right
conditions. Having been turned off by this, most scientists never bother to look
any further and so are simply blissfully ignorant that there may be more to
it," he said. Deardorff, the lead author of the JBIS article, points out in a press
statement: "It would take some humility for the scientific community to
suspend its judgment and take at least some of the high quality reports
seriously enough to investigate...but I hope we can bring ourselves to do
that." According to Haisch, there is a motivation not just for scientific tolerance
of the UFO issue, but a strong scientific prediction that there ought to be some
genuine ET signature in the data. "This potentially changes the relationship of the UFO phenomenon to
science in a significant way. It takes away the 'not invented here' prejudice,
pointing out that a 'yes' to ET visitation is exactly what side our
current physics and astrophysics theories would come down on as the most likely
situation," Haisch concluded. Source: http://www.space.com/searchforlife/et_betterodds_050114.html By Leonard David
Decades ago, it was physicist Enrico Fermi who pondered the issue of extraterrestrial
civilizations with fellow theorists over lunch, generating the famous quip:
"Where are they?" That question later became central to debates about
the cosmological census count of other star folk and possible extraterrestrial
(ET) visitors from afar.
Senior Space Writer
14 January 2005
Chinese version available at
http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/1/18/93711.html
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