NASA Ames Director: We

By Crisp
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Grand Master

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Stephen Hawkin.

 

I'm not claiming Stephen Hawkin is wrong, I'm just asking you to perform some really basic Math.

Diameter of Milky Way is 100,000 ly

Radius is 50,000 ly

we're about 35,000 ly from the center

which means we're about 15,000 ly from the edge.

 

Now, I'm no scientist, but I'm pretty sure if you go 100% the speed of light, in one year you'll go one light year.

 

So please, tell me how you can go 15,000 light years in 80 years going 99% the speed of light. Is there something Stephen Hawkin isn't telling me?

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Grand Master

JustGeorge

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An Enterprise would be nice, but I'll take the battlestar Galactica anyday.  :D

 

I honestly think BSG is closer to the type of FTL engines we'll have someday. I don't see man (or anything, really) actually travelling faster than light. Maybe we can push probes up to relativistic speeds, but certainly not faster than light.  

But with Warp Drive, you're not actually moving faster than light, you are riding a surf of space time behind you :)

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Grand Master

Crisp

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Pretty sure I read somewhere mentioning Einstein, it's impossible to travel @ 100% the speed of light.

This is all theory, after all I did use the word "if", as current technology shows it's currently impossible to even get anywhere near the speed of light.

 

The measurement of a "light year" (the term "year") is the measurement of an Earth year. Traveling at the speed of light (close to it [99%]) causes the affect of time to slow, so 1 Earth year would = 1 day on board an interglatic space ship traveling @ 99% speed of light.

 

So if 80 years (19200 days) passed on an intergalactic space ship traveling @ 99% the speed of light, 58400 years would of passed on Earth. The cause of the slowing of time.

 

1 day @ 99% light speed = 1 Earth year

 

80 years (19200 days) @ 99% light speed = 58400 Earth years

 

Urgh, it's 2am, too tired to do this.

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Skin

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They have been claiming they were closer and closer to finding out for a looooong while now. While true in word play that they are closer today compared to yesterday timewise, that's like me saying i am closer to living in Africa as I know the continents are drifting slowly over time.

 

That said, I don't believe in 'life' as we know it elsewhere. I believe that it was all destroyed a long time ago by some giant war that rained havoc and misery around most of the universe.

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Grand Master

astropheed Veteran

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Pretty sure I read somewhere mentioning Einstein, it's impossible to travel @ 100% the speed of light.

This is all theory, after all I did use the word "if", as current technology shows it's currently impossible to even get anywhere near the speed of light.

 

The measurement of a "light year" (the term "year") is the measurement of an Earth year. Traveling at the speed of light (close to it [99%]) causes the affect of time to slow, so 1 Earth year would = 1 day on board an interglatic space ship traveling @ 99% speed of light.

 

So if 80 years (19200 days) passed on an intergalactic space ship traveling @ 99% the speed of light, 58400 years would of passed on Earth. The cause of the slowing of time.

 

1 day @ 99% light speed = 1 Earth year

 

80 years (19200 days) @ 99% light speed = 58400 Earth years

 

Urgh, it's 2am, too tired to do this.

 

I don't blame you, it's 1PM and I'm too tired to do this.

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Grand Master

Noir Angel

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FYI the church has accepted the idea of off-world life for quite some time - just another zip code in creation.

 

Define "the church"... because from what I've seen it's not true of many Christian organisations. All of the Abrahamic faiths have very human centric views of the universe, and accepting new science or not, finding other intelligent life would be pretty damaging to the idea that we are in any way special.

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Grand Master

DocM

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Define "the church"... because from what I've seen it's not true of many Christian organisations. All of the Abrahamic faiths have very human centric views of the universe, ....(blather)

Think again.

1) Catholic Church: has talked extraterrestrials since the 1700's. The Vatican's lead astronomer sees no doctrinal problems, has publicly discussed it many times and has not been rebuked. The Vatican itself runs an active astronomy program, including the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope in Arizona and through its universities, and it has hosted a major astrobiology conference.

2) Evangelical Lutherans (largest Lutheran denomination): no problem. We are taught of a wide ranging creation. Can't speak for the Missouri Synod.

3) LDS (Mormons): a central teaching is a universe teeming with life. Had a long talk about this with one of my best friends clergy.

4) Presbyterian: http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/today/gofigure-1113/

on matters where Scripture is silent (e.g., aliens) or ambiguous (e.g., the age of the earth), Presbyterians are very comfortable looking to the scientific community?those careful and systematic observers of creational patterns?for an answer.

5) Judaeism: is interesting. Torah.org reports that intelligent extraterrestrial life is certain, but it may not have human-like free will.

http://www.torah.org/features/secondlook/extraterrestrial.html

The basic premise of the existence of extraterrestrial life is strongly supported by the Zohar. The Midrash teaches us that there are seven earths. Although the Ibn Ezra tries to argue that these refer to the seven continents, the Zohar clearly states that the seven are separated by a firmament and are inhabited. Although they are not inhabited by man, they are the domain of intelligent creatures. We therefore find the basic thesis of the Sefer Habris supported by a number of clear-cut statements by our Sages. There may even be other forms of intelligent life in the universe, but such life forms do not have free will, and therefore do not have moral responsibility.

6) Islam: http://www.onislam.net/english/ask-about-islam/islam-and-the-world/worldview/167124-aliens-and-extraterrestrial-life-an-islamic-look.html

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To return to our topic about extraterrestrials: There are verses in the Qur'an that apparently favor the belief in the existence of such creatures, though we cannot find any particular verse explicitly stating their existence.

The very phrase rabbul `aalameen meaning "the Lord of the worlds" as a description of God points to the possibility of the existence of beings in many worlds.

We read in the Qur'an several verses where God's creatures of various kinds are mentioned. Here is one verse which means

*{Among His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the living creatures that He has scattered through them: and He has power to gather them together when He wills.}* (Ash-Shura 42:29)

Based on the above verse, among others, some of our scholars of the Qur'an permit the belief in the existence of life on other planets or anywhere other than the earth according to one's judgment.

Note the expression in the above verse "living creatures He has scattered through them." There is a reference here to creatures on planets other than earth.

The word used for "living creatures" is dabbah and according to the famous Qur'an translator Muhammad Asad, "The word dabbah denotes any sentient, corporeal being capable of spontaneous movement; it is contrasted here with the non-corporeal, spiritual beings designated as angels (Asad, Muhammad. The Message of the Qur'an. England: Book Foundation, 2003, 449).

On the same verse, Abdullah Yusuf Ali comments, "It is reasonable to suppose that Life in some form or another is scattered through some of the millions of heavenly bodies scattered through space." (Ali, Abdullah Yusuf, The Qur'an: Text, Transaltion and Commentary, Ad-Dar Al-`Arabiah, Beirut, 1938, 1314

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BillyJack

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That depends on the relative stage of development between us and an alien civilization. On Earth the less developed civilization usually doesn't fare too well, so it could he a period of passive observation, signals and probes approaching from a different direction would be prudent.

 

That is what I always say. In our own history we are always conquering so I will assume aliens would be the same. People always respond they would be smarter and not attack or destroy like us. Um. Ok. We know better yet still do it. Survival of the fittest.

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BillyJack

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If we found a primitive race do you think we would try to help them, leave them alone,  try to rule them or put them in Zoo's and wipe out the rest?

 

It depends. If they have resources we will tell them we are helping them out and take their resources. If they complain or retaliate we would retaliate and use that as an excuse for our behavior. Later after they are under our control we would leave them alone and continue to take ownership of their resources. Eventually if they do not give us any hassle we will give them rights. We would never put them in a zoo if they are intelligent and communicate with us, but if they are not then when their numbers got low we would control them in a zoo to maintain a few of their species. If they are more intelligent and advanced we would pretend to come in peace try to be their friend and infiltrate them.

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Grand Master

T3X4S

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FYI the church has accepted the idea of off-world life for quite some time - just another zip code in creation.

uhhh define :church" because my nutty grandmother still thinks the earth is only 6000 years old, and there was no such thing as dinosaurs....

Church of Christ for anyone wondering -

99% of religion is pathetically lame, but CoC is really bad.

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Mackster

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Can't travel by conventional ways in space, it will take forever. Will take forever to even travel with light speed.

 

You need warp drive to go anywhere.

 

One can wonder though, with so vast distances in the universe, it seems all we can do is "look", never travel.

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