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SYDNEY: Happy 50th Birthday SETI! On 8 April 1960, Frank Drake aimed a radio telescope in West Virginia at two nearby stars in the first modern search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
Fifty years later, the science of SETI has come a long way – challenging stereotypes and technological limits along the way. But it has also just begun.
Today, based on updated measurements from telescopes and spacecraft, Drake guesses there are 10,000 civilisations in our galaxy alone. It's as hard as ever, though, figuring out how to detect them.
To mark the occasion you'll find a whole package of articles on Cosmos Online:
ONLY A MATTER OF TIME, SAYS FRANK DRAKE
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence began in earnest 50 years ago, led by a young American astronomer named Frank Drake - a man, who is still confident we'll eventually find extraterrestrial civilisations, finds Wilson da Silva.
A REVIEW OF THE DRAKE EQUATION
It's likely that the Milky Way is humming with civilisations. Finding them is a numbers game.
LOOKING FOR LIFE AS WE KNOW IT
Some scientists are convinced life is common in the universe, but intelligence rare. As for how long civilisations last - and stay detectable - few are willing to hazard a guess.
SEARCHING FOR ALIENS THROUGH HISTORY
Far from being a product of the UFO craze, the desire to contact intelligent life dates back to Ancient Greece.
THE "WOW!" SIGNAL
The most famous signal in SETI history was detected on the night of 15 August 1977 at the Ohio State University Big Ear Observatory. Has anything happened since?
LIFE, THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING
If the basic laws of the universe were just slightly different, life and everything we know would not exist, says Paul Davies. So why is the universe just right for life?
EXPERIMENT 'ONE': LIFE ON EARTH
The searches for life elsewhere in the universe are informed only by our knowledge of life on Earth.
SEARCHING FOR OTHER WORLDS
Where should we be looking for extraterrestrials? A small, roving telescope is helping scientists to find planets capable of harbouring life.
WEIRD WORLDS
Could planets made of diamond or iron exist? While hundreds of exoplanets have already been discovered, it could just be a matter of time before we find some truly bizarre ones.
Find out more in the latest issue of Cosmos magazine, with a 39-page special on SETI!
Still using the Drake equation?
I can't believe that 50 years later, people are still applying to the Drake equation. This equation was bunk when it was first formulated, and is even more obviously bunk today, because it ignores population dynamics -- that is, the "reproduction" of a civilization by spreading from star to star (exactly as any other living organism reproduces and spreads within its environment).
To properly consider who or what might be out there, you have to take growth into account, at which point it quickly becomes obvious (as it was to Fermi decades ago) that whatever civilization arises first will be able to colonize the whole galaxy within a few hundred million years -- a blink of the eye on an evolutionary time scale.
So there aren't 10,000 civilizations out there, unless we are living in some sort nature preserve and the aliens are deliberately hiding from us. The far simpler explanation for the failure of SETI is that there is no other technological civilization in the galaxy. Either way, SETI will continue to fail (and, I predict, SETI proponents will continue to claim that success is just around the corner, no matter how many centuries of failure accumulate).
No FTL amigo
Bunk? It's an intelligent 'Fermi problem' estimate that been scrutinized and repeated by countless scientists for decades.
It's not at all obvious how anyone could colonize a galaxy without FTL travel. That's still 'obviously' a fantasy. The answer to 'where are they' is: right where they started. Just like we are - forever.
FTL Not Needed
You can travel to another star without FTL. It would be slow and probably require massive resources but there is no law saying it can not be done. Generational Ships are not a hard concept to fit to this purpose.
Maybe you could not colonize a galaxy in this fashion but you certainly could colonize a couple or more star systems if you were persistent.
Even if FTL travel is impossible, as you obviously imply, does it occur to you that you may not have to Travel faster than light to get from Point A to point B faster than light?
FTL without FTL
It is within the laws of physics, to move faster than the speed of light if you are stationary and you move spacetime around you.
There are a few different theories which describe this, Michio Kaku's is easy to understand, but I prefer subquantum kinetics, it makes sense and also explains the biefeld-brown effect.
By creating a gravity potential well in front of the ship and a gravity potential hill behind, bunching space time up and pulling it towards you.
The only limits on space travel are the ones created by the walls in your mind.
Peace,
no quizzle
in the late 1800's someone
in the late 1800's someone said everything that could be invented, had been.
just because we cannot discover the secrets of FTL travel doesnt discount a potentially technologically superior alien civilisation from doing so.
we currently say it cant be done. however as with the 1800's quote, people in 200 years could be looking back on this asking ourselves "what were they thinking?"
My hope
In a few hundred million years I'm hoping it will be us (or our silicon off shoots) that will have colonized the whole galaxy. FTL or not.
searching for extraterrestrial's
Hi all. just want to know why we are still looking far and wide for intelligent alien life instead of looking closer at moon and mars and to some degree here on earth. I'm not trying to be a smarta#@e or anything but just look at the amount of information on the net regarding UFO's, so-called moon/mars bases and the amount of video from shuttle missions that has captured things moving. I am only asking this because it doesn't make sense to airbrush things from moon/mars photo's if there was nothing to airbrush out in the first place. Love the mag.