We are not alone in the universe.
While some still
consider this far-fetched, most scientists today take the existence of
extraterrestrial intelligence for granted. The National Academy of Sciences has
officially stated that contact with aliens on other planets “is no longer
something beyond our dreams but a natural event in the history of mankind that
will perhaps occur in the lifetime of many of us. (Communication
with Extraterrestrial Intelligence, 1966) ”
Alpha Centauri B is only 4.3 light years away. Around it
orbits the closest planet that could support life. It is believed to be too
young to have evolved intelligent life. The search for viable planets has been
localized to six stars within fifteen light years of the sun: tau Ceti,
omicron-2 Eridani, epsilon Eridani, epsilon Indi, 70 Ophiuchi, and 61 Cygni.
Dr. Su-Shu Huang of the University of California suggested epsilon Eridani and
tau Ceti as the best prospects, and these two are getting the most attention
now. Tau Ceti is 10.8 light years away and is the closest candidate.
Even at these relatively short distances on the
astronomical scale, it would be over twenty years before an exchange of
communication could take place. What kinds of messages would be sent to us and
how would we respond? Considering the great time lags, any message we received
would most likely be lengthy and in a logical sequence independent of verbal
languages.
Once the sequence had been recorded we could sit back and
attempt to decipher it. One of the first things noticed would undoubtedly be
that the carrier wave itself was characterized by a Doppler shift due to the
orbital motion of both the earth and the other planet. The initial items of the
text would contain simple statements of universal scientific truths such as
pulses arranged in the prime number series according to Drs. Giuseppe Cocconi
and Philip Morrison of Cornell. Also, wave forms depicting the standard
arithmetic operators would appear and π, with its universal significance, might
be transmitted as the series. As the message progressed, the Pythagorean
Theorem might appear, as well as more involved physical constants, such as the
fine structure constant, 137.039, representing several fundamental atomic
ratios among which are:
- 1. the ratio of the principal hydrogen wavelength (in the visible spectrum) to the circumference of the orbit of simple hydrogen’s only electron,
- 2. the velocity of light to the velocity of hydrogen’s electron, and
- 3. the number of uranium atoms necessary to sustain a chain reaction.
Scanning lines that could be put together in the form of
a picture, like television, would emerge, and eventually clues to the nature of
their language, life, and society would be revealed.
Our first response would be to send back a similar
sequence with a few obvious alterations so that they would not think they were
hearing an echo. We could add to their message and insert ideas of our own,
like symbols for units of distance, time, and mass, for example.
As new problems are solved, the search for intelligent
beings trillions of miles away quickens in pace. With each new
success, though, comes a new question to be pondered. What if high
exo-civilizations have had an ear turned our way for a hundred million years or
so and have already decided there is no one here? What if advanced societies
want no part of underdeveloped people who are just learning the fundamentals of
radio? What about our own existence? Could we all have evolved from matter
brought to the earth billions of years ago by a stray meteorite from a life-
sustaining planet of that era? Melvin Calvin of the University of California
has found nucleotide fragments in meteorite specimens. Nucleotides are
substructures of desoxyribonucleic acid, better known as DNA!
There are wide areas of uncertainty, but the quest for
scientific knowledge and the romantic appeal of maybe finding an equal or
superior civilization in the far reaches of outer space make one want to forget
that we might not find anything. Astronomer Drake himself wryly suggests, ‚We
might get a better feeling for the situation if we could first answer the
question: ‘Is there intelligent life on earth?’‛ The odds are uncertain, but
the search continues.
Works Cited
Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
(1966). NSA Technical Journal , Vol. XI.
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