Stepping Stones to Our Extraterrestrial Neighbors

Astrophysics is still a very young science. Most of the theories we have about exoplanets and the potential for life on these objects is constantly changing.

For example, Europa was discovered in 1610 by Galileo. Until the 1970s, life, at least as the concept is generally understood, was believed to be entirely dependent on energy from the Sun (Europa (moon), 2013). In 2006, Robert T. Pappalardo, an assistant professor in the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder said, “We’ve spent quite a bit of time and effort trying to understand if Mars was once a habitable environment. Europa today, probably, is a habitable environment. We need to confirm this … but Europa, potentially, has all the ingredients for life … and not just four billion years ago … but today. (Leonard, 2006)”

Recently, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have found compelling evidence of a planet forming 7.5 billion miles away from its star, a finding that may challenge current theories about planet formation (Space News: NASA'S Hubble uncovers evidence of farthest planet forming from its star, 2013). The planet is estimated to be relatively small, at 6 to 28 times more massive than Earth. Its wide orbit means it is moving slowly around its host star. If the suspected planet were orbiting in our solar system, it would be roughly twice Pluto's distance from the sun.

So, what does this mean for us as we scour the cosmos, seeking communication with intellegent life on other worlds? It means that we have to potentially widen our original search area.

Our search has been for planets in the “Goldilocks Zone (The Goldilocks Zone, 2003).” In a nutshell, this means that the planet has to be like earth in its distance from the Sun. Too close, it is too hot, like Venus. Too far, it is too cold, like Mars. Just right, like Earth, life develops.

Seeking contact with life existing away from Earth is just a stepping stone. Once life is found, we will learn so much that we can’t even estimate the discoveries. We might find clues to the origins of the Universe itself. We may find that the Goldilocks Zone was a faulty theory. That life does not need to evolve on Earth-like planets. Life may exist on moons like Europa.

Admittedly, Europa probably only has microbial life and that we will not be looking for communications streaming out from that moon. However, why does intelligent life have to exist like mankind? Can so called “lower” life forms also develop high levels of intelligence.

We don’t know much about the potential for even life on other planets and moons. We are currently only theorizing based upon our brief studies of the planets in our own star system. Studies that are less than 40 years old in a universe that is billions of years older.

Finding life outside of Earth is more than just communications. It is exploration and discovery. Those people who think it is just ancient astronaut theories driving us to seek life in the Universe don’t understand that we are not looking for ETs that might have visited Earth in the past or who crashed in Roswell. No, the search for life is about finding out that we are not alone, we are not unique. It is about taking another step in our journey to learn more about the Universe and consequently, learn more about ourselves.

Works Cited

The Goldilocks Zone. (2003, October 2). Retrieved June 16, 2013, from NASA Science: Science News: http://science1.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2003/02oct_goldilocks/

Europa (moon). (2013, June 3). Retrieved June 16, 2013, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europa_(moon)#Exploration
Space News: NASA'S Hubble uncovers evidence of farthest planet forming from its star. (2013, June 16).

Retrieved June 16, 2013, from Lake County News: http://www.lakeconews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31695:space-news-nasas-hubble-uncovers-evidence-of-farthest-planet-forming-from-its-star&catid=1:latest&Itemid=197

Leonard, D. (2006, February 7). Europa Mission: Lost In NASA Budget. Retrieved June 16, 2013, from Space.com: http://www.space.com/2022-europa-mission-lost-nasa-budget.html

Communication with Extraterrestrial Civilizations

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. 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. 2.    the velocity of light to the velocity of hydrogen’s electron, and
3. 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.