The E.T. Hypothesis can be tested

One of the postulates of the E.T. hypothesis is that you will find life on other planets.

We are getting closer and closer to this thanks to technology and science.

We have found liquid water on places like the moon and Mars and as a NASA scientist said before the discovery,"Where there's water there's life."

We have extremophiles in places that scientist didn't think life could exist.

Exoplanets and in fact a message from earth was sent to an exoplanet called Gliese 581.

More than 25,000 messages have been transmitted into outer space in a bid to reach a distant planet that may hold life.

But don't hold your breath for an immediate response as it will take four decades for a reply to reach Earth and that's only if the messages are received by intelligent life that understand them.

The messages, transmitted at about midday AEST from the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Communication Complex outside Canberra, have come from 195 countries including some from places such as the Vatican city, Antarctica and Kosovo.

Each message, a maximum of 160 characters long, was collated on a website called "Friends from Earth" and all 25,880 messages were beamed together in a giant twitter-like message that took two hours to send.

Their target is the nearest Earth-like planet outside our solar system, called Gliese 581d, which is 20.3 light years away.

news.brisbanetimes.com.au...

We have building blocks of life found on comets.

We have signs of life on Saturn's moon.

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists working on the Cassini mission to Saturn have found evidence of liquid water on the planet's icy moon Enceladus, suggesting the possibility of life below its surface.

Scientists working on the Cassini space mission have found negatively charged water ions in the ice plume of Enceladus. Their findings, based on analysis from data taken in plume fly-throughs in 2008 and reported in the journal Icarus, provide evidence for the presence of liquid water, which suggests the ingredients for life inside the icy moon. The Cassini plasma spectrometer, used to gather this data, also found other species of negatively charged ions including hydrocarbons.

“While it’s no surprise that there is water there, these short-lived ions are extra evidence for sub-surface water and where there’s water, carbon and energy, some of the major ingredients for life are present,” said lead author Andrew Coates from University College London’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory.

“The surprise for us was to look at the mass of these ions. There were several peaks in the spectrum, and when we analysed them we saw the effect of water molecules clustering together one after the other.” The measurements were made as Cassini plunged through Enceladus’ plume on March 12, 2008.

Enceladus thus joins Earth, Titan and comets where negatively charged ions are known to exist in the solar system. Negative oxygen ions were discovered in Earth’s ionosphere at the dawn of the space age. At Earth’s surface, negative water ions are present where liquid water is in motion, such as waterfalls or crashing ocean waves.

www.physorg.com...

We have theories of parallel universes, extra dimensions and twin universes.

We are also devising ways to search for signs of life.

We are becoming more advanced with biomarkers and we can look for microbial and advanced life.

The search for habitable planets and life is founded upon the premise that the effects of even the most basic forms of life on a planet are global, and that evidence for life, or biosignatures, from the planet's atmosphere or surface will be recognizable in the spectrum of the planet's light. Observations across as broad a wavelength range as possible are needed to fully characterize a planet's habitability and to detect signs of life.

Direct imaging detection and spectroscopic characterization of nearby Earthlike planets will be undertaken by the Terrestrial Planet Finder missions. The TPF Coronagraph (TPF-C), planned for launch in 2014, will operate at visible wavelengths. It will suppress the light of the central star to unprecedented levels, allowing it to search for terrestrial planets in ~150 nearby planetary systems. TPF-C will be followed about five years later by the TPF Interferometer (TPF-I). TPF-I will operate in the mid-IR and will survey a larger volume of our solar neighborhood, searching for terrestrial planets around as many as 500 nearby stars.

planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov...

We can look by sending rovers to places like Mars, Titan or Europa to do extensive soil samples around areas where we think liquid water exists.

This shows the E.T. Hypothesis has moved from an hypothesis to a testable theory.

"One of the postulates of the E.T. hypothesis is that you will find life on other planets."

Thanks for the preschool tip.

"We are getting closer and closer to this thanks to technology and science."

Um: isn't the oppressive governments of the world supposed to be hiding this info, and just stringing us along? Where have you been for the past 64 years? Why are you putting faith in corrupt governments?

"We have found liquid water on places like the moon and Mars and as a NASA scientist said before the discovery,"Where there's water there's life.""

Yeah we really needed NASA to tell us the obvious, and you.

"We have extremophiles in places that scientist didn't think life could exist."

Um, WHICH scientists? Do you have any idea how evil and misleading it is to stereotype all scientists? It's what caused the great and destructive "religion and science are not compatible" myth.

"Exoplanets and in fact a message from earth was sent to an exoplanet called Gliese 581."

Grammar check.

"More than 25,000 messages have been transmitted into outer space in a bid to reach a distant planet that may hold life."

And less than one message has been transmitted back.

Is this useless factoids.com?

"But don't hold your breath for an immediate response as it will take four decades for a reply to reach Earth and that's only if the messages are received by intelligent life that understand them."

You mean not unintelligent life! Really? You mean things without a mind can't give us an intelligent reply? Unless you consider non-living auto-reply systems made by one, but that's an indirect intelligent reply still.

"The messages, transmitted at about midday AEST from the Tidbinbilla Deep Space Communication Complex outside Canberra, have come from 195 countries including some from places such as the Vatican city, Antarctica and Kosovo."

Who cares.

"Each message, a maximum of 160 characters long, was collated on a website called "Friends from Earth" and all 25,880 messages were beamed together in a giant twitter-like message that took two hours to send."

Or you could just give us the Darwinian Big Obscene Bang propaganda websites instead of reposting their propaganda.

"Their target is the nearest Earth-like planet outside our solar system, called Gliese 581d, which is 20.3 light years away."

And they know it's the most Earth-like because... Oh yeah, because they are "scientists" and they are always right and trustworthy. Sure. Who sent you to post all this rehash?

"We have building blocks of life found on comets."

And "we" have shown macro-evolution to be false as well as abiogenesis theories. The Wrath of Khan = absurd. How about instead of being gullible and selectively cherry picking what you want to believe merely because it suits your personal fantasies, you check out what all scientists have to say. Try the link in my signature to catch up with the decades old scientific evidence (and Biblical).

"We have signs of life on Saturn's moon."

Huh? How about backing up your claims with evidence, not anti-Christian, Darwinian, Big Obscene Bang, Abiogenesis propagdanitsts?

Wow, ATS blocking my signature? Talk about bigoted, here it is:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart... mind... strength... and soul." - Jesus - http://(nolink)/eternian

Wasn't that just such an offensive horrible signature?

[edit on 15-2-2010 by WayATS]

I agree that the testability of the E.T. hypothesis is now possible. But, should we? There is always the chance that we send out a messege and it is recieved by a hostile race which then promptly sends their military to Earth and proceeds to enslave the human race. Is this the most probable result of contact with another species? I don't know. Nature has shown that when two species meet each other (neanderthal and ancient man) usually only one species survives.

That aside, if we do happen to stumble upon a friendly species, it could be a boon to our own. It could possibly lift us from near-stagnation into the next level.

Of course, there is always the chance that another civilization would take the "isolationist" stance I somewhat subscribe to, and not reply.

reply to post by Matrix Rising


Nice thread, S/F...

The facts you gave in your OP is exactly the reason most scientist believe that we will discover at least microbial life by 2025, and there's a good chance we will discover an exo-solar Earth-like planet soon too.

The likelyhood of there being extraterrestrial life outside of Earth isn't really up for debate anymore, as eve major religions acknowledge the extreme probability. More of an issue is if it is intelligent and if we are being visited by them currently, and in the past.

Plus, there is still the issue of even if they exist, and aren't visiting us, given the vastness of space, is there any possibility we would ever meet, or evolve along the same time for that matter. There is still a lot up for debate, but one of those really isn't the ET hypothesis anymore.

Again, good thread, thanks for sharing.

reply to post by WayATS


You're right.Mainstream science no longer speaks to the common man on the streets.They need to stop sending silly signals into space or looking for some little bug that might come from a planet like ours and tell us what these craft are doing,what all these abductions mean.It's all on our door step.

reply to post by Matrix Rising


Are you saying that if we find microbes living on Mars it automatically confirms the ET hypothesis? What ET hypothesis are you referring to here?

reply to post by cripmeister


I assume the ET hypothesis he's refering to is that UFOs are spaceships containing ETs from another planet.?In ufology its commonly referred to as that. Ive not heard anything else being discussed as the "ET hypothesis"

All the stuff he listed has absolutely nothing to do with testing the theory that aliens are visiting earth in spaceships.

[edit on 15-2-2010 by yeti101]

Yeah good stuff. I too have been excited for a Europa mission which will go through the miles of ice to possibly find some life down in it's sea. I'd like to think that are large organisms swimming about in the Europan sea. Who knows. But you're right; the more we learn, the more we see that the possibility for life is not as remote as we initially thought.

Originally posted by jkrog08

The likelyhood of there being extraterrestrial life outside of Earth isn't really up for debate anymore, as eve major religions acknowledge the extreme probability.

Just like the major religions acknowledge the absoluteness of a "god" even if they cannot back up their claim?

"extreme probability" isn't good enough, you should know that. I think you'll find things like this are always "up for debate" for as long as their is no definative proof.

Or is there something I'm missing

Even IF extraterrestrial life WAS found, the chances are that it would be nothing but a pile of "goo" and THAT would be even more frustrating for those seeking something more akin to theories, movies, novels and wishful thinking and lead to even more wasted money that could be spent on far better things down here on this ball of dirt don't you think?

[edit on 15/2/2010 by nerbot]

reply to post by nerbot


AND as the rest of my post said:

More of an issue is if it is intelligent and if we are being visited by them currently, and in the past.

Plus, there is still the issue of even if they exist, and aren't visiting us, given the vastness of space, is there any possibility we would ever meet, or evolve along the same time for that matter. There is still a lot up for debate, but one of those really isn't the ET hypothesis anymore.

THUS, all of the issues you had with my post is adequately covered.

Originally posted by yeti101
reply to post by cripmeister

 

I assume the ET hypothesis he's refering to is that UFOs are spaceships containing ETs from another planet.?In ufology its commonly referred to as that. Ive not heard anything else being discussed as the "ET hypothesis"

All the stuff he listed has absolutely nothing to do with testing the theory that aliens are visiting earth in spaceships.

[edit on 15-2-2010 by yeti101]

What??

If science finds life can exist outside of earth that boosts the E.T. Hypothesis.

Sadly, people put this imaginary boundary on science.

Each step of the way there will be people who speak in absolutes about what we might find.

So of courst most of the life we will probably find will be microbial but we are evidence that all of it will not. We are evidence that microbial life can evolve into intelligent life because life finds a way.

Many people come to these silly conclusions based on the fantasy that is materialism.

They think dead matter somehow became aware of itself and this means life is rare.

Well these recent discoveries are pointing in a different direction and I will make a prediction, we will find life in our own backyard. We have already founds signs of life and the conditions for life as we know it.

We also have to look at life that could evolve in a different way than us.

We have to look at things like methane, silicon and plasma based lifeforms as well.

Like I said, life finds a way.

[edit on 15-2-2010 by Matrix Rising]

[edit on 15-2-2010 by Matrix Rising]

Originally posted by yeti101
All the stuff he listed has absolutely nothing to do with testing the theory that aliens are visiting earth in spaceships.

Exactly. But good luck getting him to realize this. While the discovery of life on Europa or Enceladus, the new darling of astrobiology, would be phenomenal it would do nothing to support (or hurt) the ET Hypothesis. It is already accepted life is out there, it's just a matter of finding it, and this acceptance has not helped (or hindered) the ET Hypothesis.

If you want to contend that UFOs are an alien-driven phenomenon, then you must develop a method to test the UFOs.

[edit on 15-2-2010 by DoomsdayRex]

Originally posted by spinalremain
Yeah good stuff. I too have been excited for a Europa mission which will go through the miles of ice to possibly find some life down in it's sea.

That is a monumental task. We don't possess the technology, at the moment, to drill down that far. Any probe we sent for that mission would probably have to melt it's way down to the liquid water. But we are decades away from that. I hope I'm around to see what they discover.

If by "E.T. Hypothesis" you mean the idea that E.T. has visited (or is visiting) the Earth in spaceships, then I must disagree with your assertion that knowledge makes it more likely....

Just because we humans may finally understand that life may exist elsewhere does NOT make E.T. visitation more likely.

Put it this way...if this was 200 years ago, and we had no means of investigating the possibility of life elsewhere, would that make E.T. visitation less likely? No, of course not. So why does that fact that we know more about possible life elsewhere (microbial or otherwise) make it more likely that E.T. is visiting us?

E.T. is either VISITING US or NOT regardless of the fact that we understand more about life elsewhere or not. Human knowledge of E.T. does not make visitation more likely, nor does the lack of knowledge make it less likely.

Our knowledge of possible E.T. life has no bearing whatsoever on E.T.
Their existence is equally likely whether we know they exist or not.

[edit on 2/16/2010 by Box of Rain]

Originally posted by Matrix Rising
If science finds life can exist outside of earth that boosts the E.T. Hypothesis.

On further thought, I have to agree with you. I've made similar arguments in the past in regards to SETI.

It all depends on the kind of life we find.

If we find microbial life, you could make the argument it should give us pause about the UFO phenomenon, but I wouldn't agree with that.

However, if SETI found a signal or we came across alien artifacts on the Moon, then we would have to seriously re-examine the UFO issue.

reply to post by Matrix Rising


At the moment, based on what we know, it is more likely that any saucers wizzing around on earth are piloted by chimpanzees than by ETs. We have evidence that chimpanzees exist and even that they are intelligent. That's a hell of a lot more than we know about any ETs.

Originally posted by cripmeister
At the moment, based on what we know, it is more likely that any saucers wizzing around on earth are piloted by chimpanzees than by ETs. We have evidence that chimpanzees exist and even that they are intelligent. That's a hell of a lot more than we know about any ETs.

You have a great point. Chimpanzees have been running the government for years.

Quote to a number of posts.

Where is the breakdown in the logic that if some form of non-terrestrial life is found, whether sentient or otherwise, then it increases the probability of finding others and even others that are more highly developed ?

Other than that all the OP stated was that a hypothesis was moving towards being able to be practically validated, the ET hypothesis simply being that there was ET life - not necessarily that it was flying round here.

Why is there this need to turn ET into UFO - it is an Aliens (and UFO's) forum ?

reply to post by chunder


Good points.

The discovery of life outside of earth will be a step towards validation of the E.T. Hypothesis.

For years people have been saying, how can you support the E.T. Hypothesis when there's no evidence that life exists outside of earth.

Everyday we are getting closer to showing that life does exist outside of earth as we find liquid water, signs of life and the conditions for life to exist on other planets.

So if we find out that microbial life is abundent throughout the universe and even in our own backyard it stands to reason that intelligent life also evolved and we are evidence that this occurs.

If your looking at billions of exoplanets and also life can evolve on planets like Mars or Saturn's moon then it would be very logical and likely that intelligent life has also evolved.

reply to post by WayATS


WayATS, are you for real? Really? Leave the guy alone. That is just plain flaming if you ask me, and I don't like it at all.