Lifeboat Foundation

For noted theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek, finding aliens is a matter of figuring out what exactly we are looking for. To detect other space civilizations, we need to search for the specific effects they might be having on their worlds, argues the Nobel laureate in a new proposal.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Wilczek says that it’s a real challenge to figure out which among the over 4000 exoplanets that we found so far outside of our solar system might host extraterrestrial life. The classic way of listening for space signals is insufficient and inefficient, says the scientist. What might really help are new developments in exoplanetary astronomy that can allow us to get much more precise information about faraway space objects.

In particular, there are two ways we should focus our attention to turn the odds of finding alien life in our favor, argues the physicist.

Are malevolent space aliens keeping quiet as an act of instinctual self-preservation?

If our universe is a bubble that inflated inside a larger multiverse, it might bear scars from collisions with nearby bubbles.

What lies beyond all we can see? The question may seem unanswerable. Nevertheless, some cosmologists have a response: Our universe is a swelling bubble. Outside it, more bubble universes exist, all immersed in an eternally expanding and energized sea — the multiverse.

The idea is polarizing. Some physicists embrace the multiverse to explain why our bubble looks so special (only certain bubbles can host life), while others reject the theory for making no testable predictions (since it predicts all conceivable universes). But some researchers expect that they just haven’t been clever enough to work out the precise consequences of the theory yet.

Continue reading “Quanta Magazine” »

Astronomers propose new estimate of Earth-like planets in the Milky Way galaxy.

(SPHEREx) mission is a planned two-year mission funded at $242 million (not including launch costs).

SPHEREx will survey the sky in optical as well as near-infrared light which, though not visible to the human eye, serves as a powerful tool for answering cosmic questions. Astronomers will use the mission to gather data on more than 300 million galaxies, as well as more than 100 million stars in our own Milky Way.

SPHEREx will survey hundreds of millions of galaxies near and far, some so distant their light has taken 10 billion years to reach Earth. In the Milky Way, the mission will search for water and organic molecules — essentials for life, as we know it — in stellar nurseries, regions where stars are born from gas and dust, as well as disks around stars where new planets could be forming.

Most of these interstellar spacecraft carry messages intended to introduce ourselves to any aliens that find them along the way.

The Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter has discovered an FM radio signal coming from the moon Ganymede, a finding that marks a first-time detection from the moon, according to KTLA sister station KTVX in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“It’s not E.T.,” said Patrick Wiggins, one of NASA’s Ambassadors to Utah. “It’s more of a natural function.”

Juno was traveling across the polar region of Jupiter — where magnetic field lines connect to Ganymede — when it crossed the radio source. Scientifically, it is called a “decametric radio emission.”

If humans plan to go to live and work beyond Earth someday, they will need technologies that allow for sustainable living in alien environments. This is especially true of Mars, which is extremely cold, dry, and subject to more radiation than we are used to. On top of that, it also takes six to nine months to send spacecraft there, and that’s every two years when Earth and Mars are closest to each other in their orbits.

As such, settling on the Red Planet will require some serious creativity!

Continue reading “Winning Urban Farming Ideas for Mars!” »

I think the larger the galactic population the more deterrence will be a factor of survival. IMO the key apparatus for survival is not only nanotechnology on a personal level but to become Dysonian so we have the energy for defense.

In this video, Unveiled takes a terrifying journey into the Dark Forest! Why don’t you come along??

Continue reading “Are We Living in the Dark Forest? | Unveiled” »