| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Aliens May Have Already Polluted the Universe, Say Scientists
A new space telescope scheduled to launch in 2018 may be able to look for signs of pollution caused by advanced alien civilizations, according to a paper by researchers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics published in the Astrophysical Journal.
Looking for evidence of pollution may be a new mechanism of trying to detect life on other planets, the researchers said.
“People often refer to ETs [extra-terrestrials] as ‘little green men,’ but the ETs detectable by this method should not be labeled ‘green’ since they are environmentally unfriendly,” co-author Avi Loeb said.
Pollution indicates “unintelligent” life
“Humanity is on the threshold of being able to detect signs of alien life on other worlds,” reads a press release on the work. “By studying exoplanet atmospheres, we can look for gases like oxygen and methane that only coexist if replenished by life.”
But studying the atmospheres of other planets might also turn up evidence of industrially produced pollutants such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), they note.
On Earth, CFCs are used in aerosols and solvents but also destroy the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere that helps protect the planet’s surface from harmful solar radiation.
According to calculations by the Harvard-Smithsonian researchers, NASA’s new, $8.7-billion Webb Space Telescope could be able to detect the presence of CFCs in the atmospheres of distant planets.
The Webb Telescope will be between 10 and 100 times stronger than the Hubble Space Telescope.
A sufficiently advanced civilization might, in turn, be able to detect our presence on Earth through similar means.
“We consider industrial pollution as a sign of intelligent life, but perhaps civilizations more advanced than us, with their own SETI [Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence] programs, will consider pollution as a sign of unintelligent life since it’s not smart to contaminate your own air,” lead author Henry Lin said.
Source: http://truthisscary.com/2014/08/aliens-may-have-already-polluted-the-universe-say-scientists/
Really hate to break it to NASA, but a LOT of planets in the Universe have complex methane-based seas which would (in many instances) have chloroflourocarbon traces NATURALLY. This means they are building in failure as a result of false positives.
So, since this is so obvious of a misleading mission justification, the real question is – WHY they are trying to justify the new $8.7 billion telescope expenditure starting out with obvious lies?
I can just see it now, ET Made Cosmic Warming ! It will require new taxes and maybe carbon credits and next we’ll all have a cosmic foot print, not that petty little global foot print. Al Gore will be taking about Man Bear ET instead of Man Bear Pig, this could morph into something really big.
Pollution indicates “unintelligent” life…
That applies to humankind 2!