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Objections and Counterarguments to the Search for Extraterrestrial Life

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Humanity has no official evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial life, but the thought of the possibility of making contact with intelligent aliens definitely excites the mind.

However, in parallel, our archaic fear of the dark, of something unknown, is awakening. Therefore, we have objections when we hear that scientists are engaged in a targeted search for “brothers in mind.”

Here are four of the most common objections to finding aliens and valid counterarguments to them.

It’s insanely expensive

This statement is completely untrue. The annual maintenance of a small radio telescope equipped with the latest technology will cost less than the creation of an average attack helicopter.

What is the most expensive attack helicopter? Similar to what you have read earlier, the most expensive attack helicopter is the Boeing AH-64 Apache. It carries a price tag of $52 million.

Of course, for an ordinary person, such an amount is large, but large countries are engaged in the search for aliens and for them such an amount is not cosmic.

Aliens don’t use radio communications, and if they do, we still won’t understand them

If the aliens are intelligent and are studying the universe, then they have discovered many natural radio sources, which led to the emergence of radio physics, radio astronomy and radio transmission technologies.

Yes, brothers in mind can be incredibly progressive, but it is unlikely that this will cause a complete rejection of convenient and cheap radio communications.

The universe is miraculously homogeneous, the laws of nature are the same everywhere, so science will become the natural language of communication.

One and zero will always be one and zero, even if they have some strange names. In other words, it will be easier to decipher an alien message than to receive it.

If we find very advanced aliens, it will be humiliating to know that we are primitive

Undoubtedly, pride will suffer, but it has suffered before, when it was proved that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and not vice versa, and indeed the solar system is not the center of the universe.

In a few centuries, all our achievements and inventions will be considered, to put it mildly, primitive, but do not forget that the goal of modern science is to surpass itself.

Acquaintance with progressive aliens can give a powerful impetus to the development of mankind, which will leave behind racial, religious, political, economic and other conflicts. We can become much better.

They will destroy us or devour us!

We think aliens will be belligerent and violent because we think they are like us. Therefore, guided by the subconscious fear of the majority, scientists are trying to receive signals, and not transmit them into space.

Even if we assume that aliens are the same as us, then making an incredibly expensive, long and dangerous flight to start a war is the height of madness.

For example, Seth Shostak , an American astronomer and employee of the SETI Institute (search for extraterrestrial life), is sure that if aliens decide to fly to us, then only with good intentions.

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Extraterrestrial life may be hiding in “terminator zones”

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In a study published in the Astrophysical Journal, astrophysicists set out to find out if exoplanets could support life.

Astronomers have come to the conclusion that on the surface of some exoplanets there is a strip that may contain water, necessary for the existence of biological life. The terminator zone is the dividing line between the day and night sides of an exoplanet.

Many exoplanets are planets outside the solar system held by gravity. This means that one side of the planet is always facing the star they orbit, while the other side is in constant darkness.

The water on the dark side will most likely be in a frozen state, while on the light side it will be so hot that the water should just evaporate.

The terminator zone would be a “friendly place” – neither too hot nor too cold – in which liquid water could support extraterrestrial life.

Dr. Ana Lobo of the University of California, said: “The day side can be scalding hot, much uninhabitable, while the night side will be icy, potentially covered in ice. You need a planet that’s the right temperature for liquid water.”

“We’re trying to draw attention to planets with more limited amounts of water that, despite not having widespread oceans, might have lakes or other smaller bodies of liquid water, and that climate could actually be very promising.”

“By exploring these exotic climate states, we are improving our chances of finding and correctly identifying a habitable planet in the near future.”

The researchers created a model of their climate by analyzing different temperatures, wind patterns and radiative forcing, and found the “correct” zone on exoplanets that could contain life-supporting liquid water.

Researchers who are looking for life on exoplanets will now take into account the fact that it can hide in certain areas.

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Astronomers discover the strongest evidence for another Universe before the Big Bang

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The notion of the Big Bang goes back nearly 100 years, when the first evidence for the expanding Universe appeared.

If the Universe is expanding and cooling today, that implies a past that was smaller, denser, and hotter. In our imaginations, we can extrapolate back to arbitrarily small sizes, high densities, and hot temperatures: all the way to a singularity, where all of the Universe’s matter and energy was condensed in a single point. 

For many decades, these two notions of the Big Bang — of the hot dense state that describes the early Universe and the initial singularity — were inseparable.

But beginning in the 1970s, scientists started identifying some puzzles surrounding the Big Bang, noting several properties of the Universe that weren’t explainable within the context of these two notions simultaneously. 

When cosmic inflation was first put forth and developed in the early 1980s, it separated the two definitions of the Big Bang, proposing that the early hot, dense state never achieved these singular conditions, but rather that a new, inflationary state preceded it. 

There really was a Universe before the hot Big Bang, and some very strong evidence from the 21st century truly proves that it’s so.

Although we’re certain that we can describe the very early Universe as being hot, dense, rapidly expanding, and full of matter-and-radiation — i.e., by the hot Big Bang — the question of whether that was truly the beginning of the Universe or not is one that can be answered with evidence. 

The differences between a Universe that began with a hot Big Bang and a Universe that had an inflationary phase that precedes and sets up the hot Big Bang are subtle, but tremendously important. After all, if we want to know what the very beginning of the Universe was, we need to look for evidence from the Universe itself.

Read the full article here.

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