More Planets, Old and New

More amazing science discoveries, as the the most distant single object ever detected by telescopes is pictured.

The explosion of the giant star is confirmed to be more than 13 billion light-years away, which means the explosion being viewed, is from when the Universe was only 630 million years old, a mere one-20th of its current age (estimated to be 13.7 billion years old).

And following fast on this piece of news came reports that astronomers have discovered a strange Jupiter-sized world circling a star similar to our own Sun. These reports of other planets keep coming thick and fast, and I truly live in hope that we will detect a world that has all the signatures of life, e.g. Oxygen, Carbon dioxide, and Methane, in the atmosphere.

A Galaxy Full Of Life?

I have blogged before on the possibilities of life in our solar system and in the rest of the universe, well this week two stories claim that life is teeming in the universe.

First came the announcement by an Edinburgh scientist, Duncan Forgan, who said that he believed that there are at least 361 intelligent civilisations in our Galaxy and possibly as many as 38,000. His research simulated a galaxy like ours and then subjected them to differing hypotheses.

1. The first assumed that it is difficult for life to be formed but easy for it to evolve, and the results suggested there were 361 intelligent civilisations in the galaxy.


2. A second scenario assumed life was easily formed but struggled to develop intelligence. Under these conditions, 31,513 other forms of life were postulated as existing.


3. The final scenario examined the possibility that life could be passed from one planet to another during asteroid collisions - a popular theory for how life arose here on Earth.
   That approach gave a result of some 37,964 intelligent civilisations in existence.

This research had hardly been in the news for a day, when it was followed by another story in which Dr Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Science, said that there could be one hundred billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, at a US conference. Based upon the limited numbers of planets found so far (300), Dr Boss has estimated that each Sun-like star has on average one "Earth-like" planet.

Most would likely to have simple life forms on them but obviously thousands could still have intelligent lifeforms and Dr Boss estimates that Nasa's Kepler mission, due for launch in March, should begin finding some of these Earth-like planets within the next few years.

Life On Another Planet

With the news that scientists have found an "Earth like" planet 20 light yrs away, we come ever closer to "first contact". Super Earth found.

I have only one hope for these discoveries, and that is that the first intelligent extra terrestrials we contact say "Religion, what's that? Oh, you mean superstition!" - WOW what a moment that will be, all those beards around the world having to explain to their flocks that "God only exists on Earth", or even, "Well, that's 2,000 yrs wasted!". 

 

In fact lets try and run through a scenario (and this is purely hypothetical for fun):

 

Time Line:

1. The year is 2045. The "War against terror" has turned 'hot' and been raging in the West for 15 yrs, with Islamist regimes from Indonesia to North Africa, (the "Caliphate of the Green Crescent") is attacking "Fortress Europa/Siberia", and counter strikes by the US led "Cross Alliance", under pastor Jed Miguel Bush III, are hitting the Muslim world.


2. US Troops are stationed permanently in Israel and Lebanon, and the "West" is spending most of its money on it's armed forces.


3. The only developed area that is conflict free, is the Pacific rim, under the hegemony of the Nippon/Chinese conglomerate. South America is now in the American Trade & Customs Union, formed in 2030 to counter the Europa/Siberia and Nippon/Chinese conglomerate trade blocks. Africa is a resource client continent to the Nippon/Chinese conglomerate.


4. In 2040, and the NC conglomerate super probe, utilising the new "Quantum Macroscope" technology, is launched to the edge of our solar system and uses "Quantum" beams to broadcast from the edge of the Solar System throughout our local galaxy.


5. In 2045, a reply is beamed back from 20 light years away. A faint star Gliese 581, which is 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra, has responded with a signal.


6. Communications are established via translation algorithms, and with the almost instantaneous properties of the "Quantum beams" a regular two way flow of information with only a two month lag develops.

At first the questions are purely scientific, and dominated by the needs and concerns of the NC conglomerate e.g. No, the 'Glieseans' (Or more properly the '*%&*%66"!' - 'Blue skinnys') have not developed interstellar space travel, they too have hit the 'Light speed limits' and in fact have only Fusion powered vehicles, similar to the NC conglomerate vessel that had travelled to the edge of the Sol system.

However, after much communication of a technical nature, the questions move to more historical and philosophical sphere. The history of the Earth, from a NC conglomerate viewpoint are broadcast, and the history of Gliesia (presumably from a 'Blue Skinny' perspective) received. Then comes the bombshell, they have no religion or God, or rather they had had them (but not a monotheistic "Creator" system) in the distant past, but had moved to a scientific/philosophical system of Ethics some hundreds of years ago.

This didn't bother the NC conglomerate because they had no such tradition either, and this vindicated their own systems. At first the rest of the World, engaged as it was in a "Clash of Civilisations" between a Judeo/Christian based morality, and the Ummah Islamic systems, didn't take notice, but then ....

..... they demanded access to the probe, and after some reluctance, the NC conglomerate (who were selling weapons to both sides) allowed it. Teams of theologians representing all the major one god creator religions, had turns sending questions (To a bemused 'Blue Skinny' world), but always the questions were answered the same way "What GOD, who's that? Oh, you mean superstition" .... "We believe in a scientific rational universe".

At last they refused to answer the increasingly more desperate questions, and threatened to break of contacts. The NC conglomerate withdrew the access to the probe. But the answer was out, there was no universal god, no divine creator, no messenger, no prophet, just a lot of men who had been out in the desert sun too long with not enough water. So what were they fighting about?

In the 'Cross Alliance' and its clients, millions turned away from organised religions, and apart from those "diehards" who clung to the old ways, many took up the Confucian/Buddhist/Shinto fusion that was the norm in the JC conglomerate block. In the Caliphate, the news spread less quickly, but in the cities, attendance at the mosques fell away, and violence broke out when mullahs tried to enforce religious observances that had no longer got 'universal divine' backing.

By 2050, the Clash of Civilisations war was over, there just wasn't the will to spill blood over systems that no longer had majority support.....

Well that's how it could go, or maybe not? Alternative scenarios welcome!

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