Recently, the attitude towards aliens has become much more serious. Some 15 years ago, most scientists laughed when it came to upcoming contacts with brothers in mind. And they proved that there was no one in the foreseeable space and could not be. Since the nearest stars are supposedly devoid of planets. And whether the distant ones have them is not important at all. After all, you cannot reach them, you cannot call there - the sent signal will reach the addressee in hundreds, or even thousands of years
Nowadays there is a growing stream of messages that, perhaps, someone can still live somewhere near us - within 5 - 30 light years. There are about 130 stars here. Not hopeless - in the sense of habitability - even the closest star system to us, Alpha Centauri, in which the creators of the movie "Avatar" placed the planet Pandora and its blue three-meter navi natives.
The newest Kepler orbiting telescope, adapted to search for planets near other stars, began operating last year. And according to the forecast made by the professor at the University of Geneva, Michel Mayor, this year the telescope will find the Earth's twin. And the professor can be trusted - in 1995, he led a group of astronomers that discovered the first exoplanet in a solar-type star.
PREDATORY COMMUNITIES
In 1974, radio astronomers sent the first message to aliens. There is no answer yet. Although brothers in reason, for example, from Tau Ceti, could respond - they are 12 light years away. But they are silent. Either they are afraid to give a voice, or they are still unreasonable, or they are not there.
And what would the locals look like if they existed and even answered?
“First, they probably love meat,” says Lynn Rothschild, an evolutionary biologist at NASA. “After all, predators, as a rule, are more intellectually developed than their herbivorous counterparts. They get food in trouble and develop brains. And chewing a leaf of lettuce does not make you much smarter.
Lynn believes that carnivores will come into contact with us. Or omnivores like us.
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Communication at interstellar distances implies that aliens can send and receive radio waves. Or laser beams. This is one of two things. Either they have developed natural transmitting and receiving organs, or have reached a high technological level. And for the latter, not only intelligence is needed.
The inhabitant of Pandora looks very realistic. Astrobiology experts from NASA helped create its look.
“For example, what drives us along the path of progress is that we are social beings,” says Dirk Schultz-Makuch, an astrobiologist at Washington State University at Pullman. - We cooperate. It is almost impossible to do anything worthwhile alone. I'm so stupid that I can't even collect a primitive radio. Only by working together did we reach the moon.
According to Schultz-Makuch, aliens capable of receiving and transmitting messages should be organized into a kind of society. And it will not necessarily be human-like.
“I can well imagine colonies of creatures that resemble termites, bees or ants,” the scientist says.
WE WILL MEET - FIND OUT
Some experts believe that the appearance of brothers in mind is completely impossible to imagine. Like, evolution is capable of any quirks. And even on Earth, very sophisticated brains are packed into a wide variety of animals: dolphins and primates, parrots and crows, octopuses and squids. Theoretically, they all had a chance to reach the crowns of creation.
There is a hypothesis that under certain conditions, some species of dinosaurs could also become intelligent. If not died out millions of years ago.
“Civilized aliens still have to be like us, even remotely,” says Jack Cohen, a biologist who helps science fiction writers create compelling aliens for books and films.
As the scientist explains, in the process of evolution, something appeared on Earth many times and independently of each other: hearts, eyes, limbs with joints, wool, photosynthesis, sex. All this will surely arise again in the same form if the process of the birth of life begins anew.
According to Jack's theory, it turns out that if the planet of the brothers is close in characteristics to the Earth, then they themselves are obliged to demonstrate some similarity - to have sex, to have eyes, hands with relatively thin fingers, legs. This means that they must be recognizable. By the way, Navi from Pandora are quite realistic in this sense. Down to the tails. For technologically advanced creatures, they, tails, of course, are a burden. And for the savages living in the jungle and jumping on branches - help. You can steer them.
Representatives of a technologically advanced civilization cannot live in their ocean like octopuses or squids. Progress is still unthinkable without processes based on the use of fire. And what kind of fire is in the water? Even the smartest mollusks won't catch fire. And the radio does not work under water. The Vatican has no doubt that aliens and we are not just brothers, but twins in reason. It has already been declared many times here: belief in other civilizations and belief in God do not contradict each other. This is the first thing. And secondly, God is one for the entire universe.
It is not hard to guess: all created in one image and likeness must correspond to their only image.
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What if we find each other
According to the authoritative journal Nature, biologists and astronomers do not know what to do if extraterrestrial intelligence is discovered. Ethical and normative uncertainty on this issue haunts them. Scientists believe that some kind of action plan is needed in case of contact with aliens. But he is not. And no government has a concept to respond to such discoveries.
Only experts who work on the SETI program have the corresponding instructions - they are trying to catch signals from neighbors in the Universe. They are instructed to carefully check the received data, and then make them internationally public. And do not rush to answer.
“The action plan must be adopted at the UN level,” urged Martin Dominik, an astrophysicist at the University of St Andrews, UK. And he hinted: there is a possibility of aggression from the aliens. Like, "reason … and social life in other worlds can be, like on Earth, associated with violence."
It is possible that scientists from Tau Ceti share a similar opinion. Therefore, they are silent from sin away, having received our signal back in 1988.
Vladimir LAGOVSKY