Friday, April 08, 2005

Firstly I would like to say that I am a devout beilever in alien life, as the existence of other worldly beings fits into what is happening in our world today... However before I start getting involved in discussing alien existence I would like the non beilevers to look at the existence of aliens from a scientific point of view:
It has been presumed by scientifically minded people throughout the ages that there would be planets circling suns in a similar manner to our own solar system, somewhere out there. In the early days of astronomy the stars in the sky were recognized as being suns in their own right. In many instances of course this was absolutely wrong, as what were perceived as individual suns were later discovered to be entire galaxies. The revelation that our own tiny solar system was part of an enormous spiral galaxy seemed at first inconceivable. The number of galaxies that are now known to exist is in the hundreds of millions. With the Hubble telescope identifying five hundred million new galaxies in one quadrant of the known universe alone. Each galaxy in tern having thousands and possibly millions of stars within its own system demands the rational that many of these stars will indeed be orbited by their own planets. The Kepler Program is a special purpose space mission in the NASA Headquarters Discovery Program for detecting terrestrial planets, that are, rocky and Earth-size around other stars. The Kepler Program has been remarkably successful in 'proving' the obvious! In science however, the obvious must be proven as a premise to move forward from. The scientists in the Kepler Program estimate that approximately 12% of all suns will be orbited by a minimum of 2 planets the mathematical rational that follows is thus. Galaxies discovered by Hubble alone (in excess of) 500 million. Assume each galaxy has only 100 stars (in fact each galaxy has many thousands if not millions). Assume that the scientists at NASA are correct when they calculate that 12% of all stars will have at least two planets orbiting. The calculation in minimalist terms (in other words taking numbers that are so small as to be almost ridiculous) may look like this: 500,000,000 (Hubble galaxies) x 100 (minimal number of stars in each galaxy) = 50,000,000,000 12% of 50,000,000,000 (Scientists calculate that 12% will have planets) = 6,000,000,000 x 2 (Scientists calculate minimum 2 planets per star) = 12,000,000,000. On a minimalist calculation based on the scientific information available, and NASA's scientifically based predictions as to the likelihood of numbers and types of star systems we come to a figure of twelve billion possible planets. It is therefore difficult to argue with the following conclusion. The mathematical probability of there being a planet out there somewhere that is capable of supporting life in some form or another is extremely high.

Using the techniques described earlier the first extra solar planet was found in 1994 by Wolszczan, and in recent times discovering new planets in far off solar systems is becoming common place. The Kepler Project employs both earth based radio telescopes and an Earth orbiting radio telescope of considerable power. It is interesting to make note that the general area being searched is the area around and adjacent to the constellation of Orion. A region of the extended solar neighborhood in the Cygnus region along the Orion arm centered on galactic coordinates (69.6°,+5.7°) or RA=19h 41m, Dec=+34° 55' has been chosen. The star field is far enough from the ecliptic plane so as not to be obscured by the Sun at any time of the year. This field also virtually eliminates any confusion resulting (The relevance of this will become apparent in later pages). 7/27/2002 Television news reported that scientists had identified a newly discovered planet that showed characteristics in there 'Doppler light evaluation' of having an atmosphere that may be capable of supporting life as we know it. This is one planet of 100 that is currently under investigation. Currently scientists are predicting that many thousand more planets will be discovered in the relatively near future. And considering the minimalist calculations above showing the likelihood that there are probably billions of planets out there this prediction is an easy one to make. It appears the question of… "Is there a possibility of Extraterrestrial life", in terms of mathematical logic and scientific discoveries, is all but redundant. Although it is the purpose of this webpage to investigate the discovery of extra-solar planets and the possibility of Extraterrestrial life it is hard to ignore the obvious, that being… It would now be astonishing not to discover life.

posted by The Watcher on 6:16 PM | *