"Nobody out there cares about us"

[swansont]

1 hour ago, studiot said:

Why do old farts like you and I try to communicate and pass on 3/4 of a lifetimes learning with other, younger people ?

There is much more to it than you seem to be making out, especially when you break it down.

Why for instance did the proto polynesians set out into the wide blue yonder of the Pacific ?

Columbus was looking for a civilisation when he stumbled over your own land.

Why have we been we searching Antarctica for more than a century, with no expectation of any civilisation ?

Columbus wasn’t looking for a civilization that he didn’t know existed. AFAIK, neither did the proto Polynesians

Remember that the context if this discussion is aliens finding us interesting or not, rather than stumbling across us by accident

 

1 hour ago, studiot said:

And why did you consider my other comments less worthy of comment, since they are totally scientific?

Where does the idea that I am obligated to respond to anything come from? You should ask for your money back.

[exchemist]

1 hour ago, studiot said:

Yes but this thread is not about space travel alone.

Communication alone may be possible over some of the distances involved.

I wouldn't care if some useful new maths theorem or a proper cure for Covid, was bequeathed to me by some little green andromodean or my next door neighbour in Somerset.

Incidentally did you see that BBC program about Pluto ?

It has some amazing implications for Chemistry.

Well there I agree. I think it more likely that some form of monitoring of radiation might take place, as in SETI for instance.

I’m afraid that, not having a TV, I didn’t see the programme you refer to. What was it called, and on what channel? And what chemistry did it talk about?

[studiot]

23 minutes ago, exchemist said:

Well there I agree. I think it more likely that some form of monitoring of radiation might take place, as in SETI for instance.

I’m afraid that, not having a TV, I didn’t see the programme you refer to. What was it called, and on what channel? And what chemistry did it talk about?

Thank you for your response.

The program was on BBC last Wednesday evening.
It described the New Horizons spacecraft project from its launch in 2006 to it fly past od Pluto in 2015 and the subsequent analysis.
There were many significant suprises.
One of which was the bright red colour of much of the planet's surface.
It had been thought that Pluto was a dead planet, too cold for anything else and largely made of ice.
Yet it showed definite volcanic activity, ice being a rock at those temperatures and the magma being made of flowing water. There has been very significant revisions to planetary geology theory as a result.
It was also thought to be far outside the zone where life might commence.
However the quantum fact that radiation energy is proportional to frequency means that although sunlight is seriously weakened there is still some radiation of sufficient energy to spilt one of the main chemical compounds there ie methane.
The program likened the effect to a Los Angeles smog where large carbon framed molecules are formed in the atmousphere and fall back to the surface as red dust particles, accounting for the red colour. Earthside laboratory experiments have confirmed this process.
So Pluto has water, and the natural ability to generate complex organic molecules.

The weakness of the sunlight prompted my comment about Pluto being perhaps way behind Earth in the life generation race, unlike our normal assumption of alien life being way ahead of us.
 

[exchemist]

5 hours ago, studiot said:

Thank you for your response.

The program was on BBC last Wednesday evening.
It described the New Horizons spacecraft project from its launch in 2006 to it fly past od Pluto in 2015 and the subsequent analysis.
There were many significant suprises.
One of which was the bright red colour of much of the planet's surface.
It had been thought that Pluto was a dead planet, too cold for anything else and largely made of ice.
Yet it showed definite volcanic activity, ice being a rock at those temperatures and the magma being made of flowing water. There has been very significant revisions to planetary geology theory as a result.
It was also thought to be far outside the zone where life might commence.
However the quantum fact that radiation energy is proportional to frequency means that although sunlight is seriously weakened there is still some radiation of sufficient energy to spilt one of the main chemical compounds there ie methane.
The program likened the effect to a Los Angeles smog where large carbon framed molecules are formed in the atmousphere and fall back to the surface as red dust particles, accounting for the red colour. Earthside laboratory experiments have confirmed this process.
So Pluto has water, and the natural ability to generate complex organic molecules.

The weakness of the sunlight prompted my comment about Pluto being perhaps way behind Earth in the life generation race, unlike our normal assumption of alien life being way ahead of us.
 

That’s interesting, certainly. I’ll have look up the bit about the redness. Presume it signifies absorption bands in the green and blue.