What year do you think it would be assuming we do find e.-t.?
2007-07-16 13:49:33 · 13 answers · asked by Chaya Ahuvah 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
If extraterrestial life is found, it is overwhelmingly likely that it will be through the SETI program.
In its early days, SETI used one dish. Now, they still use one dish but scan millions of channels simultaneously. They piggyback their equipment onto telescopes used by other astronomers - but I think they still operate a dish (or more) of their own - dedicated to SETI.
After years of searching (again, in the early days), they had scanned less than a millionth of the sky. As more sky is scanned, the chances increase.
You yourself could actually be the discoverer. Join Berkleys SETI search program. Your computer is used during idle times to search through the reams of data they have gotten, but not yet analysed. (The more horsepower your PC has, the better - it is doing highly mathematical stuff). If your computer was the one found to have made the intial discovery, you would become the first person who discovered them, and be part of the worlds history for ever. That's a pretty neat claim methinks.
My guess is that if life is found at all using this methodology, it will be within 50 years.
2007-07-16 16:32:23 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Multiple suitable earthlike planets will be located well before 2010 i am quite certain. Some truly amazing discoveries of Exoplanets have already been made. At last glance the number was up there around 239 of them had been identified and numbered orbiting nearby stars.
The problem with "finding life" as you put it is rather complex. If the life forms do not have radio transmitters, optical transmitters, or some other means of radiating signals the only means of "discovering" that they exist would be to actually go there and look around...a hunting expedition as it were. That will probably not happen for quite some time.
In reality you must consider that the Earth is 4 to 5 Billion Years old. Within that 4 to 5 Billion Year time span how many years have we been broadcasting radio signals out into space, sending space probes all over our Solar System, and conducting real deep space research? My guess is only within the last 100 years or so. Just an eye wink in that 5 Billion Years right? So, in the case of some distant planets in distant solar systems, when exactly would this tiny little eye blink occur for that planet? Would we be able to time our search to match that small time slot? You must realize that the distant earthlike planet would not have evolved by going through the exact same set of circumstances that Earth had to endure. So, are you willing to meet educated worms, or smart fish? Etc., Etc., etc.
2007-07-16 21:10:28 · answer #2 · answered by zahbudar 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We have already discovered >100 planets in nearby solar systems. Most of those are giant planets like Jupiter (not likely sources for life). As our technology improves we will be better able to find systems that possess the chemical fingerprint that suggest life. If we don't find that fingerprint then at least we will have examined hundreds of nearby stars and that would provide us with a statistical sample. However the short answer to your question is sometime before the end of this century.
2007-07-16 21:04:03 · answer #3 · answered by Math Answerer 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, it could be anytime, and it could never happen :) Everyone can make estimations, but in reality, they'll have no proper bases.
Recently a planet [named: Gliese 581C] was discovered that is pretty much the same as Earth. It's rocky, warm, and shares the same conditions for water, which is an important ingredient for life. It's about 20 light years away. Now think how many could be found in roughly 78 billion light years? [that is what we know at the moment, who knows? it could be trillions of light years :)].
2007-07-16 21:38:04 · answer #4 · answered by B7x0 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it could be quite soon, if there is life in the solar system outside earth. i think that's possible but perhaps not very likely. it may be a let-down anyway - we may find that life reached mars from earth, for example. probably the best bets are to find biomarkers in extrasolar planetary atmospheres by spectroscopy, or if there's intelligent life, pick up a signal from one of their beacons.
2007-07-16 21:26:48 · answer #5 · answered by vorenhutz 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Probably never.There may or may not be life on other worlds.It might be scientifically interesting but then what ?Humans cannot survive very long trips into space.And if we could a trip to another inhabitable planet would be impossible due to the distances(multiple light years )
2007-07-16 21:14:47 · answer #6 · answered by Nottoosmart 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Just think, they are as far away from us as we are to them, which for some systems is like hundreds of light years!!! Remember, this is traveling at the speed of light, so there is no way we could travel to these places in our lifetime!!!
2007-07-16 21:05:58 · answer #7 · answered by chazzer 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
OK, The long and the short of it is:
Maybe in the next minute or never!
2007-07-16 22:23:25 · answer #8 · answered by Shirley B 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nobody nows the answers of this questions for exact but it is coming really soon.
2007-07-16 21:05:51 · answer #9 · answered by Soccermaster 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Within the next couple of years. They will come to us - I believe.
2007-07-17 01:51:12 · answer #10 · answered by chrisj 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋