Diamond Geezer
Gone But Not Forgotten
- Joined
- May 2, 2003
- Messages
- 13,884
Has anyone ever witnessed one ? Bit of a non-believer myself at present but remain open minded. Some theory for what it is worth.
Our closest neighbor is Alpha Centauri, it is a star and is 4 light years away or 23.6 trillion miles away from us. The distance across the Milky Way galaxy (which is our home galaxy) is one hundred thousand light years or five million nine hundred thousand trillion miles. In order to go to another galaxy you would travel over a billion light years.
We at present can travel at about 50,000 mph, that converts into about 13.9 miles per second. That is about 1/13381th of light speed. This is more than 13 thousand times slower than light speed. What's more we have to bounce off of the outer planets gravity fields to go that fast.
But lets say that Aliens could inhabit Alpha Centauri, or rather one of its planets. They start out on the journey to earth. and they are at about the same development stage that we are. If they are traveling at fifty thousand miles per hour, they will cover about four hundred thirty eight million six hundred fifty thousand six hundred forty miles in one year. I hope that they have the AA because the trip will take, Fifty three thousand eight hundred and one years. That is only one way. (I wonder if they give frequent flyer miles).
If you wanted to go across to the other side of the Milky Way it would take One billion three hundred forty five million and twenty five thousand years one way. A trip to another galaxy would be a futile effort at the present. Imagine you have a balloon that is half full of air, stick small patches of paper on the outside of the balloon to represent the galaxies. As you continue to blow up the balloon you will notice that the galaxies are getting further and further apart. This is a model of how the universe is expanding. the rate of this expansion is 373 miles per second. As we can only make 13.9 miles per second, We have a good deal of work on propulsion systems before we could even attempt an intergalactic trip.
So I think we need to look a little closer to home for the likelyhood of other civilizations. The trip would be lets say 20,000 years long.
Some of the things that they would have to overcome are, food for the crew. That would mean that they would have to carry:
14,610,000 Eggs 1,040,000 lb. Bacon 70,000 lb. Coffee 1826250 loaves of bread 456562 gallons of fruit juice and that's just breakfast for one crew member.
Fuel : I will assume that they have developed nuclear power (fusion) for the power plant and engine and would need no more fuel. Water: 36,525,000 gallons per crew member. It would also be 250 to 300 generations before they reached us. And you thought Adam had a lot of begats.
So trips only half way across our galaxy seem to be out of reach. A trip like this would be an exploration by some civilization and I think that they would come across other worlds long before they got to us.
If aliens came from within our solar system, based on one of the other planets we would be able to track them on the inbound journey with radar and radio waves. So I don't think that they inhabit any of the known planets of our solar system or any of the moons. We surely would have seen some kind of activity by now. We have sent probes to the most likely planets to have life on them. The results have been negative so far. I think that we need to send exploration parties to Mars to do a thorough search for life or signs that there had been life at one time on the planet. A journey of that kind is well within reason. It would give us a chance to see if we can make another world inhabitable. A space station or a moon base should be the first step. From a moon base we could launch space ships that are larger than the ones we now launch from earth. The lower gravity would save much fuel, in addition larger ships would allow enough space to create a biosphere.
On earth we have had all of the things needed for life furnished to us by nature. Only in recent years have we started to look at what is used up, and never to return. Oxygen, water, and food are the essential elements needed for life anywhere. There is work being done in this area and I think that they will find that we may not have the time to wait for our sun to do its thing. . In the next 4 or 5 billion years if we haven't found a way to go to the other star systems in our Milky Way Galaxy, we will be lost as a civilization. Our sun will glow red hot in that time span and anybody on Earth or Mars will be toast.
If you were a believer, do you still think so now ?
Our closest neighbor is Alpha Centauri, it is a star and is 4 light years away or 23.6 trillion miles away from us. The distance across the Milky Way galaxy (which is our home galaxy) is one hundred thousand light years or five million nine hundred thousand trillion miles. In order to go to another galaxy you would travel over a billion light years.
We at present can travel at about 50,000 mph, that converts into about 13.9 miles per second. That is about 1/13381th of light speed. This is more than 13 thousand times slower than light speed. What's more we have to bounce off of the outer planets gravity fields to go that fast.
But lets say that Aliens could inhabit Alpha Centauri, or rather one of its planets. They start out on the journey to earth. and they are at about the same development stage that we are. If they are traveling at fifty thousand miles per hour, they will cover about four hundred thirty eight million six hundred fifty thousand six hundred forty miles in one year. I hope that they have the AA because the trip will take, Fifty three thousand eight hundred and one years. That is only one way. (I wonder if they give frequent flyer miles).
If you wanted to go across to the other side of the Milky Way it would take One billion three hundred forty five million and twenty five thousand years one way. A trip to another galaxy would be a futile effort at the present. Imagine you have a balloon that is half full of air, stick small patches of paper on the outside of the balloon to represent the galaxies. As you continue to blow up the balloon you will notice that the galaxies are getting further and further apart. This is a model of how the universe is expanding. the rate of this expansion is 373 miles per second. As we can only make 13.9 miles per second, We have a good deal of work on propulsion systems before we could even attempt an intergalactic trip.
So I think we need to look a little closer to home for the likelyhood of other civilizations. The trip would be lets say 20,000 years long.
Some of the things that they would have to overcome are, food for the crew. That would mean that they would have to carry:
14,610,000 Eggs 1,040,000 lb. Bacon 70,000 lb. Coffee 1826250 loaves of bread 456562 gallons of fruit juice and that's just breakfast for one crew member.
Fuel : I will assume that they have developed nuclear power (fusion) for the power plant and engine and would need no more fuel. Water: 36,525,000 gallons per crew member. It would also be 250 to 300 generations before they reached us. And you thought Adam had a lot of begats.
So trips only half way across our galaxy seem to be out of reach. A trip like this would be an exploration by some civilization and I think that they would come across other worlds long before they got to us.
If aliens came from within our solar system, based on one of the other planets we would be able to track them on the inbound journey with radar and radio waves. So I don't think that they inhabit any of the known planets of our solar system or any of the moons. We surely would have seen some kind of activity by now. We have sent probes to the most likely planets to have life on them. The results have been negative so far. I think that we need to send exploration parties to Mars to do a thorough search for life or signs that there had been life at one time on the planet. A journey of that kind is well within reason. It would give us a chance to see if we can make another world inhabitable. A space station or a moon base should be the first step. From a moon base we could launch space ships that are larger than the ones we now launch from earth. The lower gravity would save much fuel, in addition larger ships would allow enough space to create a biosphere.
On earth we have had all of the things needed for life furnished to us by nature. Only in recent years have we started to look at what is used up, and never to return. Oxygen, water, and food are the essential elements needed for life anywhere. There is work being done in this area and I think that they will find that we may not have the time to wait for our sun to do its thing. . In the next 4 or 5 billion years if we haven't found a way to go to the other star systems in our Milky Way Galaxy, we will be lost as a civilization. Our sun will glow red hot in that time span and anybody on Earth or Mars will be toast.
If you were a believer, do you still think so now ?
