We should scour the moon for ancient traces of aliens, say scientists

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/dec/25/scour-moon-ancient-traces-aliens

Hundreds of thousands of pictures of the moon will be examined for telltale signs that aliens once visited our cosmic neighbourhood if plans put forward by scientists go ahead.

Passing extraterrestrials might have left messages, scientific instruments, heaps of rubbish or evidence of mining on the dusty lunar surface that could be spotted by human telescopes and orbiting spacecraft.

Though the chances of finding the handiwork of long-gone aliens are exceptionally remote, scientists argue that a computerised search of lunar images, or a crowd-sourced analysis by amateur enthusiasts, would be cheap enough to justify given the importance of a potential discovery.

Prof Paul Davies and Robert Wagner at Arizona State University argue that images of the moon and other information collected by scientists for their research should be scoured for signs of alien intervention. The proposal aims to complement other hunts for alien life, such as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti), which draws on data from radiotelescopes to scour the heavens for messages beamed into space by alien civilisations.

[HopeHoops]

1. "importance"? Maybe to start arguments with Jesus people.

The project sounds interesting, but we have only discovered a small portion of life forms on Earth (although most mammals and birds are accounted for).

[DavidDvorkin]

2. It sounds interesting, but if enthusiastic amateurs are enlisted

they'd better be screened in some way. Otherwise, the number of false positives -- the equivalent of the Face on Mars -- will overwhelm the experimenters.

[jberryhill]

3. Anyone reporting anything

will be taken to that place where they take people who have evidence of alien encounters.

[Fumesucker]

7. Any image that gets a "hit" just automatically put back in the queue and see if it gets another hit

No doubt there are statistical processes you could apply to the data to help pull a tenuous signal from a great deal of noise.

[DavidDvorkin]

8. That's clever.

[Boston_Chemist]

4. Yes, this is an absolute top priority in the world of science.

I am sure it will produce a lot of grant money, to be spent on a neotenous group of scientists, with conferences held in Greece.

[Javaman]

5. With 500 dollar a plate dinners of imported food. nt

[Boston_Chemist]

6. Actually, from first hand knowledge:

Astrophysicists and other similars often like to stage their conferences in sumptuous locales; this I get from a personal acquaintance at the CfA, here in Cambridge. Astrophysics is interesting, but I have a really hard time figuring out what tangible (as opposed to the intangible, more philosophical aspect) benefit it brings to our society. The fear of asteroids might be their current tactic for drumming up public support for their field.

[shireen]

11. conferences in sumptious locations & tangible benefits

I work in the field and often see conference listings. I don't know why your CfA aquaintaince would say something like that. Almost all places are in cities, or nearby locations, with universities that have robust astronomy research programs -- they're well-justified locations for meetings. That includes places like Venice, Canary Islands, and Paris. The American Astronomical Society meeting locations are certainly not sumptious locations, in fact, i sometimes hear grumblings about it.

As for the tangible benefits of astrophysics ... ancient astronomy created the foundation for modern calendars, spectroscopy and nuclear fusion work in early astronomy was fueled by astronomy research, developing early CCD technology for imaging which is now used in digital cameras, x-ray machines (medical and airport), image processing software for detecting breast cancer tumors, radio astronomy interferometry adapted for locating 911 cell phone calls, adaptive optics imaging techniques used for imagining retina that can lead to earlier detection of disease, and more....

The most tangible benefit of all: inspiring kids to do well in school so they can pursue careers as scientists.

We get amazing technological spin-offs because inspired curious minds want to study nature; astronomers and engineers have collaborated with great success to create the instruments for pursuing their research goals. Without that thirst for knowledge, there would not have been any motivation to create some of the technological spin-offs mentioned above.

[Boston_Chemist]

13. As I said: Astrophysics itself is interesting, but it ultimately adresses intangibles.

Last edited Wed Dec 28, 2011, 06:13 PM - Edit history (1)

Understanding answers to the questions surrounding our presence in the universe is a philosophical excercise. These questions are certainly worth answering, but they should ultimately lose out to, say, concerns of urgent immediacy. I would never propose cutting funding to the National Institutes of Health for the sake of a new and fancier telescope in orbit around the planet. It is a matter of priorities of governance.

Advances in science will come by hook or by crook. You shouldn't arrogantly assume that they are only attributable to this or that field. All physicists are chemists at some level, and all chemists are physicists at some other level. And the real worker bees are the engineering types: Hats off to them.

[Kennah]

17. I agree that it addresses intangibles ...

... but the spinoff advancements and technologies from our time playing in space have been tremendous.

I have at times heard people say something along the lines of, "We can't build high speed rail, and we have to pursue solar instead."

Umm, we really need both. Education or healthcare? I say both. Rebuild crumbling bridges or improve our power grid? Again I say both.

Get the fuck of Iraq or get the fuck out of Afghanistan? Hmmm, once again, I will say both.

[txlibdem]

9. Any sufficiently developed technology is indistinguishable from magic.

I doubt that any race, after having developed the ability to travel among the stars, will leave heaps of rubbish. They may leave a message but it would have to be a physical object as asteroid and micro-meteroid impacts would over time wipe out any pictographs scraped into the lunar surface.

The only logical thing they might do is to bury an object that could only be fashioned by an intelligent species but that would not give any information... they would have no idea if Earth dwellers would be peaceful or warlike and would not want to leave an "Encyclopedia Galactica" or anything that would help a warlike species leave its solar system. Perhaps something as simple as a plaque made from diamond or titanium and engraved with the relative positions of the nearest 15 pulsars at that time, thus allowing us to determine the approximate time they left it.

It would be most unwise to leave probes or scientific instruments as that may contain a technology unknown to the Earth which might inadvertently advance a weapons program or other technology that we "are not ready for" at the time we discover it.

[Odin2005]

10. This calls for Ancient Aliens Dude:

[Glassunion]

16. Related?

[hunter]

12. If stars or slime molds or some kind of deep sea squid were intelligent, how would we know?

I imagine we are surrounded by intelligent aliens, and that the universe is well populated by intelligent aliens, but we're just too dim to notice.

The tools we use and the messes we leave may only be the signs of an infantile intelligence. While we crap in our nest greater intelligences travel the universe freely without leaving a trace.

[YankeyMCC]

14. Beeblebrox was here

.. ..
u u
------

[bluedigger]

15. I'm available for any surface survey.

May have to get a new page for the Munsell...