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Are we Alone?
with Jez Nelson
("Close Encounters" Five Tones play)
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WAV 242K |
Woman : He was about six and a half feet tall.We could see his
features.he had two eyes and a nose and a mouth.But he was covered in silver.He
was silver from head to toe.
Jez Nelson : A surprising number of people say they've had a close
encounter.That they've seen,met or even been abducted
by aliens.Many more of us are sure that they are out there somewhere,we
are not alone. For many, an interest in alien life starts young.Generations
have grown up watching Star Trek,
Doctor Who and now the
X-Files.
The real search for extra terrestrial intelligence
or SETI as it's called
was begun in 1959 by
Frank Drake.Now
the president of the world famous SETI
institute in California.
Frank Drake : The fascination with
SETI started with me when I was very
young,about 8 years old,when my parents first told me there were other
planets,other stars in the universe,and that fascinated me.I wondered if
there were other worlds with other creatures with their own histories and
ways of life and I wanted to know about those, and I've wanted to ever since,and
that's a very common feeling with human beings,as we know.
Jez Nelson : Known by many as "the father of SETI",Frank Drake came
up with an equation to estimate how many intelligent civilisations there
might be out there [Ref: Video A30: Riddle of the Skies
Pt1{N = R * x f
p x n e x f l x f i x f t
x L };N20 Quantum Leaps1 {Making Contact}] . It's based
on what we know about the rate of star and planet formation. The statistical
chances of life evolving,the odds of that life being intelligent and being
capable of developing technologies,and a rough guess at how long a civilisation
might last,because we really don't know.
Barry Jones : In our galaxy you've got something like 100,000 million
stars,and it could well be that 1% of those have actually got Earth-like
planets around them.even if it was only 0.1%,that's still a huge number of
planets out there that could have life on them.
Jez Nelson : Dr Barry Jones,heads the Dept of Physics at the Open
University.One of his areas of research is the detection of other planets
which might be able to support life.The last five years have been particularly
exciting, because,for the first time,it's been possible to detect planets
in orbit around other stars.
Barry Jones : So far,we've detected indirectly,because these planets
affect the star,and that's how we know they're there.So far it's getting
up to about 20 exo-planets as they're called,20 exo-planets have been
discovered.Now the thing is because you discover them through the effect
that they have on the star,so far we're only detecting the real big
monsters,there's nothing the size of the Earth detected yet.That's not to
say they're not there.It's just that a smallish planet like Earth is much
more difficult to detect.
Jez Nelson : So far it hasn't been possible to actually see these
planets outside our own solar system.Just to detect the pull they have on
the stars they orbit light-years away.But there are plans afoot to launch
a powerful telescope to take a good look at these so-called exo-planets.
Barry Jones : I'm actually involved in a project which is going to,well
we hope,launch a huge infra-red telescope in space in about ten years time,and
what that will be able to do,if it gets launched,is not just to detect these
planets through the effect they have on the star,but actually get an image
of the planets themselves.Now this image won't be, you know,like a satellite
image from space of the Earth,you won't see continents and things,it'll just
be a little dot of light.But as soon as you've got the dot of light,you'll
be able to investigate that dot of light for the properties of the planet
and be able to tell if it's got an atmosphere,how hot the surface is,if there
is water there and so on.
Jez Nelson : The hope is that by analysing the light from these
planets,it'll be possible to work out if they have atmospheres and could
be suitable spots for the evolution of life.Closer to home,and therefore
much easier to scrutinise for signs of life are the planets in our own solar
system,so do they have the necessary raw ingredients? Dr Monica Grady of
the Natural History Museum,studies rocks from all over the solar system for
signs of life.
Monica Grady : The basic ingredients that we need to make life are
very simple.Carbon,Hydrogen,to break it down to the elements,but usually
we think of them in terms of compounds,Carbon Dioxide,Water,Nitrogen perhaps
as Ammonia,with traces of Sulphur and Phosphorous.They're the building blocks.
Jez Nelson : These ingredients are found all over the solar system.Even
in interplanetary space.But for life to get itself organised the chemistry
needs two more ingredients,a nice surface to form on,and some sort of energy
input.In other words,the right conditions.So what are other forms of life
likely to be made of ?
Monica Grady : There are only certain elements which are going to
be useful for making life [Thus reducing the chances of life starting,and
the likelihood of its existence.How likely it is that other life exists,is
computed from the Drake equation-LB].So although we can think of Silicon-based
life forms or Phosphorous-based life forms,or whatever that's very unlikely
to happen because of the atomic structure of those elements.Carbon is absolutely
unique in the way it can build chains of molecules,form back on itself,form
rings and cross-link molecules.So we think that because of that fundamental
atomic property of Carbon,then life is going to be Carbon-based.
Jez Nelson : One place scientists think life might have
evolved of course,is Mars.
Monica Grady : A planet very,very similar to the Earth,It's half the
size of the Earth [Which is why there is a limited atmosphere -LB],but it's
made of the same ingredients,it's a rocky planet,it's had heat on it in the
past,we know that because of the volcanoes,and certainly there has been water
present on the planet in the past.there are other places as well.Places like
some of the satellites of Jupiter,like Europa and Ganymede where the surface
of the planet is covered with a mixture of ice and rocky debris,and certainly
on Europa we think that that crust of ice might be lying on top of perhaps
even fluid water.
Jez Nelson : While exo-biologists and planetary scientists search
the solar system for tell-tale traces of gases like Methane and Ozone or
fossil clues in rocks,astronomers hope for more concrete evidence,not just
of the signs of primitive life,but of intelligent beings,and the clues they're
looking for at SETI are signals from a technologically advanced civilisation.
Seth Shostak : At the moment we are using principally radio searches,which
is to say that we're just trying to eavesdrop on cosmic company usually in
the microwave region of the dial because they're good technical reasons why
we choose those particular frequencies.Radio is a great way to get in
touch.There's no doubt about it,I mean ET might be using all sorts of
technologies.Perhaps even rocketing from one star system to another,that's
possible,but whatever else he or it may be doing,radio will certainly be
part of the mix.
Frank Drake : We're looking for a life form that knows how to build
radio transmitters and we look for a great variety of forms of radio
transmission.Transmissions they may use for their own purposes such as television
or telemetry,and of course theirs always the hope that their radiating a
string beacon to us,which would of course make our life easy.But we do search
for radio signals because as we understand the universe,this is the most
promising thing to search for.
Jez Nelson : Seth Shostak and Frank Drake at SETI.Radio telescopes
are expensive and in great demand,so SETI don't get as much listening time
as they might like.But a major new project is about to start,involving the
worlds largest telescope at Aracebo in Puerto Rico and Britain's biggest,the
250 foot telescope at Jodrell Bank near
Manchester Eavesdropping on the cosmos is also going on using telescopes
at Harvard in the USA,as well as one in Argentina and another in Australia.So
what exactly are they listening for? Presumably it's not some ET equivalent
of "Eastenders" or "Noel's House Party" [It couldn't be either of those because
they're searching for INTELLIGENT life-LB],and how will we be able to tell
if it's a message from the stars rather than just some cosmic noise?
Seth Shostak : There's no doubt that there are many natural noise-makers
out in the cosmos that are producing radio waves.Quasars,pulsars,just hot
gas in our own Milky Way galaxy,they're all cluttering up the radio dial
with their broadcasts,but natural noise-makers,make signals that are all
over the dial.It's kind of like driving your car late at night trying to
tune in to your favourite country & western station [Is there one? -LB]
you'll find static all over the dial,but when you turn the knob,at some point
you get a squeal and you know that's what you're looking for,that's a
transmitter.
Jez Nelson : And it's not just radio signals that we're listening
out for .There are also plans to search for other types of signal from ET.
Seth Shostak : We're also starting to look for the aliens using optical
techniques,in other words we're looking for very bright very short flashes
of light,that they may be using to try and get our attention.
Jez Nelson : Of course,if the flashes of light are very bright and
very short,we might well miss them.It's a real problem for the radio astronomer
too.
Frank Drake : That scares us to death,and in fact I'm sitting in a
room here in California and I'm almost certain that passing through this
room right now are radio signals from other civilisations which we could
transmit.....or we could detect if we simply aimed our radio telescope in
the right place and tuned to the right frequency.But there's a multitude
of places to look and a multitude of frequencies and we've hardly touched
this great cosmic haystack as we call it,and so it's almost certain we have
been missing signals,and all we can do is search and search and search until
one day we luck out,and look in the right place at the right frequency at
the right time.
Jez Nelson : And then of course there's always the problem of false
alarms,as the world becomes a noisier place,there are more and more chances
of being fooled. Planes,satellites,mobile phones,even microwave ovens can
all do passable ET impressions.The trick is to distinguish ET from BT,as
it were.So how will the people at SETI be sure they've really found something
to shout about.That's where the second telescope at Jodrell Bank comes in
to confirm what you think you've heard,and if it is ET,well SETI open the
champagne,the press go crazy,and then what? I mean we all got excited enough
a couple of years ago when scientists found little squiggly things they thought
were fossils in a lump of rock from Mars.
Seth Shostak : What happens if we finally do hear ET.Well in the first
place of course this will simply be a very big news story.Now I don't think
there's going to be rioting in the streets,because in many ways the
signal.......sorry this news has already been discounted.The majority of
Americans,at least,believe that the aliens are not only out there,but that
they're here buzzing the countryside,or occasionally abducting women for
unsavoury purposes.So if they were to read tomorrow in the newspapers that
we had actually found a signal,I'm sure they would not be surprised.I doubt
very much that they would,you know,tell their wives "Well I don't think I'll
go to work today,I'll simply riot in the streets".I don't think that's going
to happen.
Jez Nelson : Knowing that we're not alone is also likely to have a
profound effect on how we perceive ourselves as a species [Note that once
we KNOW it is LIKELY to change our PERCEPTIONS-LB].
Frank Drake : It's going to change us enormously,and I think in ways
that we can't predict.If we find one there are many.A large fraction of these
will be far more advanced than we are [Posing the question should we be
sub-ordinated as we sub-ordinate animals? See Singer
-LB],and since our galaxy is many thousands of millions of years old,they
could literally thousands or millions of years ahead of us in their evolution
and their technological development,and so what we're going to learn in a
way,the archaeology of our future.We're going to find what is possibly in
store for us.Can we control our evolution? Do we colonise space? Do we achieve
biological immortality? Just the idea that that's possible really changes
our entire outlook about how we live and what our social institution should
be and all of that.In fact it will influence what we consider ethical and
moral [Ref: Singer {Ethics and Morality with regard
to lower life};Quantum Self].
Seth Shostak : I think it very much will affect the way we view ourselves
as a species.It's nice to think that your very special,and that you might
be for example,"God's Special child",and so forth,but it's something else
when you find out that there may be 100 million other children throughout
the visible universe,and your not the oldest kid.
Jez Nelson : So will hearing from ET be humbling or scary? Frank Drake
thinks it will be just like the contact made in Carl Sagan's novel.
Frank Drake : Some people find this very scary.They think that finding
these creatures and our recognising they would be way ahead of us,that it
will be a very depressing discovery,that it will create a planet-wide inferiority
complex.I'm on the optimistic side,I think it will actually stimulate us
and just fill our civilisation with excitement and electricity.
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WAV 195K |
Contact : (Theme music plays) "By now the news of the message from
Vega had reached every nook and cranny of the planet Earth.People who knew
nothing of radio telescopes and who had never heard of a prime number had
heard a peculiar story about a voice from the stars,about strange beings.Not
exactly men,but not exactly Gods either,who'd been discovered living in the
night sky.Amidst the continuing frenzy of sectarian commentary,there was
also,all over the world it was now apparent a sense of wonder,even of
awe,something transforming,something almost miraculous was happening.The
air was full of possibility,a sense of new beginning" .
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