SETI

"If you believe in love and are curious, you will know whether life exists in the Universe."

SUNRISE

Great philosophers and thinkers from antiquity to the present day have wondered whether extraterrestrial life exists in the universe. The general consensus is that it is hard to imagine a universe with only one life-bearing world which we call Earth. Surely, in this great vastness of the universe, there must be a multiplicity of inhabited worlds just waiting for us to discover, admire and learn.

Even today, most scientists support this view by using a variety of different technologies to help us observe the universe. Even without actually physically visiting these potentially inhabited worlds and seeing the aliens in person, scientists know that there are extraterrestrial planets around other stars at the right distances to allow the existence of water in its three phases, as well as the presence of water, amino acids and other chemicals in space necessary to produce life (i.e., at least carbon-based life) wherever we look. And that is just the beginning.

Convinced that there must be something out there, scientists dedicated to the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) have been working extremely hard to find the final piece of evidence to complete the jigsaw. Not least of these are the people at NASA, where efforts have focused on sending probes to specific moons around Saturn in the hope that extraterrestrial bacteria might exist there, just lurking in a bed of liquid water beneath a thick icy surface. But that is not all. As if that were not enough, in the next decade, NASA intends to build and send into space a new and highly sensitive instrument designed to analyze the atmospheres of planets around distant stars. It is clear that scientists are becoming increasingly confident that alien life exists somewhere in the universe. It is only a matter of time before we will know the answer.

But do we have to wait? Should we find the evidence only through radio telescopes, or by sending probes to the moons of Saturn? Or could we answer this great question in a different way? This research shows there is another way to get to the answer, and one that may surprise the scientists.

Until the experiment is conducted on the mathematical solution to the Abraham-Lorentz formula for charged objects emitting radiation, let us use this opportunity to have a general scientific discussion about how likely it is that aliens exist in the universe based on the available observational evidence, to get an understanding of the mathematical solution that suggests roughly how many alien civilisations are likely to exist in the Milky Way, and how long it might take for an alien civilisation to colonise the galaxy (and thus reach us), and to present possible explanations as to why an alien civilisation might choose not to have direct contact with us if there is a possibility that it has reached us.

So, let us begin to explore this interesting topic.

Contents

1. INTRODUCTION
   Are we alone?
2. ETs DO EXIST!
   The arguments for ETs
3. DRAKE'S EQUATION
   How many alien civilisations in our Milky Way?
4. GALACTIC COLONISATION
   How long would it take for ETs to reach us?
5. THE PRINCIPLE OF NON-INTERFERENCE
   Why are ETs keeping quiet?
6. SENDING RADIO SIGNALS
   Can we talk to ETs?
7. RECEIVING RADIO SIGNALS
   Can we listen to ETs?
8. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE 1
   When does life begin?
9. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE 2
   Do the elements and molecules needed for creating life exist in the universe?
10. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE 3
    How many sun-like stars in the Milky Way?
11. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE 4
    Are there extra-solar planets?
12. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE 5
    Life solvents
13. ETs DON'T EXIST!
    The arguments against ETs
14. CONCLUSION
    The answer is closer than you think
15. Bibliography
16. FAQs

Documents for download

Included as a free download for all researchers and members of the public are the following documents as used in our research work:

SUNRISE DOCUMENTS

1. A summary on the evolution of life on Earth
2. Stars within 12 light years of our Sun

OTHER DOCUMENTS

1. Arecibo Message created by Professor Frank D. Drake.
2. Tables relating to this research topic
3. NASA files relating to the search for ETs.