How to Find ET: Look for Signs of Asteroid Mining - The preferred method to locate extra terrestrial civilizations is to attempt to pick up the signatures of their radio and/or television signals with radio telescope arrays. But that search has been fruitless since Project Ozma in 1960.
An article in Technology Review points to a paper presented by Duncan Forgan at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and Martin Elvis at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., that suggests a different approach to finding ET. Forgan and Elvis suggest looking for evidence of asteroid mining in other solar systems.
The idea is that as a civilization begins to run out of resources necessary to maintain its technology, it will inevitable look off world for those resources. Futurists on our planet have suggested mining the moon and/or the asteroid belt. Thus if signs of such mining can be detected remotely, there is where ET can be found.
"First, moving certain substances from one part of a system to another should produce a chemical signature in the debris ring around a star. We know that debris discs should have certain ratios of elements, which we can measure using spectroscopy. Mining activities would distort these ratios.
"Second, mining ought to change the size distribution of objects in the debris disc. There are various advantages to mining large bodies rather than smaller ones, so the numbers of these should drop artificially in a mined system. At the same time, mining activity can produce large amounts of dust, so this ought to increase.
"What's more, mining is likely to be done close to the home planet so this dust is likely to form in rings nearby. (Imagine our night sky, if this ever happens near Earth.)
"Finally, Forgan and Elvis say there should be a significant thermal signature from mining activities, since dust is likely to absorb and emit thermal energy from the star. So these dust rings should be easily visible."
Of course, both scientists point out that such signatures can also occur naturally. But the detection of such signs would point to the solar system where it is occurring as a candidate for closer study.
Obviously this method would not detect extraterrestrial civilizations that are still bound to its planet, like ours by and large is. Nor would it detect such a civilization that has a readily available Moon, as ours does, to exploit for resources. But it does suggest that there are other ways to detect ET than by the television he watches or the radio he listens to. ( news.yahoo.com )
An article in Technology Review points to a paper presented by Duncan Forgan at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and Martin Elvis at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., that suggests a different approach to finding ET. Forgan and Elvis suggest looking for evidence of asteroid mining in other solar systems.
The idea is that as a civilization begins to run out of resources necessary to maintain its technology, it will inevitable look off world for those resources. Futurists on our planet have suggested mining the moon and/or the asteroid belt. Thus if signs of such mining can be detected remotely, there is where ET can be found.
"First, moving certain substances from one part of a system to another should produce a chemical signature in the debris ring around a star. We know that debris discs should have certain ratios of elements, which we can measure using spectroscopy. Mining activities would distort these ratios.
"Second, mining ought to change the size distribution of objects in the debris disc. There are various advantages to mining large bodies rather than smaller ones, so the numbers of these should drop artificially in a mined system. At the same time, mining activity can produce large amounts of dust, so this ought to increase.
"What's more, mining is likely to be done close to the home planet so this dust is likely to form in rings nearby. (Imagine our night sky, if this ever happens near Earth.)
"Finally, Forgan and Elvis say there should be a significant thermal signature from mining activities, since dust is likely to absorb and emit thermal energy from the star. So these dust rings should be easily visible."
Of course, both scientists point out that such signatures can also occur naturally. But the detection of such signs would point to the solar system where it is occurring as a candidate for closer study.
Obviously this method would not detect extraterrestrial civilizations that are still bound to its planet, like ours by and large is. Nor would it detect such a civilization that has a readily available Moon, as ours does, to exploit for resources. But it does suggest that there are other ways to detect ET than by the television he watches or the radio he listens to. ( news.yahoo.com )
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