Amid the sorrows for Penn State this past week, there has come an intriguing bit of research from the university. Though unfortunately, few are likely to care.
Two post-doc students and researchers at Penn State have crunched the numbers and determined that given our current level of technology, alien probes or artifacts might very well be in our solar system but we would be unlikely to detect them.
"The vastness of space, combined with our limited searches to date,
implies that any remote unpiloted exploratory probes of extraterrestrial
origin would likely remain untouched," Penn State researchers Jacob
Haqq-Misra and Ravi Kumar Kopparapu write in a paper accepted for publication by the journal Acta Astronautica."
Experts at the SETI Institute have concurred, calling the findings "standard wisdom in the field." When you think about it, our own deep space probes are around 30-odd feet in length, give or take. Something that size could hide anywhere in our solar system, even here on Earth. Any of the rocky moons of Jupiter or Saturn, or the gulleys and caverns of Mars would make fair hiding places. If the alien probe itself were disguised as a meteorite or other rock-like form, that would go even further towards obscurement. The past and current resolution of surface photos of stellar objects from orbit is such that we likely could not discern probe or artifact from rock. Especially if, as suggested, the alien item were disguised as a rock. And from what I understand, the last Transformers film monstrosity deals with alien artifacts left behind on our own Moon. Ahhh the intuitive prescience of Michael Bay.
This must come as rather welcome news to those who advocate for the existence of structures and monuments on Mars and have to endure rankling from the establishment. Not that the subjects are necessarily the same but they are related. Richard Hoagland is no doubt dancing a jig. Either that or he's in hiding after his prediction that asteroid YU-55 would slam into the Moon last Thursday. Ummm...oops.
The idea of "space archeology" is one that has fascinated me for a while now. After all, if we are curious enough to want to send research probes and even ourselves out into the universe, wouldn't alien civilizations like share the same interest? Given the relative youth of our solar system, I don't discount the possibility that they could have visited us or our planetary neighbors in our primordial days and left evidence behind. Lord knows I'd love it if we located a Monolith on the Moon or a sphinx-like face on Mars.
And I frame all of this in the distant past because apparently, no aliens or UFOs have been anywhere near us to the best of our knowledge. Or didn't you hear? We got that straight from the White House.
Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets
HI, I randomly discovered your blog a few months ago and havent stop visiting the site since. Big fan. All the speculation/theories about artifacts on the moon etc really fascinate me, I was wondering what your take is on the subject. One thing that bothers me most is that we have satellites that can zoom in on our neighbor's dog's backside, but we dont have any satellites orbiting the moon to get a detailed geographical map of the moon. After all this time why do we still only see really bad imagery of the moon?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the kind words! Glad to have you following.
ReplyDeleteAs for your question, I think it's a valid one and there are two reasons I can think of off the top of my head. If you're a conspiracy theorist, you might argue that quality, detailed surface images of the Moon and Mars have been suppressed precisely because they *do* show alien artifacts.
A more likely explanation is the one that is most popular for any rationale in the good ol' U.S. of A. Money.
The technology that you speak is most costly. If it's going to be used, The Powers That Be want it on a military intel satellite. And I daresay most of the public probably agrees. Few appear interested in space exploration and see it as a waste of tax dollars. To their way of thinking, better to spend the money on and use the technology for blowing up "dem dare foreigners."