Recently, the billionaire Richard Branson with Jeff Bezos Use their wealth to lift their bodies up a small part of the earth’s radius. This is nothing to be proud of, because the space is vast. The observable universe extends to 1019 The radius of the earth, the only way to respect the insignificance of our universe is not to show off, but to stay modesty.
We took the liberty to send “Golden disc“About the Voyager mission. Most likely, the aliens do not care about our cultural achievements, because in their view, among the many similar ants that emerge on the “sidewalks” of the galaxy, we must be another kind of ant.
Only by limiting attention to our local communities can we be proud of our limited achievements. My daughters stayed at home when they were young and were very proud of themselves because the only people they knew were their immediate family members. On the first day of kindergarten, they met children with better skills and were psychologically shocked. Similarly, our civilization can only view its global status correctly after encountering other civilizations. The easiest way to determine whether they exist is to search our backyard for objects that may originate from them.
In short, we need to monitor the remains in the sky alien Technological civilization.This is the rationale behind the recently announced Galileo ProjectThe research team will build a new telescope system to collect high-quality scientific data on objects of unknown nature near the Earth.The new data aims to determine UFO (UAP) As mentioned recently Report to Congress, And strange interstellar objects such as ‘Omomo It doesn’t look like a familiar comet or asteroid. The project will use standard scientific methods based on transparent analysis of open scientific data collected using optimized instruments.
This method is a supplement to the traditional method In Search of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), Because it searches for physical objects instead of electromagnetic signals. For the Galileo project, only the “known physics” explanation is in scope. Although the “alternative physics” hypothesis is interesting, it is clearly not part of the project. In addition, the project will not attempt to retrospectively analyze existing images or radar data, nor will it speculate on previous UAP, observations or anecdotal reports, because these are not conducive to cross-validation and evidence-based scientific interpretation. The Galileo Project aims to change the existing knowledge structure on the subject of reporting limited quality data, which has encouraged speculation by some and unwarranted rejections by others. It aims to break the current status quo by collecting high-quality information that is expected to dispel doubts and unlock the nature of UAP and Oumuamua-like objects. Evidence collection is the standard path for the advancement of scientific knowledge. Even though most objects have mundane explanations, they cannot change our worldview as Galileo’s data did four centuries ago.
when Announce The name of the project on July 26, 2021, I don’t know an interesting historical anecdote.A Harvard colleague, an outstanding professor of history Erez Manela, Note that, as in Wikipedia: “The Italian male name “Galileo” (hence the surname “Galileo”) is derived from the Latin “Galileo”, which means “of” Galilee,’A region of biblical significance in northern Israel. “
When I notified Galileo members of this, our Scientific Advisory Committee member Brian Keating Remind me that the word “galilee” means “cylinder” in Hebrew (given that Hebrew is my mother tongue, I should be aware of this by myself). The meaning of “cylinder” is related to two near-Earth objects, which were discovered by scientists Pan Xing The observatory in Hawaii showed excessive thrust away from the sun without a comet tail. Cylindrical object discovered and named in September 2020 2020 year It was identified as a rocket booster launched by NASA in 1966.But the first interstellar object was discovered in October 2017 and named ‘Omomo, Is an unknown origin and nature. People infer that it is stretched because it rolls every eight hours, and the amount of sunlight it reflects will change 10 times. This background and the name form an interesting connection. Galileo Project, Aimed at discovering similar strangely shaped objects.
To follow up on this exchange, our advisory board members Liz Wilk Wrote: “When we talk about cylinders, we might as well introduce some science fiction,” From Books by Arthur C. Clark Rendezvous with ramaIn the novel, mankind encounters an alien spacecraft for the first time: called Rama, it is a nearly perfect cylinder with few features, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter, and about 50 kilometers (31 miles) in length. ). Clark’s object is a thousand times larger than’Oumuamua.
I hope Galileo plans to transform the imaginary concepts of science fiction into real science. If we do, it will affirm our sense of humility, because any alien object must travel a huge interstellar distance compared to the vehicles we have built so far. Darwin’s Choice Can be extended to technical equipment. Self-replicating systems with artificial intelligence and 3D printing technology have survived billions of years of interstellar travel, may live longer than us, and bring the flames of human consciousness into the future. Building them would be something to be proud of, even on the scale of the universe.
This is an opinion and analysis article; the views expressed by the author or author are not necessarily Scientific american.