warm greetings of the steemians! my writing this time may be too long but yes I am too eager to write and sit for days in front of the laptop to finish it, please be advised only :). do you like about mystery hope you all like :). this is my writing, hopefully useful!
So far Earth is the only planet that can support human life. Since the advent of the homo sapiens species, Earth has given life to 108.2 billion humanity. Currently, Bumi is home to approximately 7.4 billion people and is expected to be 9.8 billion by 2050 and will continue to increase annually.
On the other hand, the Earth with all its busyness is just a speck of dust in the vastness of the universe. Imagine, if the Earth is just a planet in at least 2 trillion identified galaxies. The universe alone is expected to stretch all directions in a space of 92 billion light years without borders and will continue to expand since 13.8 billion years ago.
Unlimited Universe
Visualization of the whole observable universe. The scale is such that the fine grains represent collections of large numbers of superclusters. The Virgo Supercluster – home of Milky Way – is marked at the center, but is too small to be seen.!wikipedia
The NASA Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite provides the fact that the universe is also expanding since the Big Bang. Dark energy defeats the force of gravity between celestial bodies to further accelerate each other's structures at a speed exceeding the speed of light. The impact will be the fewer sky objects that can be examined by scientists or in other words: unidentified/unobservable. The boundaries of the universe will become increasingly blurred and gradually will no longer appear.
Alone In The Universe?
Launch of New Horizons. The Atlas V rocket on the launchpad (left) and lift off from Cape Canaveral.!wikipedia
It is logical when Stephen Hawking concludes that the possibility of aliens in the universe is very high. Planet Earth's neighbors alone, Mars has been proven to have water as one of the main sources of life. Reported in 2020 NASA and ESA will jointly dig deeper to confirm whether or not there is life in Mars's past in the ExoMars program.
In addition to Mars, the presence of water as a base buffer of life is also indicated in some other places in the solar system. The New Horizon rides show the existence of water under the ice sheet on the surface of Pluto. Another dwarf planet, Ceres is also similar. Ganymede and Europa, the moon Jupiter also has water. If on Ganymede water dwells on subsurface, it is different with Europa which occasionally spewed moisture from its surface. So is Enceladus, the natural moon of Saturn. In addition to the presence of water on the planet, dwarf planet and moon, water are also found in comets, such as comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko which has been studied by Rosetta rides. An abundance of water in celestial bodies does not necessarily give life, but it can not be denied that without water, then the possibility of the emergence of life seems impossible.
What about the possibility of life outside our solar system? The researcher will more easily confirm the possibility of the appearance of water (in liquid form) in a celestial body if the object is in the Goldilocks zone, which is a zone where within the zone everything is possible for heavenly bodies to have water. Observed using the European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescope, the nearest star to the Sun-with a distance of 4.2 light-years-Proxima Centauri also has planets in the Goldilocks zone known as Proxima b. This sparked a greater curiosity for scientists to research, especially in the coming years of telescopes such as Giant Magellan (GMT) or James Webb (JWST) that have much better ability to research habitable planets than today's telescopes.
Specifically for searching for planets within the Goldilocks zone, Kepler and K2 missions have so far identified and confirmed the existence of planets outside our solar system (exoplanets). Counting a total of 7,679 planets found with details of 5,154 planetary candidates, 2504 confirmed planets, and 21 planets in approximately the same conditions as Earth. The number 21 is not a small sum for a scientific discovery of the Earth's "twin" planet and is likely to increase as Kepler and K2 are also constantly searching.
Here lies the weirdness. Of the many possible exoplanet systems and conditions that allow life to exist, scientists have yet to discover any life outside Earth, whether primitive microorganisms or intelligent beings-then we call them aliens. Look at the Drake equation, by one of the founding scientists SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), that in the Milky Way Galaxy alone it is possible to have 1,000 to 100,000,000 alien civilizations.
A more conservative account of the results of the calculations from the Drake equation was proposed by Adam Frank & W.T. Sullivan. Frank & Sullivan with a pessimist assumes there is only one planet in the universe inhabited by aliens. To produce a planet with a high civilization (Earth) it takes a probability factor of (fbt) = 2.5 x 10-24 s.d 2.5 x 10-22 or one planets with intelligent life for every ± 25 billion trillion habitable planets. If the approximate number of stars in the universe (N) = 2 x 1022 and the tendency in each star has a habitable planet Nast / N = 0.2 then the estimated habitable planet in the universe Nast = 4 x 1021 so based on the thought of Frank & Sullivan then it takes 1.6 x 1043 habitable planet in the universe to bring up 2 planets with intelligent life like Earth or equivalent 3.6 x 1021 habitable planet needed statistically to bring up 2 intelligent life in Milky Way galaxy. Seeing this the findings of Kepler & K2 with a total of 7,679 planets to find aliens is still far from roasting fire.
The Age of Inter-Star Exploration
The best way to know and look for evidence of an intelligent life other than on Earth as well as to explore the universe is by exploration, more precisely by searching, communicating (to contact) and visiting (to visit). Just calculating the possibilities statistically does not give a definite answer. Exploration is the answer. Exploration also becomes a necessity in addition to the interests of science as well as to anticipate the threat of mass extinction in the future.
To Search
SETI is the right place with a special mission to answer evidence of presence or absence of life other than Earth. The concept of finding aliens today is primarily by listening to any "sound" whether intentional or unheard of the universe within the radio frequency range. Until now, SETI scientists still get zero results in the search for aliens, including searching for objects that are currently on the rise; Tabby Star (KIC 8462852).
Another significant mission in the search for aliens is the Breakthrough Listen project. A mission in an ambitious project venue; Breakthrough Initiatives. Instead of observing the closest 1,000 stars as SETI did in the Phoenix Project, the Breakthrough Listen project will observe the closest 1,000,000 stars to Earth.
Breakthrough Listen not only looks for aliens with "sound" or radio frequency but also "visually" that is in the laser spectrum with the nearest 100 galaxies range. Currently, the strongest laser technology (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory California) can shoot 1 petawatt or 1 x 1015watt of energy in nanoseconds (beyond the brightness of the sun). This laser beam can be caught as a strange phenomenon as a possible signal from aliens. The Lick Observatory Telescope will search for alien lasers in the near-infrared spectrum until the ultraviolet range is close.
In addition to the laser, it is possible to actually search for the existence of aliens using the same technique by finding the exoplanet that is by transit method. The concept is to look for unusual patterns of unusual artificial objects as well as finding exoplanets (such as the Dyson Sphere). Photometry transit method is then followed by direct observation (direct imaging). Unfortunately, direct observation of objects that are very far away, for now, is not possible.
To Contact
Plot of signal intensity versus time, fitted with a Gaussian function..wikipedia
Finding aliens will be faster if done in a mutual way of looking for each other. To allow human beings to be sought by aliens, it is easy to do the opposite of searching missions. (1) emitting radio waves (2) firing the laser (3) building artificial objects orbiting the sun.
Wow signal (Wow Signal) is a radio signal received for 72 seconds by Big Ear Radio Telescope in 1977. The signal is detected only briefly and then disappear so that allegedly it appears is a non-alien phenomenon. Only then three Benford brothers gave an explanation which became known as Benford Beacon. In order to minimize the cost of contacting aliens, a strategy is required that is to emit radio waves with the short duration in all directions with repetition in a certain period. So-because the cost-of-mission problem is to get the attention of the aliens, not to communicate. Wow signal becomes a mystery and a candidate as the first signal of the aliens captured Earthman. The same scheme and concept can be applied when emitting light waves through a laser.
The last option is to construct (1) the Dyson Sphere of a body around the sun to harvest the sun's energy or (2) another Sun-orbiting object which, when using the photometry transit method, gives a completely different data pattern than the planet's transiting characteristics or detected star characteristics in general (pulsars, star variables, flares, heartbeat star, binary etc.). Look at the Tabby Star. The strange star discovered by the planetary scientist Planet Hunter. Tabby Star dims with traits that are very different from the characteristics of detected stars in general not because of the transit from the planet (transiting planet).
Building a Dyson Sphere provides a double advantage, harvesting the Sun's energy while attracting aliens. But again this technology is still far to be built now. The possible option to build in the present is to make the object orbit the Sun to produce a direct imaging that is different from the planet's shadow. Imagine a large International Space Station (ISS) satellite so that when viewed from Proxima Centauri then the Sun will be dimmed significantly. The aliens at Proxima Centauri will know Earth Man because the transit of photometry and direct imaging is strange and unnatural.
To Visit
Direct exploration of interstellar space has actually started since the era of Voyager 1 was launched in 1977. After more than 38 years of wading through space with an average speed of 3.6 AU (astronomical units) per year, currently, Voyager 1 is at 137, 5 AU or 20 x 109 km from Earth, which makes Voyager 1 the first and only active spacecraft that has reached interstellar space. If Voyager 1 goes straight to Proxima Centauri as the closest star system to the Sun as well as the first candidate for alien search, then a distance of 4.2 light years or ± 268,142 AU takes ± 77,182 years for Voyager 1 to reach the nearest star system of Proxima Centauri. It's been so long, impossible and shows how insignificant the achievements of Voyager 1's distance to date.
Mankind needs new technology to communicate and explore the galaxy. Technologies like Voyager 1 could no longer be used to wander in the vastness of the universe. Including Appollo 10's fastest rocket technology with a speed of 25,000 mph will take ± 120,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri. So the key factor to be able to travel between stars is the speed or travel time spacecraft or spacecraft.
Other possible technologies are (1) Nuclear Thrusters (2) Antimatter Drive (3) Star Radiation (4) Blackhole Drive (5) EmDrive (6) Alcubierre Warp Drive.
The propulsion of nuclear pulse propulsion was once designed for use on the Orion Project in 1958, unfortunately, the Partial Test Ban Treaty forbids the use of Nuclear in space. Ignoring the prohibition of nuclear use in space, with current thermonuclear technology (hydrogen bomb), the aircraft - provided that the proportion of the mass of aircraft used to carry nuclear propulsion - can reach 10% the speed of light after 1 moon across the sky by blowing up 1 megaton of a single hydrogen bomb one in 300,000 bombs needed to reach Proxima Centauri in ± 42 years.
Antimatter Drives using the concepts of matter and antimatter annihilate produce energy, such as protons and antiprotons that generate charged pions. Antimatter drives produce a boost with ± 50x of energy produced by a fusion reaction or 0.5 light speed so that it can reach Proxima Centauri within ± 8.5 years. Antimatter itself is an anti-particle material having the same mass of particles over the matter with opposite charges. Today scientists have been able to produce antimatter through a particle accelerator like the Large Hadron Collider but to be used as a space shuttle fuel today is not possible.
Radiation technology has been proven to be realized today. JAXA aircraft, Ikaros managed to reach Venus only by using solar power (solar powered). Like a sailing ship, Ikaros sailed across the ocean of the universe relies on the "wind blow" of solar radiation (solar sail). Solar sail utilizes light or photons that do not have masses that if moving together in a single light package have energy and momentum. Momentum is captured using a screen that can reflect light to generate thrust.
EmDrive is a propulsion technology using electromagnetic radiation. In line with Alcubierre Warp Drive-warp technology as well as in film-StarTrek this technology although theoretically can be done but it still takes a long time to be really applied. Even the true technology other than the most likely rocket booster built and applied today is the propulsion technology of nuclear and solar sail.
Conclusion
Within the vastness of the infinite universe, there arises the basic curiosity of man to be able to explore, explore and answer the mysteries of the universe. One of the most basic mysteries is the existence of intelligent beings other than humans. The probability calculations show optimistic results (pro aliens) and pessimists (counter aliens). However, calculations on paper must be executed through exploration; to search, to contact and to visit. All three can be done in parallel simultaneously. Nevertheless, the greatest obstacle today is the inability of humans to apply theory to a truly applied technology, so it is expected to answer the question that how quiet the universe is if it turns out we are really alone. thank you for reading!
Best regard @ aneuktulot
references and related reading :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumstellar_habitable_zone
https://assets.prb.org/pdf16/prb-wpds2016-web-2016.pdf
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1607.03909v2.pdf
https://www.space.com/24073-how-big-is-the-universe.html
http://www.hawking.org.uk/life-in-the-universe.html
http://press.nationalgeographic.com/2014/06/23/new-ng-book-mars-up-close-inside-the-curiosity-mission/
https://www.nasa.gov/kepler/discoveries
https://www.seti.org/drakeequation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1510/1510.08837.pdf
http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=32530
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0810/0810.3964.pdf
https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimatter
https://www.space.com/24306-interstellar-flight-black-hole-power.html