Look up into the sky some clear, starlit night and allow yourself the freedom to wonder.
- In Search of Ancient Astronauts with Rod Serling
Stephan Hawking, Yuri Milner & Marc Zuckerberg founded the Breakthrough Starshot project in 2015 looking for answers to questions such as:
Where is everybody?
So wondered the great physicist Enrico Fermi. The Universe is ancient and immense. Life, he reasoned, has had plenty of time to get started – and get smart. But we see no evidence of anything alive or intelligent in space. In the last five years, we have discovered that planets in the habitable zone of stars are common. Based on the numbers discovered so far, there are estimated to be billions more in our galaxy alone. Yet we are still in the dark about life. Are we really alone? Or are there others out there
Breakthrough Listen is a $100 million program of astronomical observations and analysis, the most comprehensive ever undertaken in search of evidence of technological civilizations in the Universe. The partners with some of the world’s largest and most advanced telescopes, across five continents, to survey targets including one million nearby stars, the entire galactic plane and 100 nearby galaxies at a wide range of radio and optical frequency bands.
Where can life flourish?
In August 2016, a potentially habitable Earth-like planet was discovered orbiting Proxima Centauri – the Sun’s nearest neighbor. Based on the most recent astronomical data, it is likely that there are other such planets in our cosmic neighborhood. With technology now or soon available, it will be possible not only to find them, but to analyze whether they have atmospheres – and whether those atmospheres contain oxygen and other potential signatures of primitive life.
Breakthrough Watch is multi-million dollar Breakthrough Watch is an Earth- and space-based astronomical program aiming to identify and characterize Earth-sized, rocky planets around Alpha Centauri and other stars within 20 light years of Earth, in search of oxygen and other potential signatures of primitive life. The program is run by an international team of experts in exoplanet detection and imaging.
Can we reach the stars?
Life in the Universe does not only mean extraterrestrials. It also means us. No other beings have yet visited us – but neither have we stepped out to the galactic stage. Are we destined to belong to Earth for as long as we survive? Or can we reach the stars?
If we can, the natural first step is our nearest star system, Alpha Centauri – four light years away.
Breakthrough Starshot is a $100 million research and engineering program aiming to demonstrate proof of concept for a new technology, enabling ultra-light uncrewed space flight at 20% of the speed of light; and to lay the foundations for a flyby mission to Alpha Centauri within a generation.
Thanks to COVID-19 (yes, really!), the CIA declassified 2,700 pages of UFO-related documents starting from 1976. How convenient! it seems like the "world" didn't exist prior to 1976 for them.
I don't believe they released everything. Although I haven't started reading/analyzing the documents, I believe it is probably full of fluff that would raise more questions than giving us any answers. You can download the non-user-unfriendly documents via the Black Vault website.
I love this little blue planet. I love Max. I love Fluffy, Garph, and Neo. In my little world and in my little time, I was able to interact with only 2 other species. I learned and still learning so much from them every day. Given my shelve life, I will die without learning anything from most species on this planet. That will be my greatest regret.
If given a chance, I would love to learn from other beings outside of earth. I am all for the search for other life forms. My only disagreement is packing Sapiens and shipping them to inhabit other planets and stars without understanding and then mending human nature. As a counter-argument to my own disagreement, what if the tools for understanding and mending human nature lies outside of earth?
In the meantime, we should spend an equal amount of time and money in understanding non-human animals on this planet. It goes without saying that eliminating the sufferings we cause our non-human friends doesn't cost anything. So let's do that first and we will never feel lonely.
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