Human beings have a fascination with space.
Ancient humans studied the stars, and believe it or not, they made some very significant discoveries. Even before Galileo discovered that the earth orbited the sun and not the other way around, man has looked to the stars with curiosity and wonder.
If you are a fan of Ancient Aliens, the TV show, you can almost believe that aliens have already come to earth to help and to teach humans new and better skills.
How did the Egyptians construct the Pyramids? How were stones weighing several tons lifted hundreds of feet into the air and placed perfectly next to other large stones?
How was Stonehenge constructed? How did the Aztecs develop a calendar that is more accurate than the modern calendars we use today?
Many smart people believe that all of this occurred with the help of aliens from outer space. To most believers in the Ancient Alien Theory, we are still being visited by aliens, and they attempt to prove this by pictures of space craft or by interviews they have had with individuals who claim they have been abducted by aliens.
Some believers in the theory believe that we have already made contact with aliens and that they regularly drop in at designated Air Force bases to discuss who knows what. All of this is fun to watch, but we must keep a skeptical eye turned toward this message. Otherwise we throw science and the scientific method out the window.
Is there other life in the universe? The universe is a really big place, and yes, somewhere out there light years away, there may be life. At this point in our scientific journey, we just can’t prove it.
We do know that there are lots of planets some of which exist in the habitable zone. They exist in conditions similar to earth where it is not too hot and not too cold. These planets exist in what scientists call the “Goldilocks” zone. We assume, perhaps incorrectly, that life in outer space demands the same conditions as we earthlings demand for us to exist.
But science marches on, and in the next few months, NASA is going to launch the Webb Telescope. For years astronomers have depended on the Hubble Telescope to see into deep space. The Webb Telescope will be 100 times more powerful than the Hubble, and scientists will be able to scan literally thousands of planets that may be located in the “Goldilocks” zone, and this may be a problem for earth dwellers.
Several years ago a satellite was launched that contained a gold disc that contained earth’s location, sounds of earth, music, and other information that aliens may want to know. Carl Sagen and other scientists devised this disc and sent it into space in the hope that some alien society would find it and know that life did exist away from their home planet. Although this was a harmless but expensive experiment, some scientists thought it was a bad idea. What if a hostile alien society intercepted this satellite and noticed the map that gave the earth’s location. This could be a bad move that had terrible consequences.
Michio Kaku, an astrophysicist, is warning his fellow scientists that the Webb Telescope could open a can of cosmic worms that we are not able to handle.
“Soon we’ll have a telescope up in orbit and we will have thousands of planets to look at, and that’s why I think the chances are quite high that we may make contact with a alien civilization. Some say great, but I think it is a terrible idea. Just remember what happened to Montezuma when he met Cortes in Mexico. We cannot gamble that the aliens we find will be friendly.”
Kaku’s warning may be too late. The aliens may have already arrived. Just take a long look at Congress. Scary, isn’t it?
