New telescopes could help us discover ETs, experts say

By Dick Pelletier

      

    With technologies advancing at exponential speeds, many people alive today may one day witness what astronomers consider the most amazing event ever in human history – proof that intelligent ETs share our universe.

    Scientists estimate there are 100 million Earthlike planets in our galaxy alone and with more than 100 billion other galaxies in the cosmos, overwhelming odds suggest we are not alone.

    With powerful new telescopes in the sky and more on the drawing board, positive futurists believe we will soon unlock many of the secrets our Universe holds, and within one-to-three decades, we could find indisputable evidence that other intelligent lifeforms roam through our galaxy.

    Today's pride of the sky, the 20-year-old Hubble Space Telescope, has led to many breakthrough discoveries, but the Kepler Space Telescope, launched just last year has already spotted more than 400 new planets orbiting nearby stars. NASA planet specialist, Bill Borucki believes "It's just a matter of time before we find an Earth twin or two out there."

    The anxiously-awaited James Webb Space Telescope with a 2014 scheduled launch date represents our next big attempt to explore deep space. This tennis court-sized monster will observe the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang, and could resolve conflicts like the one recently created by British, American, and Hungarian astronomers who found evidence that the Universe could be 150 billion years old; not 12.5 billion years as traditionally thought.

    Next in line is the proposed Terrestrial Planet Finder, linked to an array of several scopes with launch completion set for 2019. This giant cosmic window will view thousands of Earthlike planets with details sharp enough to identify those that may harbor intelligent life.

    Finally, with a launch date hoped for sometime between 2025 and 2035, the huge Advanced Technology Large Aperture Space Telescope, will orbit our sun and observe more distant planets, providing stunning definitions of surface features, cloud cover; even climate changes.

    Experts predict that should any of these powerful scopes discover a planet with high probabilities of harboring intelligent life, other technologies – quantum computing and advanced artificial intelligence – could create sophisticated simulations that would depict what the inhabitants of this planet might look like; and even postulate whether they express human-like emotions.

    How might the world react to this news? We would obviously realize that we are not alone. Finding other beings could imply that human existence is based purely on science; that we evolved solely because of ideal conditions on a life-friendly planet, and there may be billions of other intelligent life forms sharing our Universe.

    However, some might fear our new neighbors. Programs like ABC's "V" and James Cameron's Avatar present ETs as dangerous, but future citizens possessing enhanced intelligence predicted for the 2020s and 2030s may recognize that sharing information between two civilizations, no matter how different, will improve the future for both worlds.

    Will these events happen? Historians remind us that it has only been 100 years since the Wright Brothers developed airplanes; we have already landed men on the moon, created an incredibly efficient communications network, the Internet, made plans to construct a colony on Mars, and will soon discover ETs. Go "magical future."

This article appeared in various print publications and on-line blogs. Comments always welcome.