Extraterrestrial fossils found in meteorite according to scientific team

Chandra-WickramasingheA team of four scientists has written an article in the latest edition of the Journal of Cosmology claiming that a meteorite discovered in Sri Lanka contains evidence of extraterrestrial life. Inside the meteorite, according to Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, the lead scientist and Director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, are tiny fossil microbes that are extraterrestrial in origin. The findings of Wickramasinghe and his team in their co-authored article, “Fossil Diatoms in a New Carbonaceous Meteorite’," immediately aroused controversy. In an article in the Huffington Post published on January 19, Lee Spiegal addressed the controversy and Wickramasinghe’s response to early criticism.   Critics claim that the meteorite sample examined by Wickramasinghe’s team was very likely contaminated by Earth based algae. This raises suspicion that once again scientists claiming they have found evidence for extraterrestrial life will be subjected to a firestorm of criticism including direct personal attacks from their peers.

Chandra Wickramasinghe is no stranger to controversy. The Sri Lanka born mathematician was the founder of the theory of Panspermia along with British physicist Fred Hoyle. Panspermia is based on the idea that life is spread throughout the universe in the form of microbes carried on the back of meteorites that travel through the interstellar vacuum. Wickramasinghe believes that the Sri Lanka meteorite is vindication for his controversial theory, and has solid scientific evidence supporting his conclusions.

According to the abstract in Wickramasinghe’s and his co-author’s article:

We report the discovery for the first time of diatom frustules in a carbonaceous meteorite that fell in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka on 29 December 2012. Contamination is excluded by the circumstance that the elemental abundances within the structures match closely with those of the surrounding matrix. There is also evidence of structures morphologically similar to red rain cells that may have contributed to the episode of red rain that followed within days of the meteorite fall. The new data on “fossil” diatoms provide strong evidence to support the theory of cometary panspermia.

Basically, diatoms are a form of algae that are mainly unicellar and form large colonies. They are a major producer in the food chain. Finding fossil diatoms in a meteorite is hard evidence that extraterrestrial life not only exists, but is commonly found throughout the galaxy. Not so according to Phil Plait, who launched a preemptive strike before the major media and public had a chance to digest Chandrasinghe’s findings.

Plait’s column in Slate magazine begins with a very unscientific ad hominem attack since he writes in the article that “sometimes an ad hominem is warranted!” According to Plait:

Wickramasinghe is a proponent of the idea of panspermia: the notion that life originated in space and was brought to Earth via meteorites. It’s an interesting idea and not without some merits. However, Wickramasinghe is fervent proponent of it. Like, really fervent. So much so that he attributes everything to life in space. He’s said that the flu comes from space. He’s said SARS comes from space. He’s claimed living cells found in the stratosphere come from space. (There is no evidence at all they do, and it’s far more likely they are terrestrial.) He’s said a weird red rain in India was from space (when it’s been shown conclusively that it isn’t). The list goes on and on. Wickramasinghe jumps on everything, with little or no evidence, and says it’s from outer space, so I think there's a case to be made for a bias on his part.

Plait finally launches into the main substantive criticism he has to offer which comes from an evolutionary biologist who responded to Plait’s request to analyze Wickramasinghe’s article. Professor Patrick Kociolek from the University of Colorado wrote back to Plait:

… the diversity present in the images represent a wide range of evolutionary history, such that the “source” of the diatoms from outer space, must have gone through the same evolutionary events as here on earth. There are no extinct taxa found, only ones we would find living today…for me it is a clear case of contamination with freshwater.

Essentially, Kociolek and Plait are claiming that Wickramasinghe’s data was compromised by fresh water on Earth.

The Huffington Post contacted Wickramasinghe and invited him to respond to Plait’s criticism. Wickramasinghe wrote:

In 1962, [Hoyle and I] pioneered the theory of carbon grains in space to replace the old ice grain theory. This was vehemently resisted by the astronomical community at the outset, but with the dawn of infrared spectroscopy, the ice grain theory gave way to the carbon dust theory… Over a few years, after a great deal of model-fitting, we came to the conclusion that material similar to biomaterial fitted all the available data in astronomy … We considered the possibility that biology (microbiology) had a universal character, and no observations in astronomy or new information from biology has provided contrary evidence.

Regarding Plait’s and Kociolek’s main argument that the meteorite sample was contaminated by earth water algae or diatoms, Wickramasinghe continued: "But — there are also at least half a dozen species that diatom experts have not been able to identify."  This is where Plait’s and Kociolek’s criticism falls short since they can’t explain the origin of all the diatoms found in the meteorite.

This is not the first time that scientists finding evidence of extraterrestrial life in meteorites have been exposed to the criticism that their sample was contaminated by earth based microbial life. In August 1996, David McKay and a team of NASA scientists published their analysis of a Martian meteorite discovered in Antarctica. The meteorite was found to have carbon compounds that looked very much like fossil remains of ancient Martian microbes. Here is how Mackay explained their findings:

The carbonate globules are similar in texture and size to some terrestrial bacterially induced carbonate precipitates. Although inorganic formation is possible, formation of the globules by biogenic processes could explain many of the observed features, including the PAHs [polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons]. The PAHs, the carbonate globules, and their associated secondary mineral phases and textures could thus be fossil remains of a past martian biota.

The announcement was big news at the time, and led to President Clinton making a statement contemplating the historical significance of the discovery. The 1996 discovery then got bogged down in scientific debate over whether or not the meteorite was polluted by Earth microbes. Critics claimed NASA scientists had not sufficiently accounted for this possibility. Not so according to a new 2009 study by NASA scientists, including McKay, from the Johnson Space Center that upheld the earlier findings and concluded: “None of the original features supporting our hypothesis for ALH84001 has either been discredited or has been positively ascribed to non-biologic explanations."

Wickramasinghe and his team have just begun the effort of defending their results from criticisms that their meteorite sample was contaminated, and their data therefore inconclusive. Given that controversy still swirls around the 1996 Mars meteorite case, we can expect the same for Wickramasinghe and his team’s claim of finding evidence of extraterrestrial fossils on a meteorite. It may be some time before scientists are willing to concede that Wickramasinghe may have just verified his theory of panspermia.

© Copyright 2013. Michael E. Salla, Ph.D. Exopolitics.org 

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Further Reading

University course on extraterrestrial life goes global

By Michael Salla, Ph.D.

Click ET for enrollment info for “Search for Extraterrestrial Life” course

Edinburgh University is set to launch a series of six free online courses in Autumn 2012, one of which is titled: “Introduction to Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life”. The course involves five lectures to be presented online and will result in a certificate to all that complete it. Edinburgh is teaming up with Princeton and Stanford universities in an effort to make available undergraduate courses to a global audience for free as part of the Coursera consortium.  According to Edinburgh University spokesperson, Ranald Leask: “Something like extraterrestrial life comes out of a wide and deep base of knowledge and academic endeavour.” Leask is referring to the progress made by the scientific community in confirming the existence of distant exoplanets and that some of these have the right conditions for hosting life as we know it. Princeton was the first U.S. university to offer a degree in astrobiology. Now thanks to Edinburgh University, astrobiology courses that focus on questions concerning the existence of extraterrestrial life are going global.

Edinburgh’s “Search for Extraterrestrial Life” course will be taught by Professor Charles Cockell who has authored two books on Mars, worked for NASA, and is the current Director for the UK Center for Astrobiology. Cockell’s course will examine questions such as “Is there life on other planetary bodies?” and “How is it distributed throughout the Universe?”

According to Rory Reynolds from the Scotsman:

The first two weeks of the course explore the origins of life and how beings survive in extreme environments, with the focus in the third week moving to the possibility of life being discovered on other planets. The final week includes asking how contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence would be dealt with and what would be the impact on society. It concludes with the question “who would represent Earth?” in the event of first contact.

The course is a direct result in the ongoing discovery of exoplanets, some of which have been confirmed to exist in the habitable region of their suns. This has sparked a number of academic conferences focusing on the social and political impact of the discovery of extraterrestrial life. Two were hosted by the Royal Society of London in 2010, and led to much media interest over scientific speculations over the likely motivations of extraterrestrial life. The most notable has been Prof Stephen Hawkings’ view about space faring extraterrestrials being more likely predatory in nature than friendly.

Recent advances in space telescopes have now made it possible to detect alien metropolises on distant worlds. On May 8, 2012, NASA announced: “NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has detected light emanating from a “super-Earth” beyond our solar system for the first time. While the planet is not habitable, the detection is a historic step toward the eventual search for signs of life on other planets.”  According to Dario Borghino from  Gizmag: “This marks the first time that light has been detected from a planet of such a small size, and the find is telling astrophysicists where to look in their search for signs of life on planets beyond our own.”

The question to be examined in the final week of the Edinburgh Unniversity course, “who would represent Earth” in the case of contact is very significant. It first came to public prominence in 2010 in relation to Dr Mazlan Othman from the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs who was a presenter at the Royal Society astrobiology conference in October 2010. There was much media speculation over a story in the Sunday Times mistakenly claiming that Dr Othman would represent Earth on behalf of all humanity. In an earlier talk, Othman did say however:

The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that some day human kind will receive signals from extraterrestrials. When we do, we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The UN is a ready-made mechanism for such coordination.

Edinburgh University’s upcoming “Introduction to Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life” course will open up an exciting new era in the study of extraterrestrial life. Core questions regarding the existence and societal implications of extraterrestrial life are being raised by respected scientists, and will now be discussed by students around the world. According to Jeff Haywood, vice principal of the University of Edinburgh, the number of students for the online course is potentially 100,000 students or more. That projected enrollment figure is in itself a remarkable possibility. Whether 100,000 students enroll or not, it is clear that the scholarly study of extraterrestrial life and its societal implications has entered mainstream scientific discourse and is now going global.

[Special Notice: The author teaches a course in the Exopolitics Institute’s Certification Program titled: The Science, Spirituality and Politics of Extraterrestrial Life. Fall Semester classes begin in early September. More info here.

© Copyright 2012. Michael E. Salla. Exopolitics.org

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Further Reading

 

 

 

Detecting extraterrestrial cities on exoplanets becomes possible

By Michael Salla, Ph.D.

An artist's concept of 55 Cancri e, a hot "super-Earth" that orbits its sun every 18 hours. Credit: NASA

For the first time, NASA has been able to detect infrared light from a rocky “super-earth” variety of exoplanets. The Spitzer Space Telescope detected infrared light from the exoplanet “55 Cancri e” which has a rocky core and is nearly twice the Earth’s diameter, and eight times its mass. While 55 Cancri e is much too close to its sun – 55 Cancri A – to sustain life as we know it, the detection is a historic first for NASA. The detection of infrared light on the super-earth category of exoplanets, prime candidates for finding extraterrestrial life, makes possible the discovery of alien cities in distant solar systems.

On May 8 NASA announced: “NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has detected light emanating from a “super-Earth” beyond our solar system for the first time. While the planet is not habitable, the detection is a historic step toward the eventual search for signs of life on other planets.”  According to Dario Borghino from  Gizmag: “This marks the first time that light has been detected from a planet of such a small size, and the find is telling astrophysicists where to look in their search for signs of life on planets beyond our own.”

The plot shows how the infrared light from the 55 Cancri system, both the star and planet, changed as the planet passed behind its star. Credit NASA.

The Spitzer Space Telescope was launched by NASA in 2003 and studies the universe in infrared light. In contrast to the Kepler Space Telescope that studies how distant stars dim as exoplanets cross in front of them, Spitzer analyzes infrared light directly from the exoplanet itself. Basically, as the exoplanet goes behind the sun, the total infrared light from the sun and exoplanet dims. In the NASA statement announcing the finding, the infrared light coming from both “55 Cancri e”  and its sun were analyzed in the attached table (on right).  As 55 Cancri e” dropped behind its sun, the total thermal emission dropped, and increased when the exoplanet appeared again in its orbit.

This raises the question, could Spitzer detect a large extraterrestrial metropolis giving off heat in a distant world? We can look for an answer from Dr. William Danchi, Spitzer program scientist who states:

The radiation that is measured is in the infrared, which is sensitive to the composition as well as temperature of the atmosphere of the planet. Spitzer was able to measure such a small diameter planet because it was hot, and hot objects emit exponentially more photons that cool objects. It would be much harder to detect a small, cool planet.

An earth like planet in a distant solar system orbiting the habitable region of its solar system, would be much cooler than 55 Cancri e which is much closer to its sun, but what if the habitable exoplanet was covered by very large extraterrestrial cities generating vast amounts of heat? Could the thermal infrared signature of an alien New York City be seen using the detection method pioneered by the Spitzer telescope?

Infrared satellite image of New York City, USA.

While Spitzer may lack the detection sophistication to measure the thermal signature of large alien metropolises, its replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope is being promoted as having such a capacity. According to NASA: “The [Spitzer] spacecraft is pioneering the study of atmospheres of distant planets and paving the way for NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to apply a similar technique on potentially habitable planets.” The James Webb telescope launches in 2018, until then, we will have to rely on the Spitzer telescope which officially retires in 2014, to find an alien New York City.

© Copyright 2012. Michael E. Salla. Exopolitics.org

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Further Reading

1976 life on Mars controversy resurrected in new scientific report

By Michael E. Salla, Ph.D.

Viking 2 Lander photo of Martian surface in 1976

A team of scientists and mathematicians analyzing data from the 1976 Viking Mission have concluded that life on Mars was detected in one of the four experiments conducted by the two robotic landers. Their report, “Complexity Analysis of the Viking Labeled Release Experiments,” released last week in the International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences” has resurrected a controversy over the results of the Viking Mission’s “Labeled Released experiment” designed by Dr Gilbert Levin. The Viking mission was the only Mars mission so far that was designed by NASA to detect life. Dr Levin was confident that the experiment had detected microbial life on Mars, but his NASA colleagues disagreed and his startling finding was forgotten in the Martian sands of time. This new scientific investigation has concluded that Levin was right all along.

Wikipedia summarizes NASA’s official position on the “Labeled Released experiment” and the position taken by Levin’s colleagues back in 1976:

In the [Labeled Release] LR experiment, a sample of Martian soil was inoculated with a drop of very dilute aqueous nutrient solution. The nutrients (7 molecules that were Miller-Urey products) were tagged with radioactive 14C. The air above the soil was monitored for the evolution of radioactive 14CO2 gas as evidence that microorganisms in the soil had metabolized one or more of the nutrients.…. The result was quite a surprise following the negative results of the first two tests, with a steady stream of radioactive gases being given off by the soil immediately following the first injection. The experiment was done by both Viking probes the first using a sample from the surface exposed to sunlight and the second probe taking the sample from underneath a rock both initial injections came back positive. Subsequent injections a week later did not, however, elicit the same reaction, and the result remains inconclusive.

Here is how Irene Klotz from Discovery News described the novel approach taken by scientists in the newly released report:

Researchers crunched raw data collected during runs of the Labeled Release experiment, which looked for signs of microbial metabolism in soil samples scooped up and processed by the two Viking landers. General consensus of scientists has been that the experiment found geological, not biological, activity.
The new study took a different approach. Researchers distilled the Viking Labeled Release data, provided as hard copies by the original researchers, into sets of numbers and analyzed the results for complexity. Since living systems are more complicated than non-biological processes, the idea was to look at the experiment results from a purely numerical perspective. They found close correlations between the Viking experiment results’ complexity and those of terrestrial biological data sets. They say the high degree of order is more characteristic of biological, rather than purely physical processes.

The team of scientists are very conclusive in their 2012 report:

The only extraterrestrial life detection experiments ever conducted were the three which were components of the 1976 Viking Mission to Mars. Of these, only the Labeled Release experiment obtained a clearly positive response…. We have applied complexity analysis to the Viking LR data….We conclude that the complexity pattern seen in active experiments strongly suggests biology while the different pattern in the control responses is more likely to be non-biological….These analyses support the interpretation that the Viking LR experiment did detect extant microbial life on Mars.

One of the scientists, Dr Joseph Miller a neuropharmacologist and biologist with the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, was interviewed by Discovery News and said: “On the basis of what we’ve done so far, I’d say I’m 99 percent sure there’s life there.”

So are the results from this new scientific investigation of the Viking data conclusive, was life discovered on Mars? A 99 % degree of certainty is very high, and while critics might argue is not conclusive, it would at the very least, have required follow up life detection experiments by NASA over the last three decades. NASA however has not designed such experiments ever since the 1976 Viking Mission. Why not?

According to NASA critic, Richard Hoagload, co-author of Dark Mission: The Secret History of NASA, NASA is not interested in discovering whether life exists or has existed on Mars. Such a discovery would be too disturbing for human civilization as we know it, as starkly revealed in the 1961 NASA Brookings Report presented to the US Congress that Hoagland helped bring to public attention back in 1993. NASA’s real mission appears to be one of merely justifying funding for future space missions that do nothing to disturb the scientific consensus that we are alone in the universe. NASA data pointing to evidence of life in our solar system is systematically ignored, censored or simply disappears. Scientists challenging this policy are silenced, discredited, and/or fired. NASA’s next robotic mission, Mars Science Laboratory (aka Curiosity) again does not have any life detection experiments on board. It’s hard not to disagree with Hoagland’s conclusion that NASA’s real mission is a dark one after all – don’t do anything to prove that life exists elsewhere in our solar system. Thankfully, more and more scientists do not agree, as reevaluation of the 1976 Viking Mission data clearly shows.

© Copyright 2012. Michael E. Salla. Exopolitics.org

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Further Reading

Kepler confirms first exoplanet in habitable region – the exopolitical impact

Michael E. Salla, Ph.D.

This diagram compares our own solar system to Kepler-22, a star system containing the first "habitable zone" planet discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. Image credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

It’s official – an earth-like planet in the habitable region of a distant solar system has just been confirmed to exist. The planet, Kepler-22b, sits in the so-called Goldilocks region of a solar system where it is neither too hot nor too cold for hosting life as we know it. Scientists associated with NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope Project announced the discovery at a Press Conference at the Ames Research Center early on Monday. The scientific results will be published in the next edition of The Astrophysics Journal. The announcement takes the scientific community one step closer to announcing that the conditions for life can be found on numerous exoplanets scattered throughout the galaxy. More importantly, the announcement takes our world one step closer to realizing that extraterrestrial life is not only scientifically feasible, but likely exists throughout our vast galaxy with its more than 300 billion stars. The confirmation of the first habitable exoplanet opens the door to a comprehension discussion of the political and social consequences of the discovery of extraterrestrial life. Such discussion has been mainly limited to the field of exopolitics where researchers have examined claims that extraterrestrials not only exist, but have been secretly monitoring our world; and have even been visiting us since the dawn of the atomic age.

Even though the Kepler mission released news of the discovery of earth like planets in the habitable zone earlier in February 2011, these were only “candidate planets”. Further observations were needed to confirm if what was seen was actually a planet or not. Confirmation did eventually arrive. Here is how William Borucki, a principal investigator at NASA Ames Research and team leader for the discovery of Kepler-22b, described the stunning confirmation:

Fortune smiled upon us with the detection of this planet … The first transit was captured just three days after we declared the spacecraft operationally ready. We witnessed the defining third transit over the 2010 holiday season…. Of the 54 “habitable” zone planet candidates seen so far, Kepler-22b is the first to be confirmed.

Put simply, Kepler-22b was included as a candidate exoplanet soon after the launch of the Kepler Mission in March 2009. Continued observations have confirmed its existence, and opened the door to further announcements of exoplanets to be found in the Goldilocks region of distant solar systems.

NASA’s Press Release gave details about the confirmed exoplanet’s location and orbit:

Kepler-22b is located 600 light-years away. While the planet is larger than Earth, its orbit of 290 days around a sun-like star resembles that of our world. The planet’s host star belongs to the same class as our sun, called G-type, although it is slightly smaller and cooler.

The announcement was made at the Kepler Mission’s inaugural science conference hosted at Ames from December 5-9. Here’s how NASA described the present tally of exoplanets:

The Kepler team is … announcing 1,094 new planet candidate discoveries. Since the last catalog was released in February, the number of planet candidates identified by Kepler has increased by 89 percent and now totals 2,326. Of these, 207 are approximately Earth-size, 680 are super Earth-size, 1,181 are Neptune-size, 203 are Jupiter-size and 55 are larger than Jupiter.

According to Alan Boss, a Carnegie Institute researcher that is part of the Kepler Mission:

This discovery supports the growing belief that we live in a universe crowded with life … Kepler is on the verge of determining the actual abundance of habitable, Earth-like planets in our galaxy’.

The confirmation of Kepler-22b as the first habitable exoplanet opens the door to the study of the social and political consequences of extraterrestrial life. Fortunately, some scientific institutions such as the Royal Society have endorsed such an exopolitical discussion. One likely impact of Kepler-22b is that more scientific institutions will follow the lead of the Royal Society. Eventually, the scientific community will need to examine the vast evidence accumulated over the last six decades, that extraterrestrial life is not only real and found throughout the galaxy, but they have been watching, and even visiting us, for a very long time.

© Copyright 2011. Michael E. Salla. Exopolitics.org

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Further Reading

Scientists endorse study of societal consequences of extraterrestrial life

Michael E. Salla, Ph.D.

exoplanets-top-ten
The discovery of exoplanets is stimulating scientific discussion of extraterrestrial life and its scientific and societal implications

The proceedings of a scientific conference that studied the societal consequences of extraterrestrial life has just been released. Organized and hosted by the Royal Society in October 2010, the conference was titled, “The detection of extra-terrestrial life and the consequences for science and society.” The conference received wide international attention when one of the participants, Dr Mazlan Othman, was wrongly described as being on the verge of being appointed by the UN to become Earth’s official liaison to extraterrestrial life. In the published proceedings, Othman sets the record straight. She believes that the UN already has a mechanism in place to deal with the detection and contact with extraterrestrial life, but work needs to be done in formalizing this by UN member states. Other conference participants endorse Othman’s recommendation, and further believe that the time has come to study the societal consequences of extraterrestrial life.

The continuing discovery of exoplanets – over 500 have been discovered by December 10, 2010 – has emboldened many scientists to come out publicly with recommendations concerning the existence of extraterrestrial life. Beginning with the premise that extraterrestrial life is almost certain to exist, Professor Stephen Hawking raised scientific eyebrows with claims in his 2010 television series that extraterrestrials are likely to be resource predators. The existence of exoplanets is opening the floodgates to scientific speculation about extraterrestrial life, and programs in astrobiology are becoming increasingly popular. Princeton University, for example, just launched its first astrobiology program and took an interdisciplinary path. However, Princeton’s program is only focused on a strictly scientific study of the consequences of extraterrestrial life, and eschews any social science or societal component.

Such an approach is wrong, according to the two scientists that organized the Royal Society conference. In their introduction to the conference proceedings, Dr Martin Dominik and Prof John C. Zarnecki endorsed studying the societal aspects of any discovery of extraterrestrial life. They stressed the importance of determining the possible motivations of extraterrestrial life and any search for such life:

The detection and further study of extra-terrestrial life will fundamentally challenge our view of nature, including ourselves, and therefore the field of astrobiology can hardly be isolated from its societal context, including philosophical, ethical and theological perspectives. With the detection of extra-terrestrial life being technically feasible, one needs to address whether perceived societal benefits command us to search for it, or whether such an endeavor may rather turn out to be a threat to our own existence

Dr Dominik and Prof Zarnecki went on to point out the importance of having in place the political mechanism by which humanity can responsibly deal with the future detection of extraterrestrial life:

While scientists are obliged to assess benefits and risks that relate to their research, the political responsibility for decisions arising following the detection of extra-terrestrial life cannot and should not rest with them. Any such decision will require a broad societal dialogue and a proper political mandate. If extra-terrestrial life happens to be detected, a coordinated response that takes into account all the related sensitivities should already be in place.

Their view was supported by the current head of UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs, Dr Mazlan Othman who said:

The continued search for extra-terrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that someday humankind will receive signals from extra-terrestrials. When we do, we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The United Nations forums are a ready-made mechanism for such coordination.

So where to from here? The Royal Society and like-minded scientific bodies such as the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, are likely to continue hosting meetings discussing extraterrestrial life and its societal consequences – an endeavor some believe falls under the rubric of exopolitics. More universities are likely to follow the path of Princeton and offer interdisciplinary astrobiology programs that use methods from the natural sciences for discussing extraterrestrial life; and perhaps, in the near future, open the door to formal discussion of its societal consequences. But what about those interested in a comprehensive study of the societal implications of extraterrestrial life, and evidence that such life is currently visiting Earth in the here and now?

One solution is offered by a small but pioneering program hosted by the Exopolitics Institute (a 501(c)3 educational organization based in Hawaii) that offers a Certificate/Diploma program for those interested in exopolitics. Students can enroll and complete online up to six university level courses that examine various aspects of the societal and political implications of extraterrestrial life. While the Exopolitics Institute’s program is not yet accredited with any tertiary organization, this is expected to change as it expands in size and offerings over the next 18 months. The Spring 2011 semester, which features two courses, “Introduction to Exopolitics” and “Developing the Road to Disclosure”, begins next week on January 17.

The future is bright for those interested in studying the societal aspects of extraterrestrial life, and some organizations such as the Royal Society are pioneering efforts to do so. Together with ad hoc programs and courses offered by the Exopolitics, Institute and other educational bodies, the general public can begin comprehensively studying the consequences of extraterrestrial life in all its aspects, scientific, societal, religious and political.

Further Reading:

© Copyright 2011. Michael E. Salla. Exopolitics.org

Permission is granted to include extracts of this article on websites and email lists with a link to the original. This article is copyright © and should not be added in its entirety on other websites or email lists without author’s permission. For permission please contact: drsalla@exopolitics.org

Report on Royal Society Conference on Extra-Terrestrial Life

Kavli Royal Society International Centre. Venue of Oct 4-5 conference: "Towards a scientific and societal agenda on extra-terrestrial life." Photo: Royal Society
Kavli Royal Society International Centre. Venue of Oct 4-5 conference: "Towards a scientific and societal agenda on extra-terrestrial life." Photo: Royal Society

This beautiful Georgian country house, set in 80 acres, oozing tranquillity, was an idyllic and suitably impressive location for the grand theme of the Royal Society’s satellite meeting on the 4th and 5th of October 2010, organised by Dr Martin Dominik, University of St Andrews and Professor John Zarnecki, from The Open University. Speakers and panellists were drawn from various countries, fields and groups, including SETI, NASA, Space Law, Geochemistry, Ecology, Planetary Sciences, Astronomy, Theology, Literature, History, Microwave sciences, Anthropology, Archaeology Linguist specialists, Space Technology, Evolutionary Developmental Systems Theorists, to name some, and I am sure I have not covered all the disciplines gathered. Some delegates also came from related areas such as Astrobiology. I was there as an observer, under the flag of the Exopolitics Institute, founded by Dr. Michael Salla PhD., 2005, to address serious questions arising from the social, diplomatic, political, economical and technical implications of an extra terrestrial presence on Earth, a field gaining ground world wide; the UK node is run by David Griffin.

The UN presence was conspicuous in the petite form of Astrophysicist, Professor Mazlan Othan, whose role as Head of the ‘Office for Outer Space Affairs,’ (UNoosa) made an impact, drawing some controversy from a brief flurry of press attention when a story appearing on the 26/27th September in The Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, and Fox News mooted that she would announce her forthcoming new role as chief alien ambassador. It seems her comments, asserting that we should be prepared for knowledge of ET’s presence acted as a gateway for this idea, which she, in jocular tone, categorically denied in a quip that topped and tailed her brief talk saying that she was not the contact for ET. Her talk gave nothing to the ET idea, rather to say that there were perhaps one or two bodies, who could possibly be candidates in terms of point of dissemination for information, like COSPAR (Committee On Space Research EST. 1958) or CUPUOS (Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space est. 1958), as well as flagging up protocols that needed to be adhered to in getting material or presentations to the UN. And at least Professor Othman appeared open minded to a colleague’s question of whether or not she and the panel would be interested in knowing about the work of Exopolitics (though I can’t recall if that word was specifically used), and Professor Othman, who said she had not heard of it, said she would be interested, I hope it was not an empty response.

The overall theme of the latter part of the first day, was much in the vein of a SETI pitching seminar, with various people stating the case for a bigger and better SETI, with presentations showing how far SETI can go in education and merchandising, but little was made of the fact that in the 50 years since SETI began, there has been zero success in obtaining any signals that suggest ET is alive or anywhere at all, in the mind boggling reaches of the universes. The lack of big and powerful enough telescopes was cited, though it is expected the new Allen Telescope Array would be successful, but the dilemma if they find a signal, who would be responsible for contact protocol? (No one seemed to think physical contact a possibility). Further, the overarching language used in referencing contact, followed Stephen Hawking’s lead in fearing for the fate of humanity, using human behaviour as a template. Risk perception, how do we deal with it? That ‘monster type, aggressive ET’s can live anywhere, another, a personal nightmare would be ET’s superiority, another said there is ‘more danger from asteroids than from an ET invasion,’ whilst some might contact humanity via technology, intelligent machines.

No one in this meeting was asking whether ET had eluded their scopes, and was possibly already visiting Earth, let alone interacting with human processes, and from my own investigations, it is, without a doubt, from the clear mountain of evidence and ongoing public revelations, that this scenario is nothing less than a fact, shocking as that may be to some.

I don’t know how such a myopic world view can possibly hold water when we have so much material, how many elephants can we fit into this mindset? We have an official document, the Cometa Report (France 1999), emanating from the Institute of Higher Studies for National Defence, where serious study was done that included Generals, surmising that the implications for ET reality is huge, that increased sightings that cannot be explained, are likely the UFO hypothesis…there is the evidence of testimony from scientists and military personnel presented at The National Press Club in 2001, known as ‘The Disclosure Project’ (Dr Steven Greer 2001). There was Canadian, Wilbert B. Smith, head of Canada’s Radio/Frequency Regulations, who came to know the reality of ET, working with US authorities in the 1950s, from which came a memo, saying; ‘subject was classified ‘higher than the H-bomb’’ and that ‘Flying Saucers exist.’

The Affidavit of Walter G Haut stationed in Roswell Air base, revealed at his death, (died 2005), that in 1947, he was ordered to prepare a press release stating that the air force (US) had recovered a flying disc, (later retracted), and that he had seen bodies and the disc. USAF Airman Milton Torres, based in the UK 1957, told to shoot down a UFO. The Rendlesham Forest Incident of 1980/81 is well documented with first hand witness and real time audio recordings as a UFO was observed by military command. And, if we need a further smoking gun, then the Starchild Skull is on the verge of giving up its DNA secrets, which will, if all indications are correct, prove absolutely that ‘dad’ was not of human origin (Lloyd Pye project director).

I met with Professor John Elliot of Leeds Metropolitan University UK, reader in Intelligence Engineering and member of the International Academy of Astronautics, SETI Permanent Study Group and Post Detection Task Force. His field includes computation modelling of communication encompassing multidimensional aspects as well as decipherment of an ET signal to manage dissemination and social impact. I thought his sphere would be appropriate to broach another area of research linked with ET communications. I asked him if he would be willing to look at and feed back his opinions on communications received in the form of languages and scripts by various people, from their interaction with ET. He responded in the affirmative, though was unaware of such material.  He was similarly intrigued by the Starchild skull, also mentioned in a question by my colleague, Belinda McKenzie to a panel, as to their openness to hear about results from full DNA analysis when available, so hopefully we will have contributed in some small way.  On another tack, I was I have to say, relieved to hear Professor Frans von der Dunk (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, College of Law) say that no one can own the moon legally, that it is not possible, even though there are one or two parties who have made a fortune out of selling leases of plots on the moon.

Another often reiterated notion during the meeting, that space travel is too expensive; with the current outmoded system, this is true. But since the early 1900’s we have had, with Nikola Tesla’s discoveries of how to tap into ‘Radiant Energy’, knowledge of a wireless, abundant and virtually free technology, and we would have been very different technologically today, had humanity been allowed it, instead of it being scuppered by JP Morgan, unable to see how he could charge for it.  But we now have another opportunity more than 80 years on, to realise a similar type of alternative energy system in the form of the SEG (Searl Effect Generator) which UK Professor John Searl first created in 1946 as a boy of 14.  His test models in the 1960/70’s went to Australia and New York in 30 minutes, and he says the moon should take about an hour. There is currently a new movement in place in the US to bring this technology to fruition, if funding prevails, which would absolutely negate any problems in the near future for all our power needs, including travel into our solar system as well as in time, intergalactic travel.

I do wonder, with the call for people to join the NASA funded Focus Group, in ‘workshops without walls’, apparently open to all, whether groups like Exopolitics would be welcome with the diametrically opposite standpoint that ET is already a reality. If the science community is willing to be all embracing, whether articles have been peer-reviewed, or gone through the unwieldy process of admittance, or being seen as viable and valuable from their point of view, then maybe we do stand a chance of a holistic, integrated, useful outcome, we will creep toward that ‘gradual increase in legitimacy, but this needs to be accelerated – and frankly, I doubt this will be the happen any time soon, but I stand to be corrected. Time will tell.

By Joanne Summerscales
Exopolitics.org.uk

Astronomers announce first exoplanet with potential to support life

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In the following video, Steven Vogt of the University of California, Santa Cruz and University of California Observatories and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington join National Science Foundation’s Lisa-Joy Zgorski to announce the discovery of the first exoplanet that has the potential to support life. The exoplanet was found in the star system of Gliese 581. It’s discovery is based on 11 years of observations from the Keck I Telescope at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. A press release by the National Science Foundation announcing the discovery is available here.

Princeton University astrobiology certificate explores potential for extraterrestrial life

Michael E. Salla, Ph.D.

A Montage of Life Born in the Astronomical Context. Graphic by Keren E. Fedida: Planets and Life Certificate

Princeton University has just announced a “Planets and Life” Certificate program in astrobiology that offers students an interdisciplinary approach to the possibility of extraterrestrial life existing throughout the universe. Astrobiology, or ‘exobiology’ as it first developed, is a scientific discipline that by definition is interested in the biology of life beyond our planet. Astrobiology is attracting growing student and scientific attention due to the ongoing discovery of exoplanets. A recent announcement from scientists working on the Kepler Space Telescope that rocky earth-like planets are more prevalent than gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn, has fueled scientific speculation that suitable life-bearing conditions are far more common than previously thought. This has led to the realization that due to the advanced age of some solar systems, older and more advanced intelligent life very likely can be found elsewhere in the galaxy. Astrobiology conferences organized by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Science in November 2009, and the Royal Society of London in January 2010 began the task of exploring the implications of extraterrestrial life found elsewhere in the galaxy. According to the Planets and Life Certificate program Director, Astrophysics Professor Adam Burrows, “Biology is experiencing a great renaissance … there are a lot of people making this the focus of their scientific work … It’s the fastest growing field in astronomy.”

The student body at Princeton, a private university that relies on student tuition for operational expenses, was a key factor in the development of the Life and Planets astrobiology program. It was students who had earlier completed one of the courses taught by evolutionary biology professor Laura Landweber, that formed an Astrobiology Club and pushed for the creation of the certificate program. Professor Landweber’s course, AST 255 “is an introduction to astrobiology and explores topics like the origin of life on Earth and the possibility of extraterrestrial life on Mars and Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.” Clearly, the question of life on Mars and elsewhere in our solar system is something that continues to inspire keen student interest.

A key aspect of the new astrobiology program is that it will be interdisciplinary. According to the Princeton University News Release, the program allows “students to take cognate courses in nine departments: astrophysics, chemistry, ecology and evolutionary biology, geosciences, molecular biology, mechanical and aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, chemical and biological engineering, and computer science.” Noticeably missing from the list of departments are the social sciences of political science and sociology.

Most recently, Professor Stephen Hawking, a member of the Royal Society of London that sponsored the January 2010 astrobiology conference, took scientific speculation on extraterrestrial life to its logical conclusion by introducing political and sociological questions. He asked what would they be like in terms of their motivations, and would their political agenda involve resource acquisition to the degree that they might threaten the earth? Hawking’s introduction of political and sociological questions to the study of extraterrestrial life is part of the nascent field of exopolitics which has yet to be formally acknowledged by Princeton or any other university. While Princeton’s astrobiology certificate for the moment emphasizes the natural sciences in its interdisciplinary program, it’s hard to justify the exclusion of exopolitical questions when the world’s foremost astrophysicist, Stephen Hawking, is explicitly raising such questions. Princeton University is to be congratulated for creating a pioneering interdisciplinary certificate program in the growing field of astrobiology. With time, however, the program will need to expand its certificate program in order to systematically address exopolitical questions, that cannot and should not be excluded from an interdisciplinary study of extraterrestrial life in the Galaxy.

[Special Notice: The author teaches a course in the Exopolitics Institute’s Certification Program titled: The Science, Spirituality and Politics of Extraterrestrial Life. Fall Semester clases have just begun. More info here.] Further Reading

Galaxy is rich in small Earth-like planets

Stephen Hawking launches exopolitics debate

Is 2010 the year of discovery for extraterrestrial life

© Copyright 2010. Michael E. Salla. Exopolitics.org
Permission is granted to include extracts of this article on websites and email lists with a link to the original. This article is copyright © and should not be added in its entirity on other websites or email lists without author’s permission. For permission please contact: drsalla@exopolitics.org

Galaxy is rich in small, Earth-like planets

Video has recently emerged of a speech by Professor Dimitar Sasselov, Harvard astronomer and co-investigator of NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, where he declared that the "Galaxy is rich in small, Earth-like planets." His speech was given at a Technology Entertainment and Design conference at Oxford University in mid-July where speakers are limited to 18 minutes on the latest scientific trends. The Kepler telescope uncovered evidence of up to 140 different planets similar in size to the Earth. Sasselov believes that the discovery amounts to a Copernican revolution where a clear affirmative answer is given to the question: “Are there other Earth like planets out there that can harbor life?” Significantly, Sasselov asserts that the evidence points to more earth-like planets in the galaxy than gas giants as previously thought. Estimates of earth-like planets in the galaxy could be quickly revised up to 100 million or more. Most importantly, he says that the data allows scientists to scan exoplanets for tell tale signs of life. Sasselov’s findings is good news for researchers in the fields of astrobiology and exopolitics since it encourages more scientific inquiry into the implications of intelligent extraterrestrial life.

Sasselov’s speech was quickly featured in the international media with bold headlines such as Britain’s Daily Mail that “More than 100 'Earth-like' planets discovered in past few weeks." Not so fast according to Space.com.  

What Dimitar presented was 'candidates,'" said David Koch, the mission's deputy principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "These have the apparent signature we are looking for, but then we must perform extensive follow-up observations to eliminate false positives, such as background eclipsing binaries. This requires substantial amounts of ground-based observing which is done primarily in the summer observing season."

Indeed, Sasselov confirmed that more work was to be done over the summer to confirm what the Kepler data was suggesting, and that more news was “to come later in the year!"

That did not however stop Sasselov commenting on the significance of what has been discovered so far. He said that smaller rocky Earth like planets were statistically more common than gas giants: "Even before we have confirmed the planets among these hundreds of candidates, we can see statistically that the smaller-sized planets will be more common than the large-sized (Jupiter- and Saturn-like ones) in the sample,"

Sasselov explained that the results so far of the Kepler mission heralded a Corpernican revolution. Just as Corpernicus revolutionized astronomy by publishing data that the solar system rotated around the sun, rather than the earth, so too the data from the Kepler mission would lead to another scientific revolution. Rather than planets like earth being unique or an uncommon occurrence in the galaxy, they in fact are plentiful. Sasselov declared in his speech that the “Galaxy is rich in small, Earth-like planets”

While more scientific investigation will occur in the months ahead to confirm the results of the Kepler mission so far, its implications are enormous. Astrobiologists will be able to conclude with great confidence that extraterrestrial life is certain to exist elsewhere in the galaxy. Importantly, for the field of exopolitics, intelligent extraterrestrial life will also be deemed certain to exist, and this has profound social and political implications for humanity. In April 2010, Prof Stephen Hawking claimed it was “perfectly rational” to discuss the motivations of advanced extraterrestrial life. The findings of the Kepler mission make inquiry into the possible motivations of intelligent extraterrestrial life not only “perfectly rational" but now a logical necessity. The Kepler space telescope results will not only bring about an astronomical revolution, but a revolution in social and political thought about technologically advanced intelligent life in the galaxy and its impact on humanity.

 

More:info at  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1296841/More-100-Earth-like-planets-just-past-weeks.html#ixzz0ufWGjQmd

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