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One of the mysteries that has fascinated humans for decades is the concept of intelligent extra terrestrial life – and now NASA scientists have given a dark reason which might explain why we have never encountered it
In the paper titled Avoiding the ‘Great Filter’: Extraterrestrial Life and Humanity’s Future in the Universe that is yet to be peer reviewed, researchers Jonathan H. Jiang, Philip E. Rosen, Kelly Lu, Kristen A. Fahy and Piotr Obacz from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in southern California have shared their theory as to why we have yet to come across other intelligent life forms.
To put it simply, they believe all intelligent life wiped itself out before being evolved enough to make contact with or encounter another civilisation such as Earth.
This theory is called “the Great Filter,” and in the new paper, scientists describe it as “phenomenon that wipes out civilizations before they can encounter each other, which may explain the cosmic silence”.
Like ships passing through the night, essentially.
Plagiarism link above
They’re the questions that have dogged humanity since time immemorial: where did life on Earth come from? And does it exist elsewhere?
They’re the questions that have dogged humanity since time immemorial: where did life on Earth come from? And does it exist elsewhere?
The federation believe that in the next 10 to 20 years they could discover “thousands” of planets bearing marks of alien life, according to the paper.
To achieve their aim, they will rely on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) which, according to NASA, will “study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System.”
They will also carefully study rock and other samples taken by probes sent to Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
Essentially, it allows scientists to see back in time roughly 13.5 billion years, near the beginning of the universe as we know it, the experts say.
Leja explained: “This is our first glimpse back this far, so it’s important that we keep an open mind about what we are seeing.
“While the data indicates they are likely galaxies, I think there is a real possibility that a few of these objects turn out to be obscured supermassive black holes.”
However, he stressed: “The revelation that massive galaxy formation began extremely early in the history of the universe upends what many of us had thought was settled science.
“We’ve been informally calling these objects ‘universe breakers’ — and they have been living up to their name so far.”
He added: “We looked into the very early universe for the first time and had no idea what we were going to find.
“It turns out we found something so unexpected it actually creates problems for science. It calls the whole picture of early galaxy formation into question.”
The question now is, will the Origins Federation soon uncover something that calls our whole picture of life into question?
It looks as though we might soon find out…
G.I.T.C
Scientists express concern over “sizeable challenges to overcome,” for humans in order not to “snowball quickly into the Great Filter,” if this filter exists.
In order to avoid this, researchers say that we must be aware of what factors put us at risk of distinction.
“The key to humanity successfully traversing such a universal filter is… identifying [destructive] attributes in ourselves and neutralizing them in advance,” the paper read.
Nuclear warfare, pathogens and pandemics, artificial intelligence, meteorite impacts, and climate change are named as some of the “multiple calamity candidates”.
One of the biggest challenges for humans is to be able to work together for the sake of survival as researchers say “it begins with collaboration”.
“History has shown that intricacies competition and, more importantly, collaboration, has led us towards the highest peaks of invention. And yet, we prolong notions that seem to be the antithesis of long-term sustainable growth: Racism, genocide, inequity, sabotage,” the paper reads.
One member of the team, Cambridge zoologist Dr Emily Mitchell, said life is almost certainly “quite common” across the universe and it is “very likely” that we will discover signs of living organisms on other planets
The Times explained that the involvement of biologists, chemists and zoologists is crucial in order to understand how life first emerged and evolved on Earth.
And discovering other habitable planets could help us understand how life first began on our own world.
The JWST has already challenged our understanding of the dawn of the time after discovering six massive galaxies in the early universe.
Using the first data released from the telescope last July, scientists found that galaxies as mature as the Milky Way existed when the universe was only three per cent of its current age – some 500-700 million years after the Big Bang.
Joel Leja, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State University, America, said: “These objects are way more massive than anyone expected.
“We expected only to find tiny, young, baby galaxies at this point in time, but we’ve discovered galaxies as mature as our own in what was previously understood to be the dawn of the universe.”
The JWST is equipped with instruments that can detect light that was emitted by the most ancient stars and galaxies.