Contacting Extraterrestrials?

[pcray1231]

Chaz, while admittedly I'm not up on the latest physics research, wormholes as theorized by Einstein and Rosen would only be stable if they are very small. Like atomic size. At the quantum level. You could, in theory, stabilize larger ones by loading them with matter which contains negative energy density. Which unfortunately is itself unstable and has only been witnessed at the very small, quantum level. We will say I have my doubts whether it'd be a viable shortcut through the universe. Not just with current technology, but with ANY technology. Still, I won't completely dismiss it.

And regarding objects with mass moving faster than light, I'm not aware of any scientific observation that's held full muster after debunking. Though space itself can expand faster than light if it contains no mass, energy, or information.

(Clarification that speed of light means speed of light in a vacuum, not in a medium, as faster than light in a medium happens all the time).

Your objects moving faster than light is an illusion due to the expansion of space while the light was in transit. From my reference frame, distant stars I can see are millions of light years away. The moon is close. Yet they all apparently travel in a circle around me once per day. Take the circumference of a circle with a radius of millions of light years, and say they travel that in 24 hours, and what do you know? Faster than light, lol. The farther away the star is, the faster I will calculate it's speed.

But my reference frame is changing in comparison with it. Not valid.

In the case of the galaxies, if you measure speed by how much farther it gets away from us over time, yes, faster than light. But the reality is that you just proved the universe is expanding. The light still travelled at c. It's just that between when it left there and arrived here, the space itself expanded. So even if our galaxies were not moving away from each other THROUGH space, they still are getting farther apart. The farther apart we are the more the expansion of space is at play, and the faster we seem to be moving apart. The reference frame is changing. At great enough distances we seem to be travelling faster than light apart.

But correcting for space expansion over time, no, we are not. The Hubble constant explains it.

 

[Gone4Day]

pcray1231 wrote:
(Clarification that speed of light means speed of light in a vacuum, not in a medium, as faster than light in a medium happens all the time).

Could you elaborate? I always thought 186,000 miles per second was not just a good idea, it’s the law. ;-)

 

[Chaz]

pcray1231 wrote:
Chaz, while admittedly I'm not up on the latest physics research, wormholes as theorized by Einstein and Rosen would only be stable if they are very small. Like atomic size. At the quantum level. You could, in theory, stabilize larger ones by loading them with matter which contains negative energy density. Which unfortunately is itself unstable and has only been witnessed at the very small, quantum level. We will say I have my doubts whether it'd be a viable shortcut through the universe. Not just with current technology, but with ANY technology. Still, I won't completely dismiss it.

And regarding objects with mass moving faster than light, I'm not aware of any scientific observation that's held full muster after debunking. Though space itself can expand faster than light if it contains no mass, energy, or information.

Pat, I did say theorized that wormholes might get you there faster then the speed of light. I'm not a Physicist so I don't know the math they are talking about. I'm just saying what I've read.
Same with the idea that objects that are way out there in space, the oldest objects in the universe, are moving faster then the cosmic speed limit, could be calculated, if we knew where the pin head was where the big bang happened. But I think we'll never know the coordinates of the actual big bang. It's all great discussion.
I believe there is intelligent life out there, and I believe it could be much closer than we think. Not all UFO's can be explained away as swamp gas.

 

[pcray1231]

Gone, that's the speed of light in a vacuum. It slows down in a medium, like air, water, or glass. It's how lenses work. It's also worth noting the nuclear radiation "glow" is actually millions of little "photonic booms". In that medium, some of the particles travel faster than light for short distances (but not faster than light in a vacuum). Just like there's a sound boom when you travel faster than sound, there's a light boom when you break the light barrier.

Chaz, there's a difference between theoretically possible (not outlawed by physics) and practically feasible. It may not be a matter of technology either. There are better physicists than myself that debate the feasibility of wormholes large enough for humans, not with today's tech, but with unlimited technology. They all agree we are very very far from it. I won't deny the possibility but will also state it is by no means a given that any civilization could ever do it.

As for life, I believe it's probably very common. Like a better than even chance we find it in my lifetime in our own solar system. But the vast majority would be simple single celled organisms. Like most of Earths history. Intelligent life is probably rare, meaning one in a million or billion solar systems. Which still means there a whole lot of them out there. But if wormholes aren't feasible, then statistically speaking, it's extremely unlikely any are close enough to visit. Several thousand times more likely, though still unlikely, that we could have meaningful conversation. If dinosaurs sent out a radio signal it's unlikely anyone has gotten it yet! But it's perhaps likely we will someday receive a communication from someone else. Though we'd have to recognize theyd have sent that message millions of years prior. Could be their "dinosaurs".

There may be plenty out there but the vastness of space makes our universe pretty lonely.

And yes, some have measured speeds of distant objects as moving faster than light. But to my knowledge all have been debunked. The Hubble constant explains them. Moving apart at faster than light speed is real, but does not mean moving through space faster than light does!