Anyone ever seen an alien or a UFO

[Buzzer]

This is all hypothetical as we don't understand the physics of space nearly as well as we think we do!

But for example in theory it would be possible to travel as fast as the speed of light in a massless spaceship by taking the m out of e=mc2. In space the speed gained by acceleration is barely lost, so it would not take as much energy as you would think either - in theory even a moped engine could reach the speed of light, although it would take a very, very long time.
!

Sorry but I'm going to have to take you to task here. That's extremely bad science.

It's very well established that any object travelling at c or near c has infinite or near infinite mass and therefore requires infinite or near infinite energy. Infinity is as much as I can think...and then some.

Your comment that this can be bypassed theoretically with massless objects is meaningless. It's simply not possible for objects bigger than the sub-atomic particles. Your comment is as irrelevant as arguing a position by saying "my granny hasn't got balls but if she did then..." as Brady so wonderfully put it.

A massless object would require no energy anyway as the equation would reduce to e=0.

I'm genuinely interested in hearing your reply as I have a degree in theoretical physics.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Sorry but I'm going to have to take you to task here. That's extremely bad science.

It's very well established that any object travelling at c or near c has infinite or near infinite mass and therefore requires infinite or near infinite energy. Infinity is as much as I can think...and then some.

Your comment that this can be bypassed theoretically with massless objects is meaningless. It's simply not possible for objects bigger than the sub-atomic particles. Your comment is as irrelevant as arguing a position by saying "my granny hasn't got balls but if she did then..." as Brady so wonderfully put it.

A massless object would require no energy anyway as the equation would reduce to e=0.

I'm genuinely interested in hearing your reply as I have a degree in theoretical physics.

Nicely put.

The only way that we can meet intelligent life from other planets is probably via:

1. Them coming from a lot closer than we'd expect - say from the Ocean on Europa
2. There being a way to short-cut space travel, via a yet to be discovered or understood part of theoretical physics (worm-holes or other dimensions for example)
3. They are happy to travel at sub-light speeds for a very very very very long time to meet us

 

[Buzzer]

That noise you can hear is one of my old professors spinning in his grave at my use of the phrase "near infinite".

 

[Papa Lazarou]

That noise you can hear is one of my old professors spinning in his grave at my use of the phrase "near infinite".

Infinity - 1

 

[Manx Shearwater]

3. They are happy to travel at sub-light speeds for a very very very very long time to meet us

And then buzz two old redneck loonies drinking moonshine in a field in Arizona and then bugger off home again.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

And then buzz two old redneck loonies drinking moonshine in a field in Arizona and then bugger off home again.

They were only on a reconnaissance mission, ok?!

 

[Bold Seagull]

That noise you can hear is one of my old professors spinning in his grave at my use of the phrase "near infinite".

He may well be spinning in Hilbert's Grand Hotel!

 

[dingodan]

The way I see it the earth is like a coral reef in the ocean that is the universe. Ufos or ETz are like fish, occasionally swimming past, never to return. Not "scheduling" a trip to visit earth, just going about their business and likely pretty unimpressed with us.

Obviously this may, or may not, be the case.

 

[SeagullSongs]

A bit like worm holes then.

We have found some planets that may contain life already, the equation does have some truth to it; which is that in our own little neighborhood there could be many civilizations like ours.

You also said that we may be able to travel at the speed of light, or close to it eventually.

This can't be possible, a space craft traveling at even half the speed of light would completely shatter even if it hits a spec of dust, let alone one of the millions of rocks that whiz around the galaxy. Do you know how fast the speed of light is btw? It's 1 MILLION KM, every 3 seconds or so, just imagine that in your head, that's super fast and we're MILLIONS of years off reaching that if it's possible, which it probably isn't, I mean imagine the sheer amount of energy that would take, just to get it going at that speed for a second, let alone years and years as it travels into the unknown universe.

Voyager has been traveling for 30 years or so and hasn't even done a light DAY yet, it's just not possible, we'll never even get close to that sort of speed, ever.

Wormholes are the complete unknown really, we don't really know if they exist or if it's possible for them to exist do we?

Have you heard of warp technology? Some places are starting to research it now, it will be interesting if it works. I'm sure shields will be developed to deal with this dust too. To say we'll never, ever get close to the speed of light is pretty naive I think. Almost certainly not within our lifetime, but I think we will eventually, probably within 5000 years.

 

[Bulldog]

Back in the days of sailing ships, If you had suggested that is will be possible to suspend several hundred tons of metal in thin air and get to Oz in about a day, when the fastest technology of the day would get you there in a few months, I think you would have been laughed out of the tavern.

We can't even begin to guess what future generations will discover, but I am sure it will be absolutely amazing and probably pretty unbelievable to us today.

The universe is very old (it is believed to be even older than Bens granddad! ). There could be civilisations out there millions even hundreds of millions of years more advanced than us. Can we be sure they haven't found a way around faster than light travel?

 

[Bold Seagull]

Back in the days of sailing ships, If you had suggested that is will be possible to suspend several hundred tons of metal in thin air and get to Oz in about a day, when the fastest technology of the day would get you there in a few months, I think you would have been laughed out of the tavern.

We can't even begin to guess what future generations will discover, but I am sure it will be absolutely amazing and probably pretty unbelievable to us today.

The universe is very old. There could be civilisations out there millions even hundreds of millions of years more advanced than us. Can we be sure they haven't found a way around faster than light travel?

Really? Did they not have science fiction back then, or the ability to imagine impossible things? Didn't Di Vinci draw helicopters and all sorts of amazing ideas? In Dante's The Devine Comedy doesn't the narrative go to other planets, stars and other civilisations?

 

[Bulldog]

Really? Did they not have science fiction back then, or the ability to imagine impossible things? Didn't Di Vinci draw helicopters and all sorts of amazing ideas? In Dante's The Devine Comedy doesn't the narrative go to other planets, stars and other civilisations?

Sure, and I bet they were laughed out of the tavern.

 

[Buzzer]

Well I don't have a degree in theoretical physics, so I have no doubt that you understand this a lot better than I do!

The point I was making is that if there was somehow a massless spaceship, it would travel at the speed of light. Like you say that isn't theoretically possible according to what we know & current scientific dogma, but as we have learned throughout history scientific dogmas aren't always right.

Isn't this you having your cake and eating it? You've quoted and relied on e=mc2 and then said that all we need is to get m to be zero and we're sorted for light speed travel. One of the linchpins of that formula is that m can't be zero or the equation doesn't work.

If you do find a way to make m=0 then you're going to need a new formula to put it into. And if you can do that then I would question why you would need to have m=0 in the first place.

What I'm getting to is that you can't cherry pick what parts of our current understanding to change and which parts to keep. If you deny one then the whole lot falls down.

 

[dingodan]

as we have learned throughout history scientific dogmas aren't always right.

Science = Our current best wrong answer.

 

[portslade seagull]

No that's just the wife first thing in the morning

 

[Canonman]

Sorry but I'm going to have to take you to task here. That's extremely bad science.

It's very well established that any object travelling at c or near c has infinite or near infinite mass and therefore requires infinite or near infinite energy. Infinity is as much as I can think...and then some.

Your comment that this can be bypassed theoretically with massless objects is meaningless. It's simply not possible for objects bigger than the sub-atomic particles. Your comment is as irrelevant as arguing a position by saying "my granny hasn't got balls but if she did then..." as Brady so wonderfully put it.

A massless object would require no energy anyway as the equation would reduce to e=0.

I'm genuinely interested in hearing your reply as I have a degree in theoretical physics.

Quite agree with this chap. We did this in a woodwork lesson.

 

[Nibble]

Yes. When I was little we were walking one Sunday through the woods north of Angmering and we saw strange bright lights hovering for a few seconds just above Clapham Woods on the other side of the A27. One of the lights elongated into a fat cigar shape then like a firework kind of exploded but not really very widely. The other lights just disappeared. All our family saw it and described the same thing.

No idea what it was, could have been Chinese lanterns but it added further to the scariness of Clapham Woods. Never been in and never will.

One thing I'm sure of though. If aliens do travel across galaxies to visit us then contrary to what Independence Day would have us believe, they'll probably have a firewall and up to date anti virus software.

I went into Clapham Wood without knowing it's history. Never, ever again. Seriously.

 

[Doc Lynam]

My dad started making a model mountain out of dirt in our living room, mum wasn't best pleased. Especially when he started using the next door neighbours flowers as part of the model! He lost his job as a sparky over it and we and the rest of our community were order to leave our neighbourhood because of some sort deadly gas. Never saw dad again, he was nuts!

 

[Mowgli37]

I did once see a bright white orb shining over the hills to the south of Horsham, it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. We live over a mile and a half away from it's approximate location so it couldn't have been a Chinese lantern or similar. I ran to get my telescope but when I came back it had gone. I'm sure there was a totally rational explanation for it but it did spark a six month fascination with UFOs for me

 

[Mowgli37]

My dad started making a model mountain out of dirt in our living room, mum wasn't best pleased. Especially when he started using the next door neighbours flowers as part of the model! He lost his job as a sparky over it and we and the rest of our community were order to leave our neighbourhood because of some sort deadly gas. Never saw dad again, he was nuts!