Technology has brought a huge leap to human civilization. It not only makes people’s lives continue to improve, but also allows us to continuously expand our horizons and gain more understanding of the world and the universe.
Science is a great university that studies and explores the truth behind the world. With the help of technology, we can understand the mystery of matter, the mystery of life, and the mystery of the universe. When we uncover these mysteries, human beings will become more advanced universe life, and even hope to become the overlord of the universe and realize the great dream of immortality.
One of the biggest benefits that technology brings us is that it allows us to walk out of the earth and see the vast universe. Only by seeing the universe through a broad field of vision can human beings understand how small they are, and thus confirm the future path of mankind, which is the sea of stars.
If we want to explore the universe and set the goal on the stars and the sea, then we first need to understand a problem that has plagued mankind for half a century, that is, does alien civilization exist? According to scientists’ initial speculations and calculations, even if civilizations are not flying all over the sky in the universe, at least it will not be as “deadly silent” as it is now. No call can be heard, no shadow of civilization can be seen, and the shouts of mankind are also Did not get any response.
This result makes many people feel lonely and scared. It should be a lively universe, but what human beings see is loneliness. Such an abnormal situation makes us feel scared. What is the state of the civilization of the universe? Where did they go?
Someone once thought pessimistically that the universe might have only one intelligent civilization, humans. However, as we continue to explore the universe, this kind of pessimism has basically disappeared. Most people still believe that alien civilization exists, but it is a matter of high and low probability. So how high is the probability of alien civilization?
To understand this problem, we need to use a lot of observational data. After reading these observational data, you will understand. As we all know, the earth is a terrestrial planet, but also a beautiful planet of life.
Although we are not sure what form of alien life exists and what kind of planetary environment it needs, but using the various environmental conditions required by the earth as a template, we can draw the conclusion that it is very similar to the earth. On earth planets, the probability of existence of life and civilization will undoubtedly be higher.
Therefore, when scientists search for extraterrestrial life and extraterrestrial civilization, they mainly search for terrestrial planets that are very similar to the Earth. So are there many terrestrial planets like the Earth in the universe? On March 6, 2009, NASA launched a space telescope called “Kepler”.
Kepler’s main task is to search for terrestrial planets similar to the Earth within a certain range, and the search range is approximately within 3,000 light-years. Through hard searching, as of 2018, Kepler telescope has found 2,325 terrestrial planets in the universe, and more than 100 of these planets are similar to the Earth and are located in the habitable zone of its stars, which also means The probability of their existence is very high.
The existence of life does not mean that an intelligent civilization must be able to evolve. It still needs to meet certain conditions. For example, it must be in the habitable zone. Only terrestrial planets in the habitable zone can have a suitable temperature and a liquid state can exist on the surface. water.
Secondly, the size of the terrestrial planet should be moderate, not too small or too large. If the size is too small, it means that its magnetic field is very weak and cannot restrain the atmosphere needed for life evolution. If the planet is too large, it will become a gaseous planet like Jupiter. Although it has a very thick atmosphere, it also generates extremely high pressure, which is also not suitable for the continuous evolution of life.
Scientists’ most ideal terrestrial planets are naturally planets that are very close to the mass and volume of the earth. However, according to the current observation results, most of the planets discovered by mankind are much larger than the earth, and only the same as the earth. It accounts for a very small proportion. If the habitable zone is used to filter, the remaining planets will only account for less than 10% of the total.
Although this ratio looks very small, it is a very terrifying number when scaled up to the scale of the universe. The Kepler telescope has discovered more than 2,300 terrestrial planets within a limited range of 3,000 light-years from the Earth, and the Milky Way has a diameter of at least 100,000 light-years. The number of terrestrial planets in it is naturally very large.
According to current data deductions and calculations by scientists, the number of stars in the Milky Way is about 100-400 billion. And every star basically has a star system, and on average, every six planetary systems will have a rocky planet like the Earth in the habitable zone of the current star.
We then expand the scope to the observable universe of 93 billion light-years, and the number of rocky planets like the Earth is too large to be counted. On a premise based on dinosaur data, how high do you say the probability of an alien civilization exists? Most scientists believe that the probability of the existence of alien civilization is as high as almost 100%.
In fact, in the above analysis, we are only based on the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilization based on the Earth as a template. But let us not forget that the requirements of alien life on the environment are not necessarily the same as those of life on earth. The earth is like a planet, and intelligent life is born in the habitable zone.
So, in the universe, will there be cases where life is born and a smart civilization is evolved because it is not in the habitable zone and is still a gaseous planet? In the past, we thought that the possibility of such a situation was basically zero, but with the continuous improvement of human cognition of life, we understand that the tenacity and evolution of life are not as harsh as we imagined.
Life may be born under various environmental conditions, and the evolution of life seems to be an instinct. As long as the planet’s ecology is stable, no huge devastating disaster will occur. As long as the time is long enough, there is hope for life to evolve to an advanced stage, and finally intelligent life will appear.
If this special evolutionary situation is added, then the probability of the existence of alien civilization will undoubtedly increase a little bit. From this point of view, mankind’s future road to the stars and the sea will not be lonely. Perhaps when we leave the solar system and sail into interstellar space, we will be able to encounter other alien civilizations.
The existence of extraterrestrial civilization has advantages and disadvantages for human beings. The advantage is that civilizations can communicate with each other. Through exchanges and learning, the level of human civilization can be accelerated. The downside is that there may be a dark forest law in the universe, and it is still difficult to truly maintain a peaceful state between various countries on the earth, let alone between cosmic civilizations. You must know that different intelligent civilizations are completely two civilizations.
If mankind encounters a malicious civilization unfortunately, an interstellar war may break out. If mankind fails to resist and fails in the end, then what awaits us may be the end of the entire civilization.