Page 19 - 200901 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - January 2009

150 Years of Looking for ET 19 150 Years of Looking for ET 19 Attempts to contact Attempts to contact aliens date back 150 aliens date back 150 years years Galileo, Kepler and others Galileo, Kepler and others considered the inhabitability considered the inhabitability of the planets of the planets By Michael Schirber By Michael Schirber The desire to contact intelligent life on other planets is much older than the UFO craze and the SETI movement. Several 19th century scientists contemplated how we might communicate with possible Martians and Venusians. These early proposals - which predate by 150 years the first extraterrestrial message that was sent in 1974 - were based on visual signals, as the invention of radio was still decades away. In fact, as history shows, ideas for interplanetary communication have largely been driven by whatever the current technology allowed - be it lamps, radios or lasers. "You go with what you know," said Steven Dick, NASA Chief Historian. Over two thousand years ago, the ancient Greeks argued over the existence of life interpreted as an intentional construction," Two of radio's pioneers showed interest on other planets, but the idea really took off Raulin-Cerceau wrote. in interplanetary radio communication. In 1901, after the Copernican revolution. Twenty years later, the astronomer Nikola Tesla reported receiving a strange signal, "Once it was realized that all the planets Joseph von Littrow came up with a similar idea possibly from Mars, on his giant transmitting go around the sun, it was not hard to imagine to pour kerosene into a 30-kilometer-wide tower in Colorado Springs. Nineteen years later, that the other planets could be like Earth," Dick circular canal that would be lit at night to signal Guglielmo Marconi told reporters about his said. our presence. detection of radio emissions that appeared to Galileo, Kepler and others considered The second half of the 19th century saw come from outer space. the inhabitability of the planets, while being more realistic proposals, according to Raulin- However, the switch to radio-based careful not to upset Church authority. Cerceau. SETI did not happen immediately. "The idea blossomed in the 17th century In 1869, the French inventor and poet As late as the 1920s, many people into the 'plurality of worlds' debate, but it Charles Cros imagined using a parabolic mirror (including Albert Einstein) still considered remained controversial," said Dick, who has to focus the light from electric lamps towards visual-based communication more practical, written several books on the topic. Mars or Venus. He figured the light could be since radio transmitters were not yet capable of One of the most influential proponents flashed on and off to encode a message. focusing a beam on a distant planet. for extraterrestrial life was Bernard le Bovier de "Cros granted that the planets could be What's more, scientists gradually Fontenelle, who wrote Conversations on the inhabited by beings not able to respond, but he became convinced that Mars did not have the Plurality of Worlds in 1686. was still persuaded that 'the eternal isolation of right conditions to support life, so any presumed Despite the interest, there was no the spheres [will be] vanquished,'" wrote extraterrestrials likely lived much, much further recorded discussion of how we might locate or Raulin-Cerceau. away. contact these potential aliens until more than a A light-based "Morse code" was also "It seemed hopeless to receive messages century later. considered by the British statistician Francis from other stellar systems, so people said Crop triangles and burning canals Galton in 1896. He took care not to assume that 'Forget it.'" Shostak explained. [] Florence Raulin-Cerceau of the Alexandre Martians would have our same base-10 Koyre Center in Paris has documented the early counting system, as they probably wouldn't attempts at communication with extraterrestrial have 10 fingers. intelligence (CETI), or what is now often called Around the same time, A. Mercier, a active SETI. member of the Astronomical Society of France, "As early as the 19th century, inventors devised a plan to place several reflectors on the imagined "sky telegraph" equipment to Eiffel Tower that could direct sunlight towards communicate with the supposed inhabitants of Mars. He also considered using the moon as a the solar system's planets," Raulin-Cerceau giant screen on which to project light beams. recently wrote with her colleague in the French Could aliens have seen any of these light magazine Pour la Science. displays? The first of these inventors was Carl "It depends on how much money you Friedrich Gauss, the German mathematician. In think the Martians are spending on their the 1820s, he spoke of reflecting sunlight telescopes," said Seth Shostak of the SETI towards the planets with his land surveying Institute. invention, the heliotrope. He is also credited It is now generally assumed that radio is with the idea of cutting a giant triangle in the a more suitable means of extraterrestrial Siberian forest and planting wheat inside. communication. Radio waves are less affected "The size and color contrast should have by cosmic dust than visible light, and there is made the object visible from the moon or Mars, less of a radio background to deal with in the and the geometric figure could only be sky.