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At ~500 light years away, even if we did see lights, who would we be communicating with _now_? And would it be disappointing if we saw a technologically-similar
by themartorana 10y ago
At ~500 light years away, even if we did see lights, who would we be communicating with _now_? And would it be disappointing if we saw a technologically-similar civilization that hadn't contacted us yet, being 500 years ahead of us?
Sometimes it's romantic to look up at stars that probably died a long time ago. Sometimes I hate that we can't see what's happening now.
- karmelapple 10y agoWhere does the 500 light years number come from? Alpha Centauri is only 4.4 light years away from Earth.
- ogrisel 10y agoThis discovery is about Proxima Centauri which is slightly closer: 4.25 ly.
- bengarvey 10y agoIt's only 4.25 light years away https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri
- verandaguy 10y agoWhy are people in this thread constantly citing 500 light-years? Proxima Centauri's 4 ly away, which, granted, isn't a walk in the park, but it's remarkably near to us.
- civilian 10y agoWhy would a civilization be exactly 500 years ahead of us? While evolution is a powerful trend, I think there's so much randomness about... when their planet cooled off enough (and had enough alkaline vents) to support abiogenesis, when bacteria form eukaryotes, when eukaryotes become multi-cellular, when life moves out of the oceans, when plant-like organisms start producing fruit leading to animals that take advantage of the high-energy food source and are able to develop smart brains--- all of these events could happen +/- a million years from eachother. And that's assuming that their evolution of life followed a similar path! So worrying about a race having 500 years on us is just... a worry based on so many wrong assumptions.