Science Tidbits #7

[RJDiogenes]

In other news, The Webb has given us yet more tantalizing but unconfirmed evidence of life on another world.

[Lupine]

^I saw that on Facebook earlier. James Webb is really turning into a tease.

[RJDiogenes]

I've resigned myself to the fact that this is how it will always be-- tantalizing tidbits of evidence that always fall just short of being proof.

Unless today's asteroid sample return brings with it an extraterrestrial plague or the Monolith Monsters of Bennu or something-- that would be proof.

[Lupine]

And she's back.

[RJDiogenes]

Cameo by Brian May.

I wish they had better video of the thing actually landing, but everything went perfectly. I was watching later as they were bringing the capsule into the clean room, and I was thinking how amazing it must be to touch something that actually traveled halfway across the Solar System and back.

[Lupine]

Now we'll see if the Andromeda strain breaks out.

[RJDiogenes]

Brian May will save us!

[Lupine]

Meanwhile James Webb has made a JuMBO discovery.

[RJDiogenes]

Now that's pretty wild. Forty pairs? And if there's that many or more in one star-forming region, then it's almost certain to be very common. I wonder if it's a stage in the star formation process itself, where multiple gas giants accrete and then merge.

[Lupine]

^That's actually a very good thought. And it would make sense considering how planet formation is now thought to have occurred. Interesting to think that the sun might have been a planet at one time.

[RJDiogenes]

It would be so cool to go back and see what's happening at all the different stages.

[scottydog]

If we ever encounter intelligent alien life forms, would we be able to talk to them?

[Lupine]

^We currently have trouble understanding other species on our own planet. Alien languages would be that times 10. Adding to the problem is that their communications might not even involve sound, but be visual (like cephalopods), scent (like many members of carnivora), or even taste (like ants).

[RJDiogenes]

On the positive side, we should have much in common with an intelligent technological species-- and they would no doubt have put as much thought and planning into communicating with aliens as we have. Theoretically, they could even have prior experience.

[scottydog]

^We currently have trouble understanding other species on our own planet. Alien languages would be that times 10. Adding to the problem is that their communications might not even involve sound, but be visual (like cephalopods), scent (like many members of carnivora), or even taste (like ants).

I agree. We have no idea what to expect if and when we attempt to communicate with aliens. It's probably beyond our imagination.

On the positive side, we should have much in common with an intelligent technological species-- and they would no doubt have put as much thought and planning into communicating with aliens as we have. Theoretically, they could even have prior experience.

That's true. And consider this.