I've been reading lately about the newly discovered potentially life bearing planet, name escapes me but I'm sure everybody knows of it, and it got me to wondering, if such a planet were life bearing, how could we tell?
So, hypothetically, let's say there was an exact duplicate of Earth, at what distance would we be able to detect beings like us upon it?
For example, lights. From orbit at night the dark side of the Earth lights up, but how far away is that visible? From orbit it's all visible, but how about further away?
Also what about radio signals and such like? Futurama references notwithstanding, are we emitting anything that could be detected? Could Earth detect waves from a similar world? And if so over what kind of distance?
I'm a firm believer in bug eyed monsters, little green men and all that kind of thing, because the scale of the universe and robustness of life mean it's pretty much a given that somewhere there's got to be at least some squishy single cell alien life charging around. But I do wonder how, if ever, it could be found. I mean interstellar travel isn't really on the cards but it'd be nice to be able to see what's up elsewhere.
So, hypothetically, let's say there was an exact duplicate of Earth, at what distance would we be able to detect beings like us upon it?
For example, lights. From orbit at night the dark side of the Earth lights up, but how far away is that visible? From orbit it's all visible, but how about further away?
Also what about radio signals and such like? Futurama references notwithstanding, are we emitting anything that could be detected? Could Earth detect waves from a similar world? And if so over what kind of distance?
I'm a firm believer in bug eyed monsters, little green men and all that kind of thing, because the scale of the universe and robustness of life mean it's pretty much a given that somewhere there's got to be at least some squishy single cell alien life charging around. But I do wonder how, if ever, it could be found. I mean interstellar travel isn't really on the cards but it'd be nice to be able to see what's up elsewhere.