Getting in Touch with Aliens by Stephen Hawking
Born in Oxford, England, Stephen Hawking was a theoretical physicist. He completed his study of physics at University College, Oxford and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was diagnosed shortly after his twenty first birthday as suffering from an incurable degenerative neuromuscular disease. He continued to work in spite of the disease’s disabling effects. His contributions to physics helped him gain many honors. His work was basically in the field of general relativity and specially on the physics of black holes.
His publications are ‘The Large Scale Structure of Space – Time (1973, coauthored with GFR Ellis) Superspace and Supergravity (1981), The Very Early Universe (1983), and A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes (1988), The Universe in a Nutshell (2001), A Briefer History of Time (2005), etc.
Summary
In ‘Getting in Touch with Aliens’, Hawking analyzes the possibility of getting in touch with extraterrestrial beings. As a scientist, he rejects some possibilities and suggests that only radio waves might lead human beings to get in touch with aliens.
The distances between the stars are great, so we can’t sure that a face to face encounter will take place. However, we might still be able to talk. This could happen by radio as radio waves can move through empty spaces between the stars.
Almost 50 years ago, some scientists discovered that interstellar conversation wouldn’t require any super advanced technology. It’s possible with the type of radio equipment. The scientists realized that it would be logical idea to turn the big antennae to the skies to see conversational signals.
This great alien experiment called SETI, has so far failed to find a signal. SETI experiments are look like looking for buried treasures without a map. Luckily, new radio telescopes are speeding up our search for signals. It’s possible that within a few dozen years we could hear a faint broadcast from another world.
According to Hawking, the extraterrestrials will send us a long message and speedy conversation is impossible. The message might take one thousand year to reach the earth. Though the massages are old, they are interesting like the writings of Sophocles or Shakespeare.
Hawking questions if we will able to read the Alien Encyclopedia as its language is not English or other earthly languages. He imagines that extraterrestrial may use image and our mathematicians help to make their messages understandable.
No matter what they send us, radio wave coming from another world will be a big news. Someday it will be possible that we may receive the interesting message sent by extraterrestrial as our modern science has progressed a lot. Today’s young people may be those who will listen to them.
Extraterrestrials- living beings existing in the other and unknown planets
Interstellar- existing or occurring between stars
Eavesdropping – great, unknown
Stupendously- amazingly
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