Space oddity: Is humanity ready for extraterrestrials? It’s time to prepare.
Prof Tim Murithi (University of the Free State, South Africa) poses the question as to whether humanity is ready to meet extraterrestrials, in a recent article for the Daily Maverick.
With academia now being more open to such a line of enquiry, he feels the time has come to prepare to meet ET, because evidence is mounting that we are not alone.
E.T. signal from Proxima Centauri? A conversation with Breakthrough Initiatives' Pete Worden
A mysterious radio signal, dubbed "BLC1", appeared to originate from the vicinity of Proxima Centauri in December 2020. Space.com interviews Breakthrough Initiatives executive director Peter Worden about this and more generally, the search for alien "technosignatures”. Also: the protocols for announcing an ET detection and the latest about the prospects for life on Venus.
Breakthrough Listen is now in the process of bringing online the South African MeerKAT radio telescope for additional observations in their projects.
https://www.space.com/proxima-centauri-signal-breakthrough-listen-pete-worden-interview
New course on Xenology available
As of January 2021, a new course is available: Introduction to Xenology.
An introductory video is available below:
For more information, visit http://learn.exopoliticssouthafrica.org/Introduction-to-Xenology.html
Please note that this is an advanced course that is only open to students who have successfully comleted Exo101.
New website with info on courses
If you are interested in courses on Exopolitics, we have combined all the information in one new website that will answer most - if not all - of your questions.
You can find it at http://learn.exopoliticssouthafrica.org
Check it out!
SETI astronomer bets you a cup of coffee that we find aliens by 2036
SETI astronomer Seth Shostak is betting a cup of coffee that aliens will be found by 2036. By 2036 Shostak hopes that computers would have increased in speed and efficiency enough to have looked at about a million star systems. It’s his gut that says “a million is the right number to find something”.
Seth Shostak should not forget the role of The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) with its Cradle of Life project which will be “greatly expanding on the capabilities of projects like SETI” in all of this.
https://www.thedebrief.org/seti-astronomer-bets-you-a-cup-of-coffee-that-we-find-aliens-by-2036/
Life on Venus? Astronomers See a Signal in Its Clouds
Scientists announced today that they have detected traces of a biosignature gas, phosphine, in the atmosphere of Venus. It is not clear yet whether the phosphine is created by some form of life (present on Venus right now) or whether some chemical process is responsible for the gas.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/14/science/venus-life-clouds.html
Unprecedented Public Report on UFOs Requested From United States Senate Intel Committee
UFOs are on the agenda in the United States in a bid for greater public transparency.
To achieve this, members of the US Senate “are looking to order the Director of National Intelligence to work with other relevant agencies to produce a report detailing just what information they have on UAPs already, how that data is collected and processed, how it is getting shared and just what kind of threats or other risks these objects might pose.”
Lester Kiewit from CapeTalk Tonight interviews Evan Robinson and John Kosmetos (Founders of Cape Town UFO Meetup)
UFO disclosure, all too often ridiculed in the past, is rapidly becoming a mainstream topic as it begins to gain official recognition.
Listen to Evan Robinson and John Kosmetos discuss the Pentagon’s official release of “declassified” UFO videos.
https://omny.fm/shows/capetalk-evenings/pentagon-officially-releases-declassified-ufo-vide
Inside the Pentagon's Secret UFO Program
Will the US Government be able to effectively keep their finger in the dyke of “Disclosure” of an Extraterrestrial presence engaging humanity for much longer?
In this article by Tim McMillan, the US Government’s secret involvement in UFO research is revealed in a timeline of events from UFO research cover-ups, to 2017’s partial Disclosure (the start of a “ufological renaissance” of sorts) to the backtracking and contradictory statements by Pentagon spokespeople and the eventual closed-door senate meetings on UFOs:
A bit of history of NASA’s Deep Space Network 51 (a Space Tracking and Data Acquisition Network) at Hartebeesthoek, South Africa 1961
The Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO), located near Johannesburg, was originally a tracking station for NASA’s interplanetary probes. Its main involvement was tracking and imaging in support of lunar missions.
The very first image of a planet other than Earth (taken of Mars by Mariner 4 in 1965) was received in South Africa at Hartebeesthoek.
http://www.hartrao.ac.za/other/dss51/dss51.html
http://www.hartrao.ac.za/other/dss51/missions.html
NASA's Planet-Hunting Probe Joins the Search for Intelligent Aliens
NASA Scientists have joined forces with the Breakthrough Listen project in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
NASA brings to the table their newest planet hunting probe TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) as well as the powerful James Webb Space Telescope scheduled to launch in 2021, which should be able to probe the atmospheres of multiple TESS-discovered planets for biosignature gases.
Breakthrough Listen will be looking for "technosignatures" (indicators of advanced alien civilizations) scanning promising worlds with a range of instruments, including South Africa’s very own MeerKat radio array.
https://www.space.com/breakthrough-listen-nasa-tess-seti-search.html
Free E-book: our ancestors from the stars.
South African contactee June Rye wrote a book about Our Ancestors from the Stars.
She graciously made a copy available to the readers of the Exopollitics South Africa website.
You can download or read it here.
4000 Exoplanets
4,000 Exoplanets…and counting.
With the first exoplanet only recorded in 1992, the last decade has seen an exponential increase in the discovery of exoplanets. With, amongst other things, dedicated space missions and specially designed telescopes, the possibility of finding a planet that harbours life is increasing rapidly.
NASA has now shared an incredible video showing when and where in the night sky all the known exoplanets have been discovered:
The Search for Habitable Alien Worlds in Earth's Backyard Heats Up
In the search for habitable exoplanets, considerable attention is being focussed on our neighbouring star system, Alpha Centauri. A new planet-hunting instrument called NEAR (Near Earths in the Alpha Cen Region) has been installed on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, in the hope of finding a large habitable planet orbiting Alpha Cen A or B.
"NEAR is the first and (currently) only project that could directly image a habitable exoplanet," Breakthrough Watch lead scientist Olivier Guyon said in a statement. "It marks an important milestone."
Richard Dolan Analyzes the Admiral Wilson Notes
UFO LEAK OF THE CENTURY. Richard Dolan Analyzes the Admiral Wilson Notes.
Clouds for some Earth-sized TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets
In summary, the author of the article linked below writes:
TRAPPIST-1 is one of the most intriguing exoplanetary systems known.
Scientists are getting closer to finding out what conditions are like on the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets.
A new study suggests that at least some of the TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets likely have hazy or cloudy atmospheres, and at least one may have a clear hydrogen atmosphere.
Finding out what kind of atmospheres these worlds have, can help scientists understand whether any of them could possibly support life [as we know it].
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