Rally & Jeff, the information in those links were awesome, thanks for posting.
Quote from The Australian...
In any case, it's highly unlikely we'll ever have a face-to-face meeting, as space travel even at Star Trek's warp drive wouldn't get us there in less than thousands of years. A two-way conversation would take decades. And even for that to happen, says de Horta, we would need intelligent life to be reaching its technological prime at the same time as ours and transmitting radio waves at a wavelength that we can detect.
"The whole argument about communication hinges on the longevity of a species and their use of a technology that is recognisable to us," he says.
Makes you wonder what kind of a planet Earth will be like by the time we receive a signal (if we ever do). Makes me really appreciate the distances involved. Well, I think I can go to bed tonight feeling safe and sound knowing a UFO isn't going to kidnap me for surgery.
Oh boy, I can see Gliese 581g take on a whole new wave of attention, bet the ufologists will be telling us they believe to have seen space ships buzzing around the area.
What I don't understand is, I thought there had to be a lot weight to this sort of stuff before confirmation through press releases.
Or do I take it that the media have just run off with it...
