An unpardonable character of aliens is that they are spotted usually in white nations. It could be a prejudice influenced by an intergalactic understanding of the balance of power on this blue speck that floats somewhere in the outer reaches of a whirlpool galaxy that God is flushing right now, at the time of writing. After all, a simple interception of the most profitable films on Earth will suggest that no alien invasion is complete until the mayor of New York holds a press conference. Or more probably, alien sightings are the hallucinations of people with social security numbers who crave for fantastic mysteries because food comes easily to them. Whatever be the truth, ‘We are not alone’ is essentially a western anthem. But increasingly, Indians are joining this poignant quest that will one day change our philosophies, religions and the Miss Universe contest. Among these countrymen are respected scientists. But there are also endearing characters who are trying to prove that Ramayana’s battles, with flying machines and all that, were actually misunderstood records of alien contact. “And Ravana was an aeronautical engineer who learnt the technology from aliens,” according to a former professor of Indian Institute of Science.
The Balloon Over Hyderabad
There is a discomforting flaw in man’s many searches for life elsewhere. A space rover somewhere in Mars is searching for water. Telescopes on Earth are trying to spot long organic molecules in distant galaxies. Or they are waiting for a radio signal to arrive. Why does mankind presume that technology is a universal aspiration? Why must life elsewhere be organic? And dependent on water? There are Tamilians who can live without water. Some aliens, in all certainty, may not need it all. It is clear that man is not searching for aliens. Man is searching for man. It’s poignant. But what if, in the first place, all of humanity is extraterrestrial?
Jayant Narlikar, a much admired astrophysicist, was at the helm of a team that launched two balloons from a Hyderabad launch facility, to an altitude of about 42 km. The idea was to see if there are microbes at that height. The balloon’s altitude has a significance. Volcanic ash and factory pollutants that may carry microbes up into the atmosphere do not rise beyond 25 km. So the presence of microbes at the height of 42 km will suggest that they were not going up, they were coming down. From space. This is at the heart of what is called the Cosmic Ancestry Theory that says eternal spores carrying genetic material travel through the vastness of space for millions of years riding on orphaned comets. They are dormant agents of destiny that fall on different worlds. In some propitious circumstances, like on Earth, the life encoded inside the spores emerges. In time, species evolve. If this is true, we were all birthed somewhere far away, in what we call deep space and not in the primeval oceans of Earth.
The first balloon was launched over five years ago. The second went up a year back. These were huge astronomical balloons, 170 meters long. The balloons carried sterilised samplers that captured atmospheric air. “The results of the second experiment are awaited,” Narlikar says. Samples are being studied in India right now and the conclusions are expected by the end of this year. The first experiment yielded curious results. The Cardiff Lab in England had studied one set of samples and an Indian lab another. “I was not part of the first launch but I am given to understand that the Cardiff Lab said that it saw something. The Indian lab did not,” says RK Manchanda from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who was associated with the second experiment.
Red rain over Kerala
In 2001, between July and September, central Kerala experienced something very strange. There were sporadic red rains. Godfrey Louis, a physicist from Mahatma Gandhi University, has been studying the samples. His conclusions are disturbing. He has found biological cells that multiply at a temperature of 300ยบ C, unprecedented on Earth. More curious is his claim that these cells do not have DNA. Never has a self replicating cell been discovered on Earth that does not have a DNA molecule.
“My hypothesis is that a comet, about 10-20 meters in width, weighing 50 tonnes disintegrated in the atmosphere. Remnant particles floated for days between 20 to 40 km above Earth, moving 500 meters per day in a downward travel.” And when they merged with the rain clouds, it poured red over Kerala. The research into red rain has fetched Louis international attention. One of the most famous proponents of the Cosmic Ancestry theory, Chandra Wickramasinghe, paid him a visit. The Cardiff Lab is studying the red rain samples, easing the burden of Louis who dipping into his modest resources for the research.
The signal will come
For many years, huge radio telescopes have gaped at the sky waiting for a radio wave signal from a civilisation which will be inclined to do that. One such telescope is the Arecibo in Puerto Rico which mails observational data by post to the University of California, Berkeley. A software created by the university studies this data which are millions of shuddering computer graphs that represent radio signals. The software tries to find anomalies in the graphs, a steep rise for instance that will represent a radio signal that is not caused by a heavenly body.
The software needs considerable space to scan all the data and that is made possible by what is called a distributed computing project which invites any PC user with a net connection anywhere in the world to lend his disc space. The volunteer downloads the software and it runs on his machine, as it does on over five million computers in the world, making it the largest computation in the history of mankind, according to the Guinness World Records. Hundreds of Indians are involved in this, from a boy aged eight to scores of men in their fifties. (Girls, it seems, seldom search for intelligent life). These participants do not need any computer expertise. They merely lend their computer time for the great cause.
India too has impressive radio telescopes, like the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescopes, an array of white monsters that stand one after the other in the middle of sheer desolation, near Pune. By studying the faint signals from the sky, they piece together a bold understanding of distant bodies. “But they do not search for ET,” says Govind Swarup, sometimes known as the father of radio astronomy in India. “I have tried to infuse the excitement of SETI in India. Met people. Tried to convince them. Gave lectures to students but it seems, in our country, even young people want to do what they think is serious science.”
Indra was an alien
The incurable tendency of many Indians to believe that this is a special land, once home to great cerebral advances, has also spawned a research into alien landings here during the vedic period. Such research is usually an interpretation of mythologies. Referring to flying machines and weapons in Mahabharata and Ramayana, a Sanskrit scholar announced some years ago, “These were space vehicles similar to the flying saucers.” Even a former professor of aeronautics from the Indian Institute of Science says after promised anonymity, “A reason why we were so superior in the olden days may have been because of a technology transfer from aliens. Our gods may have originally been representations of extraterrestrial visitors.”
It is possible that aliens, not Bangladeshis but proper extraterrestrials still visit the great country. And probably sweeten the Arabian Sea.
The Balloon Over Hyderabad
There is a discomforting flaw in man’s many searches for life elsewhere. A space rover somewhere in Mars is searching for water. Telescopes on Earth are trying to spot long organic molecules in distant galaxies. Or they are waiting for a radio signal to arrive. Why does mankind presume that technology is a universal aspiration? Why must life elsewhere be organic? And dependent on water? There are Tamilians who can live without water. Some aliens, in all certainty, may not need it all. It is clear that man is not searching for aliens. Man is searching for man. It’s poignant. But what if, in the first place, all of humanity is extraterrestrial?
Jayant Narlikar, a much admired astrophysicist, was at the helm of a team that launched two balloons from a Hyderabad launch facility, to an altitude of about 42 km. The idea was to see if there are microbes at that height. The balloon’s altitude has a significance. Volcanic ash and factory pollutants that may carry microbes up into the atmosphere do not rise beyond 25 km. So the presence of microbes at the height of 42 km will suggest that they were not going up, they were coming down. From space. This is at the heart of what is called the Cosmic Ancestry Theory that says eternal spores carrying genetic material travel through the vastness of space for millions of years riding on orphaned comets. They are dormant agents of destiny that fall on different worlds. In some propitious circumstances, like on Earth, the life encoded inside the spores emerges. In time, species evolve. If this is true, we were all birthed somewhere far away, in what we call deep space and not in the primeval oceans of Earth.
The first balloon was launched over five years ago. The second went up a year back. These were huge astronomical balloons, 170 meters long. The balloons carried sterilised samplers that captured atmospheric air. “The results of the second experiment are awaited,” Narlikar says. Samples are being studied in India right now and the conclusions are expected by the end of this year. The first experiment yielded curious results. The Cardiff Lab in England had studied one set of samples and an Indian lab another. “I was not part of the first launch but I am given to understand that the Cardiff Lab said that it saw something. The Indian lab did not,” says RK Manchanda from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, who was associated with the second experiment.
Red rain over Kerala
In 2001, between July and September, central Kerala experienced something very strange. There were sporadic red rains. Godfrey Louis, a physicist from Mahatma Gandhi University, has been studying the samples. His conclusions are disturbing. He has found biological cells that multiply at a temperature of 300ยบ C, unprecedented on Earth. More curious is his claim that these cells do not have DNA. Never has a self replicating cell been discovered on Earth that does not have a DNA molecule.
“My hypothesis is that a comet, about 10-20 meters in width, weighing 50 tonnes disintegrated in the atmosphere. Remnant particles floated for days between 20 to 40 km above Earth, moving 500 meters per day in a downward travel.” And when they merged with the rain clouds, it poured red over Kerala. The research into red rain has fetched Louis international attention. One of the most famous proponents of the Cosmic Ancestry theory, Chandra Wickramasinghe, paid him a visit. The Cardiff Lab is studying the red rain samples, easing the burden of Louis who dipping into his modest resources for the research.
The signal will come
For many years, huge radio telescopes have gaped at the sky waiting for a radio wave signal from a civilisation which will be inclined to do that. One such telescope is the Arecibo in Puerto Rico which mails observational data by post to the University of California, Berkeley. A software created by the university studies this data which are millions of shuddering computer graphs that represent radio signals. The software tries to find anomalies in the graphs, a steep rise for instance that will represent a radio signal that is not caused by a heavenly body.
The software needs considerable space to scan all the data and that is made possible by what is called a distributed computing project which invites any PC user with a net connection anywhere in the world to lend his disc space. The volunteer downloads the software and it runs on his machine, as it does on over five million computers in the world, making it the largest computation in the history of mankind, according to the Guinness World Records. Hundreds of Indians are involved in this, from a boy aged eight to scores of men in their fifties. (Girls, it seems, seldom search for intelligent life). These participants do not need any computer expertise. They merely lend their computer time for the great cause.
India too has impressive radio telescopes, like the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescopes, an array of white monsters that stand one after the other in the middle of sheer desolation, near Pune. By studying the faint signals from the sky, they piece together a bold understanding of distant bodies. “But they do not search for ET,” says Govind Swarup, sometimes known as the father of radio astronomy in India. “I have tried to infuse the excitement of SETI in India. Met people. Tried to convince them. Gave lectures to students but it seems, in our country, even young people want to do what they think is serious science.”
Indra was an alien
The incurable tendency of many Indians to believe that this is a special land, once home to great cerebral advances, has also spawned a research into alien landings here during the vedic period. Such research is usually an interpretation of mythologies. Referring to flying machines and weapons in Mahabharata and Ramayana, a Sanskrit scholar announced some years ago, “These were space vehicles similar to the flying saucers.” Even a former professor of aeronautics from the Indian Institute of Science says after promised anonymity, “A reason why we were so superior in the olden days may have been because of a technology transfer from aliens. Our gods may have originally been representations of extraterrestrial visitors.”
It is possible that aliens, not Bangladeshis but proper extraterrestrials still visit the great country. And probably sweeten the Arabian Sea.
No comments:
Post a Comment