Infrared Radiation Case Study

1. Why do astronomers think that there may be other advanced civilizations?

Astronomers think there may be other advanced civilizations because the universe is billions of years old. There are many other planets out there like Earth that are sustainable for life, even if we have not yet found those planets. They reason that of all the planets and galaxies there is great possibility of life, due to the length of time that the universe has existed and expansive array hospitable planets.

2. What technologies are astronomers using to look for life on other planets? Why?

The technologies that astronomers are using to look for life on other planets include laser beams. Astronomers are using lasers because the pure colors, which are single frequencies of light, are unlikely to be produced by any natural process. This means that if astronomers are able to pick up laser beams

There are many difficulties in detecting a Dyson sphere, the first being that a heat telescope must be sent into space to do any searching. Infrared radiation, which is what a Dyson sphere would give off, doesn’t penetrate Earth’s atmosphere very well, plus the Earth itself gives off a lot of infrared radiation. To detect infrared radiation one must move out of and away from the Earth. Another thing that would make this difficult is that, once you have a telescope in space, you have to figure out what you are looking for. No one knows exactly what a Dyson sphere would look like, so they must go off their expectations of one. While looking for a Dyson sphere, an astronomer must also be aware that some red areas that look as though they could be a Dyson sphere are stars and other expanse red infrared radiation may just be dust from stars. To find a Dyson sphere an astronomer must make sure that the area they are studying does not have dust around it or an obvious score of infrared