'Looking over our shoulders': A killing looms large in a little B.C. town
Something shifted in the pretty little village of Lumby, B.C., after Tatjana Stefanski vanished.
Feeling like you are being watched? It could be from a lot farther away than you think.
Astronomers took a technique used to look for life on other planets and flipped it around -- so instead of looking to see what's out there, they tried to see what places could see us.
There's a lot.
Astronomers calculated that 1,715 stars in our galactic neighbourhood -- and hundreds of probable Earth-like planets circling those stars -- have had an unobstructed view of Earth during human civilization, according to a study Wednesday in the journal Nature.
"When I look up at the sky, it looks a little bit friendlier because it's like, maybe somebody is waving," said study lead author Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University.
Even though some experts, including the late Stephen Hawking, warn against reaching out to aliens because they could harm us, Kaltenegger said it doesn't matter. If those planets have advanced life, someone out there could conclude that there is life back here based on oxygen in our atmosphere, or by the radio waves from human sources that have swept over 75 of the closest stars on her list.
"Hiding is not really an option," she said.
One way humans look for potentially habitable planets is by watching them as they cross in front of the star they are orbiting, which dims the stars' light slightly. Kaltenegger and astrophysicist Jacqueline Faherty of the American Museum of Natural History used the European Space Agency's Gaia space telescope to turn that around, looking to see what star systems could watch Earth as it passes in front of the sun.
They looked at the 331,312 stars within 326 light-years of Earth. One light-year is 5.9 trillion miles. The angle to see Earth pass in front of the sun is so small that only the 1,715 could see Earth at some point in the last 5,000 years, including 313 that no longer can see us because we've moved out of view.
Another 319 stars will be able to see Earth in the next 5,000 years, including a few star systems where scientists have already spotted Earth-like planets, prime candidates for contact. That brings the total to more than 2,000 star systems with an Earth view.
The closest star on Kaltenegger's list is the red dwarf star Wolf 359, which is 7.9 light-years away. It's been able to see us since the disco era of the mid 1970s.
Carnegie Institution for Science planetary scientist Alan Boss, who wasn't part of the study, called it "provocative." He said in addition to viewing Earth moving in front of the star, space telescopes nearby could spot us even if the cosmic geometry is wrong: "So intelligent civilizations who build space telescopes could be studying us right now."
So why haven't we heard from them?
It takes a long time for messages and life to travel between stars and civilizations might not last long. So between those two it's enough to limit the chances for civilizations to exchange "emails and TikTok videos," Boss said in his own email. "So we should not expect aliens to show up anytime soon."
Or, Kaltenneger said, life in the cosmos, could just be rare.
What's exciting about the study is that it tells scientists "where to point our instruments," said outside astronomer Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute that searches for extraterrestrial intelligence. "You might know where to look for the aliens!"
------
Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears.
------
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
12:41ET 23-06-21
Something shifted in the pretty little village of Lumby, B.C., after Tatjana Stefanski vanished.
The Kentucky police officer who arrested top-ranked golfer Scottie Scheffler outside the PGA Championship is receiving “corrective action” for failing to have his body-worn camera activated.
A bipartisan group of 23 U.S. senators have written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urging his country to live up to its commitment to spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence amid concerns that key members of the NATO alliance are not pulling their weight.
Coined as Banff's 'ultimate summer job,' the Moraine Lake Bus Company says hundreds of people from across the world have applied for its adventurer position.
Get ready for what nearly all the experts think will be one of the busiest Atlantic hurricane seasons on record, thanks to unprecedented ocean heat and a brewing La Nina.
WestJet is asking the federal government to put measures in place to lower ticket costs for travellers, but questions remain on who would foot the bill.
A Toronto man who won $70 million in a recent Lotto Max draw literally fell off his chair when he saw the funds in his bank account – and the life-changing moment was caught on video.
Witnessing a potential tornado was 'surreal' for residents who caught a glimpse of the damaging storm in southern Ontario on Wednesday night.
Students at Curé-Antoine-Labelle High School near Montreal are protesting after they say their school's administration started pushing what they call a 'sexist' dress code.
When Jujhar Mann said he wanted to be a pastry chef on a grade school career project, he didn't imagine that pursuing his dream would land him on a popular Netflix baking competition.
A city known for its history, ties to outer space and southern barbecue, is also home to a Winnipeg chef dishing out dozens of perogies.
A Montreal photographer captured the moment a Canada goose defended itself from a fox at the Botanical Garden.
Public libraries in Atlantic Canada are now lending a broader range of items.
Flashes of purple darting across the sky mixed with the serenading sound of songs will be noticed more with spring in full force in Manitoba.
Catching 'em all with impressive speed, a 7-year-old boy from Windsor, Ont. who only started his competitive Pokémon journey seven months ago has already levelled up to compete at a world championship level.
A sanctuary dedicated to animals with disabilities is celebrating the third birthday of one of its most popular residents.
2b Theatre recently moved into the old Video Difference building, seeking to transform it into an artistic hub, meeting space, and temporary housing unit for visiting performers in Halifax.
A B.C. woman says her service dog pulled her from a lake moments before she had a seizure, saving her life.