Originally Posted by TelevisionUser:
“Tbh, there's no real point in trying to contact any planets outside a 40 light year radius from Earth because of the huge time delay. The thing to do is look for Earth-like planets that have an atmospheric composition that indicates the presence of life and direct the signals there.
Thing is, that's still no guarantee that a civilisation has got around to evolving on that particular planet and the only potential message recipients might still just be billions of bacteria who are in no position to reply.”
40 light years. Just think, if any of those planets have a civilisation that is super advanced with amazing telescopic capabilities to view earth from 40 light years, then they are right now looking at us and seeing Mrs Thatcher becoming leader of the Tory Party this week, Kenneth Kendall is reading the news, only 3 channels on TV, Gary Glitter, Stuart Hall, Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris are the biggest names on TV and pop music, and Sir Patrick's The Sky At Night is about to come of age soon with it's 18th birthday edition.
Do you reckon they would still want to say hello?
I make 40 light years - 234 trillion 627 billion 840 million miles away. Anyone agree with my maths?
Written - 234,627,840,000,000 miles.
AU
(Astronomical Units) - 2,522,880 Earth to Sun distances.
So if the distance between the Earth and the Sun was scaled down to just a tiny 1mm, then a planet 40 light years away would infact at that scale be 2.5529 kilometres away, or almost 1.6 miles away!
If Earth to Sun were just a mere 1 metre, then to scale that 40 light year planet would be in or around Moscow!