From: Kenneth Hurst (k_hurst18@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed Feb 13 2002 - 11:30:27 MST
Mike Lorrey wrote:
> This is directed primarily at our resident dust bunny, Amara Graps, but
> anyone is free to comment, of course.
>
> Question: Given that Hubble can view the dust disks around other star
> systems, and do spectral analyses of same, would it be possible to
> detect alien technological civilizations by differences in natural and
> artificially produced space dust in such star systems? If someone in
> another star system looked at our solar system with their own Hubble
> type telescope, could they detect our presence by human produced space
> dust?
Sorry, I'm not Amara Graps, but I hope I will suffice. That sounds like an
interesting theory, but I have a few questions. Is there even enough
artificial space dust for anyone to detect? I know that planets are
determined to exist in a solar system, not because we can view them
directly, but because they exert a detectable gravitational force on their
sun. If we cannot even see a planet directly, how would we detect space
dust? I am not by any means an expert on the subject, so if I am incorrect
in my assumptions here, please correct me.
Did anyone else have trouble accessing the link provided by Sean Williams? I
encountered an error.
On a side note, Googlewhacking is surprisingly fun.
Kenneth Hurst
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