
Lesson 3: In the late 70s humankind sent two space probes on what would become an interstellar journey. It proposed an interstellar ship that could use atomic energy from explosions to get through space.īut the treaty between the US and the Soviet Union that prohibited nuclear weapons being detonated in space forever sealed its terrible fate. But our planet’s political system makes it a fat chance. Life on Jupiter, for example, might end up being some balloon-shaped organisms that make food with some sort of photosynthesis.Īlthough, is it even possible for us to make physical contact with these aliens? Theoretically, it might be a possibility. It’s only logical, then, that extraterrestrials will look pretty strange to us. How many different types of living creatures can you think of? There are a lot, and this is all the result of a slow and random process that is a result of the earth’s unique conditions. What would these lifeforms even look like though? Chances are they’d be quite different from us. The likely message they would send is something like a set of prime numbers because it would succinctly and clearly communicate intention and intelligence. The reason for this is because this technology is quick, low-cost, and simple. The reality is radio waves are the most likely way that extraterrestrial life will first connect with us. After all, we all wonder if we are really alone in the universe, don’t we?
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The movie Contact might only be really good science fiction. Lesson 2: UFO’s are probably not how aliens would make first contact with us. He also stumbled upon Newton’s theory of gravity half a century early, even if he did first call it magnetism. Kepler, for example, was the first to suggest that planets orbits around the sun were elliptical and not circular. Later, scientists like Kepler and Brahe would further develop our understanding of the heavens. This way of thinking persisted for centuries until Copernicus posited that planets revolve around the sun instead. Ptolemy used this fact to theorize that the Earth was the center and everything revolved around it. Even the planets move in a cool figure-eight shape called an analemma. We can predict the movements and places of almost all celestial bodies with increasing accuracy. They could also determine when to pick fruits or know migration times of buffalo by where the stars were.

Even early nomadic peoples used the stars to set the time for annual gatherings. But it wasn’t always this way.įrom the beginning, we’ve been fascinated with the heavens, trying to figure them out.
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If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.ĭownload PDF Lesson 1: We learn our place in the universe from the heavens, which make us constantly curious.Īre those little dots we see in the sky at night the kings of the past, or burning balls of gas millions of miles away? Today we know more about the universe than we ever have.


The cosmos is constantly calling us to explore and teaches us about our place in the universe.Here are the 3 most mind-expanding lessons I got out of this book:

Although this one isn’t science fiction, it’s got some incredible facts that will fill you with curiosity about outer space. It was with the same wonder I had for space when I saw this movie that made me pick up Sagan’s Cosmos. Contact was the name of the movie and Carl Sagan wrote the book it was based on. The signal gives a blueprint for a machine that can allow humanity to teleport and meet aliens across space. At one point, after a lot of waiting, something finally comes through on their giant radio telescopes. It was about a woman who was researching messages from outer space in an effort to communicate with extraterrestrial life. When I was young I saw a movie that would forever change the way I saw outer space. Listen to the audio of this summary with a free reading.fm account*:
