The burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) promoted humanity to the industrial revolution, remakeing civilization in its path. Gasoline drives many of the cars we handle; Coal and natural gas are fundamental to global energy. But if the aliens were building their own society, would they have to follow the same path as humanity, depending on fossil fuels to build their advanced civilization? Or could they find an alternative?
To build a modern civilization, foreigners would probably need to use an energy source that is as abundant as fossil fuels, he said Lewis DartnellAn astrobiologist and author of “Knowledge: how to rebuild our world from scratch“(Penguin Press, 2014). It would be difficult for them to simply avoid the production of fossil fuels, he said.
Dartnell drew a parallel with humans: in the 18th century, the world entered the industrial revolution by taking advantage of what seemed to be an unlimited source of energy. Coal burned more and produced more power than wood and coal.
“Before that, energy was the fundamental limitation about how much it could do,” he said. “I would limit how much you could extract and move things, what you could build and what you could do.”
The question of whether humans could have overlooked fossil fuels to achieve alternative energy sources is “something like a Chicken and egg dilemma“Dartnell told Live Science. For example, the production of solar panels requires siliconand extract and refine this element requires a significant amount of energy.
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The easiest way for smart foreigners to believe fuel would be to start burning things, as humans did, until they can move to other energy sources. Perhaps they could take advantage of the light of a star or the kinetic energy of the wind. But wind energy alone would not create the high temperatures necessary for the casting, falsification and launch of metals, which would be necessary for industrialization, Dartnell said.
Meanwhile, hydroelectric energy would only work if the planet had significant amounts of accessible fluid, that most of the planets we have found do not possess, added. Seth ShostakAstronomer and director of the Search of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute.
Could other planets have fossil fuels?
However, scientists have not yet found a planet with abundant oxygen in their atmosphere Amounts of traces have been found In Mars, Venus and Jupiter’s Moon Europe. Oxygen is the key ingredient in burning fossil fuels because it allows combustion, which is what releases the energy stored in coal, oil and gas.
Fossil fuels are created from life: they are the transformed remains of plants and animals that lived hundreds of millions of years. Dartnell suggested that Plate tectonics They are a crucial part of the puzzle of how these life forms arose. “There are good reasons to suspect that to have an intelligent life on a planet similar to Earth, You need to have plaque tectonics To regulate the weather for long periods of time, “he said.
A 2022 study By researchers at the University of Sydney they reported how the tectonic plates of the Earth move carbon between the deep Earth and the surface, forming what they call a “carbon conveyor belt.” This process is key to maintaining the climate of “gold rich” of the earth, which makes the planet habitable, according to the study. In addition, plaque tectonics also results in a continental drift and the creation of conditions that produce large amounts of coal, a fossil fuel, he added.
In other words, plaque tectonics can help pave the way for life and create conditions to help you become fossil fuels; You can also create ideal conditions for life that can become intelligent enough to take advantage of those fuels.
“In a sense, you get a two by one,” Dartnell said. “If you have a planet with active tectonic, which regulates the weather, which allows the evolution of intelligent complex life.”
Scientists have However, to find another planet with active plaque tectonics. Nor have they found fossil fuels in space. What they have However, the evidence of the chemical construction blocks of fossil fuels is discovered: hydrogen and carbon. Approximately 75% of the mass of the universe It is composed of hydrogen, said Shostak. In addition, scientists have found a field of Liquid hydrocarbons in the titan of the Moon of Saturn. Smart aliens could, hypothetically, try to burn these elements to produce energy.
A human point of view
Of course, foreigners are not necessarily obliged by the same limitations as humans, and our imagination often limits us to thinking in terms of a human timeline. “It is difficult for us to predict what aliens could do,” Shostak told Live Science. It’s like asking Julio César what the Romans I would do it with oil in 2025, when they were only Use of small amounts of lamp oil. “Julius would probably have some ideas, all based on Roman knowledge,” he said. “He would completely miss the [mark]. You have to take that into account. “
An intelligent alien civilization could be nothing like what we expect, Shostak added. While foreigners would probably need an abundant source of energy to advance in their civilization, who can say what way that energy would take? The answer could be beyond human understanding.
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