Could Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope detect alien life?

I've insulted you ? How so ?

Are you ignorant ? Absolutely, and not only do you admit it, you're proud of it.

I'm also not sure how you can say I've been defensive. I've provided a couple of ways to fix the location of the probe and you've completely ignored that, which supports my view that you're wilfully ignoring and dismissing information that runs counter to your views.

Once again, if someone posts something that you find difficult to counter, you prefer to run away instead of engaging.

 

Noted.

 

I'm quaking in my boots Ko-ko

 

Well for a start you claimed that the universe could not be billions of miles across. You ran away when I introduced the accurate prediction of the orbit of Halley's comet that is founded on the orbit being billions of miles across. ie we know when it will be passing Earth next time

 

It wasn't meant to be threatening I assure you.

Prove me wrong and I'll listen to you. Until then stop with the 'running away' jibes!

 

It's difficult to prove something to someone when they won't say what they will accept as proof and/or they simply handwave away anything that disagrees with their opinions.

 

I just showed you to be wrong! The predictions of Halley'c comet would have been wrong if the orbit was not the calculated orbit being billions of miles across. How simple do you want it?

The next "visit" from the comet is July 2061. It's orbital period is 75 years. The last visits were in 1910 and 1986 which were also accurately predicted. The orbital period was calculated by Edmund Hailey in 1705. Do you think that he was working for NASA at the time?

And just for you, the orbit of Halley's comet has to be the calculated "billions of miles across" for predictions to be accurate

 

Taking you at your word, I accept that as being tangible proof by the predictability of it. I still think it isn't possible for humans to conceptualize 'billions' of miles though.

 

I agree. I'm glad that you have accepted the billions of miles across. This billions of miles is just to the orbit of Neptune, ie within our solar system. Granted it is impossible for humans to conceptualize this distance but it is of the same level as to conceptualize the distance to the nearest star being 25,130,000,000,000 miles

 

Purely out of (and I hesitate to use the next word? LOL) curiosity can you tell me how that distance was measured so accurately please?

 

And here we get back to the root of the problem with every discussion you enter into - you insist that if you can't (or more accurately won't) understand something then nobody can. An impossibly narrow universe. Most people with a functional intelligence can grasp the idea that there are many concepts beyond their ability to understand and many people who can grasp those concepts. Then there are those too arrogant or ignorant (or both) to grasp that idea.

Fortunately our progress as a species is led by people who can grasp difficult concepts, rather than bounded by people who refuse to accept that this is possible. Were that not the case we'd still be sitting in caves painting on walls because the one person who believed stones could be built into walls and roofs put on top of them was cast out by people who couldn't understand the idea of construction.

 

No one said it was accurate, a giveaway is the number of zeros in the distance given. But it will be accurate to, say, 10%. Just a few days ago you said that you did not believe that the whole universe could be billions of miles across and I've just shown you that just our solar system is billions of miles across

 

The speed at which light travels in space has been accurately and completely accepted. This can be and is used as a measurement tool for exceedingly large distances, such as the distance of solar radiation (sunlight) getting to earth which is about 8 minutes. This radiation comes in many forms from visible light and infrared to radio and xray. By utilizing the multiple forms it is possible to guage distances to objects that emit them.
This may also help:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_distance_ladder

 

Yes, I noticed the nice round figure; why not add a few extra zeros to make it even more impressive. There are just a few things that mankind is destined never to know the answers to, and the universe is one of them. All we can do is to speculate, and that's only if one has nothing better or more interesting to think about? So my scepticism is extant, and please don't bother trying any more to convert or educate me.

 

There's a difference between precision and accuracy.

If you ask me what the top speed of my Jaguar XJ-S was when it was new, I could say "around 140 mph" which is accurate, but not precise or 112.294877468291 mph which is precise but not accurate.

In the case of the distance between the Earth and the nearest star, there are a number of reasons why it is better to quote an answer to only a few significant figures:

• The Earth revolves around the sun with an orbital diameter of around 180,000,000 miles. Any answer which is accurate all year round cannot be any more precise than that
• The Sun and Alpha Proxima are in motion with respect to each other. Any answer needs to take that motion into account
• There's a limit to the precision with which the distance measurements are made. If the distance is found using parallax then there's a limit to the accuracy of the measurement of the angles

Bearing that in mind, it makes sense for the answer given to be as imprecise as it is.

In any case you'd have found a more precise answer at least as suspicious.

That's your opinion and it's flat out wrong, or more specifically while there will be doubtless many things about the universe which will always be mysteries to us, something as mundane as the distance to the nearest star isn't one of them.

Like I keep saying, you're proud of your ignorance and run away from anything that impinges on or intrudes into your feedback loop.

 

Because that might work on a homework assignment but we are talking scientists here. Thier work has to be published. To be published it has to go through peer review. And even then it is not the final review because once it is published anyone can challenge it

 

You might be, but I'm talking charlatans.

 

Soooooo where do we find those charlatans??

 

You forget, I've done some of this for real. I've made these kinds of observations, I've calculated how far away something is based on observations.

Except you don't really run away. You just use it as a way to ignore inconvenient facts and then, slink back into the thread as if nothing had happened.

 

Tonight Toronto, tomorrow Montreal

http://www.thecharlatans.net/

 

The fact that cosmology and physics are questioned with such relentless cynicism while total charlatanerie in other fields is routinely taken at face value is baffling.

 

The only thing you've 'done for real' is to offer statistics and theoretical presumptions; but the fact of the matter is that so far as the practicalities are concerned, you know no more than I do. To put this to bed (hopefully, so that I can go to more real-world topics) . . . if I declare that I'm leaving a thread then I don't expect to get any further questioning posts; but if I get an alert, I will always reply, albeit reluctantly. I don't see it as 'slinking back into the thread', I see it as basic good manners. I suggest that since there will obviously be no meeting of minds here, we just accept that we're mentally incompatible and call it a day?

 

Rubbish. I've pointed telescopes at things and used the results of the pointing telescopes at things to calculate how far away they are. If you consider that "theoretical presumptions" then you have to disregard the work of 18th and 19th century cartographers as well.

Nope, in this case I have actually, practically done it.

You don't get to close down a discussion because you're not comfortable about your preconceptions being challenged.

 

It is nothing to do with speculation, it's measured but as usual you run away. No doubt you are a flat Earther and believe Earth to be the centre of the universe as you display all the signs.

 

My gut feeling Squire, gut feeling - never known it to fail me.