If Fergus Simpson’s aliens are real, we’re too scared to want to meet them because the University of Barcelona cosmologist thinks they’d be enormous, weighing about 300kg. As if extraterrestrials weren’t being spooky enough, beaming up humans to their spaceships, making eerie crop circles, sending baffling radio signals through space and all that.
In a paper titled ‘The Nature of Inhabited Planets And Their Inhabitants’, Simpson explains that Earth is not a fair sample for inhabited planets since we have more smaller creatures than larger ones. This apparently conflicts with his mathematical model (backing the study) which gives all indications of other planets conserving energy just like ours.
We may be making a big mistake when we paint Earth as a simple random sample of an inhabited planet. It’s like picking an individual’s country as a sample for others when the population and resources are far from similar in all nations. Part of Simpson’s theory implies that most inhabited planets are most likely to be the size of Mars rather than the one we live on.
Increasing body mass is studied to encourage a decline in population density. Just ask the dinosaurs, if you have any doubts about this. Going by such logic which is obviously based mankind’s limited knowledge of aliens, most intelligent species will supposedly exceed 300kg. Also, where there are primitive lifeforms, advanced life is likely to follow if space permits.
Also see: Alien radio signals from space intrigue scientists
Simpson’s research is not solely limited to the goal of finding intelligent and complex lifeforms out there. It may also be of use when searching for a habitable atmosphere in planets outside our solar system. The summary of the paper is available through this link, though we’re pretty certain you may find it vague and far-fetched, to say the least.
Well, if aliens are as huge Simpson reckons they are, then let’s hope they’re friendly at least.