SAS Lecture: Are we Alone...


Washington Wetlands Centre (Discovery Room)

About this event :

Whether humanity is alone in the universe is currently unknown, though many scientists consider it statistically unlikely given the trillions of galaxies, stars, and planets in the cosmos.

While no definitive evidence of extra-terrestrial life has been discovered, ongoing searches are focused on finding habitable exoplanets, atmospheric biosignatures, and potential techno signatures.

Key Perspectives and Scientific Context:

  • Vast Potential for Life: With over 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, many hosting planets, the sheer number of possible environments for life makes total isolation improbable.
  • The Fermi Paradox: This paradox highlights the contradiction between the high probability of extra-terrestrial life and the complete lack of evidence (or contact).
  • Ongoing Exploration: Projects, such as SETI, or the  UCLA SETI team, utilize advanced telescopes to scan for radio signals. Astronomers are also using the James Webb Space Telescope to study the atmospheres of exoplanets for signs of life.
  • Unknown Odds: Despite the high probability, the precise conditions required for life to arise remain unknown, and Earth could be a unique anomaly.
    The search continues, and finding life—even microbial—would fundamentally change our understanding of the universe.

Talks in Person

David Ettie will be delivering the SAS talk in person at the Washington Wetlands Centre (Discovery Room).

The talk will also be broadcast via MS Teams (providing there are no technical and/or WIFI difficulties)

Please show you support to our speaker and your Society if you can on the night.

Hopefully, we’ll see you all at the Washington Wetlands Centre (Discovery Room) , a Raffle & Refreshments as usual.

If you haven’t been in a while why not come along and show your support.

Teams Access

We now have MS Teams (this replaces Zoom) for live video streaming of the our monthly talks.
Please try to attend in person if you can as it goes along way in showing you support for our speaker and our Society.
 
Our Committee member David Ettie one of our Teams admin/leads will assist regarding administration and set up of our Teams Pro account.
 
If you don’t already have it we suggest you download the MS Teams app prior to the meeting.
Microsoft Teams Need help?
Meeting ID: 367 367 744 468 93
Passcode: YP3Z3bt3
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When Where Who

  • Date:      Sunday 15th February 2026,
  • Time:      7 pm.
  • Speaker: David Ettie (SAS Committee Member).
  • Venue:    At the Washington Wetlands Centre (Discovery Room ) and Via Teams (Video Streaming Link).

Our speaker

  • Our speaker is David Ettie is a prominent/active committee member of our society and an experienced astronomer / astrophotographer of the SAS with interests in Astronomy Outreach, Visual Observing and Astrophotography. 
 

Your host : Martin Kennedy