I sometimes wonder what the first thing an extraterrestrial civilization would want to tell us in their interstellar transmission.
I doubt the greeting would be "live long as prosper"; the mantra of Star Trek's Mr. Spock.
What do aliens think we'd be interested in hearing about? It may be something as abstruse as: "show me your equation of state and I'll show you mine."
What?
The equation of state is the measure of the stability of dark energy. Discovered in 1996 and predicted decades earlier by Albert Einstein, this repulsive form of gravity appears to spread uniformly throughout space. If dark energy is unstable, it could eventually tear apart the universe or cause it to implode.
Dark energy packs a repulsive "push" into every cubic yard of space. Gravity and radiation dilute as the universe expands. But current measurement suggest that dark energy remains a constant force.
Why would extraterrestrials think we'd be interested in their value for dark energy?
For one simply reason: Inquiring minds across the galaxy must be asking: "why me, why now?"
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