We know through modern revelation that there are other inhabited planets. Have you ever thought about how exciting it would be to visit other worlds? Even the thought of communicating with other worlds is fascinating. We could ask them what diseases they have cured and what technologies they have developed. We could also ask them about their belief in deity and whether they have heard of the Atonement. It would be exciting to compare notes.

Chances are that such communication will never take place because of the vast distances separating us from exosolar planets (planets outside our solar system). Until we discover Star Trek Warp Core technology that enables us to propel humans at speeds exceeding the speed of light (something that is theoretically impossible according to Relativity), back and forth visitations are improbable. And until we develop a faster than light form of communication, active 2-way interstellar communication is also improbable. Other worlds are just too far away.

The Lord positioned his populated worlds far apart for a wise purpose. Can you imagine how disruptive it would be to the Lord’s plan if we contacted other telestial, mortal worlds like ours? They might tell us that their prophets are saying that the Son of God was crucified on another world. We might reply, “Yes. That happened here 2000 years ago!”

Or what might happen if we contacted a post-judgment telestialized or terrestialized world? They might say something like: “You guys better keep the commandments or you will end up where we are.” I am not even going to speculate on contacting a celestialized world because I don’t think it is possible. Imagine if we tried to reach a celestialized planet by space travel. Our spaceships would burn up on approach because it could not withstand the glory of a celestialized world. And if we tried to communicate with them they would know it beforehand and jam our incoming transmissions.  

Ok, I am having fun with this, but the point is that the Lord doesn’t want us to know much about His other worlds right now. When the Lord showed Moses this earth, Moses asked the Lord to tell him things “concerning this earth, and the inhabitants thereof.” The Lord agreed. Then the Lord showed Moses other worlds which He had created. Moses got a little greedy and asked the Lord to tell him things concerning other worlds in “the heavens, and then thy servant will be content.” The Lord replied with a gentle rebuke: “Moses, my son, I will [only] speak unto thee concerning this earth upon which thou standest.” In His infinite wisdom the Lord withheld information about other worlds.

Our knowledge about other worlds will likely be limited while in mortality. I am fine with that. When the Lord returns He will reveal mysteries in the heavens and earth. I can wait. Until then we will have to rely on our limited scientific knowledge and imagination.
 
 
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For several years the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program has scanned the skies listening for messages from other planets. So far we have not made contact with beings from other worlds, but we know they are there. The Lord created worlds without number with the purpose of bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. It seems that in His wisdom he has spaced them far apart to prevent one world from meddling in the progress of another. 

Even if science confirmed the existence of intelligent life on other planets, the distances between us would preclude visits and active two-way communication. Still, it would be nice to hear from another world, to confirm scientifically that we are not alone. Many scientists agree and that is why some are taking a proactive approach to confirming intelligent life on other worlds. 

Enter the Cosmic Call project. The Cosmic Call is a 400,000 bits long message that has been transmitted to solar systems with suns similar to our own. The first transmission went out ten years ago to stars in the Summer Cross, visible in the Northern Hemisphere. 

Astronomers “fired” the message with a 70m (230 ft) Ukrainian antenna equipped with a 150 kW transmitter broadcasting at 5 GHz (6 cm). Any civilization within 100 light-years with access to a radio-telescope covering an area up to one squared-kilometer will be able to receive the message. Sounds exciting, eh?

What makes the Cosmic Call project even more exciting is that a few years after the first Call was first fired in 1999, astronomers discovered that a targeted star systems called HD190360 (located at right ascension 20h 03m 37s and declination 29h 53m 48) harbors two planets. 

Planet HD190360A is somewhat similar to our own earth. It is slightly larger (1.5 times the mass of the earth) and substantially further from its sun than our earth (3.92 Astronomical Units [earth is 1 AU]). The other planet, HD190360B is smaller than our earth (.057 times smaller) and closer to its sun (0.128 AU).

While it seems like planet A is too far from its sun to harbor life (like Mars), and planet B is too close to its sun to harbor life (like Mercury), perhaps there is an undiscovered planet C somewhere in the middle that is roughly the same size and distance as our earth. If a habitable planet exists then my guess is that it is a telestial world going through the same stages of mortality as our world. 

Wouldn’t it be cool to make contact with them, or them with us? Well, HD190360 is 58.1 light years distance from our earth, so a radio message (which travels much slower than the speed of light) is going to take a long time to reach its destination. 

There is one other issue to be concerned about. If they receive the Cosmic Call, are they going to understand it? You decide. Here is the message, created by Canadian physicists Dutil and Dumas.
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According to experts, the Cosmic Call “has been designed using some of the principles of interstellar communication proposed in the early works of Hans Freudenthal,Frank Drake and Carl Sagan. Mathematics and physics have been used to define the message, so that it will be clear and based on universal concepts.  For example, the hydrogen atom [was] used to describe quantities such as mass, electric charge and length. To these basic ideas were added simple notions of astronomy, biology, geography and cosmology. Easier concepts and ideas are at the beginning while the more elaborate ones appear at the end of the message. Any true communication is not complete without an answer. Therefore, the last page of the message invites anyone who reads it to reply, sending information about themselves.” 
(Source: http://www.matessa.org/~mike/dd-pr.html)

Personally I think the Call looks like text from a "buggy", old fashioned, dot matrix printer, but who knows? It might make sense to someone at HD190360. If it does and they send a reply, we won't be around to receive it (we're talking really bad snail mail, friends).

The star map at the top shows where to find HD190360 in the constellation Cygnus (aka “Summer Cross”).
 
 
We live in a universe. The “uni” in universe refers to one, meaning there is one universe. Universe has been one of those enduring concepts of science that has remained unchanged for many years. Well, as is the case with most other seemingly infallible scientific theories, Newtonian mechanics and luminiferous ether come to mind, new evidence is challenging this age-old theory.

Recent evidence suggests that there may be multiple universes. Scientists are suggesting that we may live in a “multiverse” instead of a “universe”. A multiverse can be conceptualized as a compilation of soap bubbles, each containing a separate realm or universe. Particularly intriguing is the idea that some of these multiverses are parallel universes.

Parallel universe was developed by Hugh Everett in the early 1950s. Hugh Everett theorized parallel universes to explain uncanny outcomes in quantum experiments (I won’t go into the details of those results here). Parallel universes are branch-offs from other universes. Many are like our universe with a few important exceptions. For example, in a parallel universe there may be someone exactly like you, but a “you” who won 32 million in the Powerball Lottery. Another might be a universe where the Axis won WWII, where Lee Harvey Oswald’s shot missed President Kennedy, where Elvis Presley stayed thin and lived to a ripe old age, and where a lightning strike missed the inorganic soup in the primordial earth and thus mankind did not evolve (hm?). Anyway, If such places exist, they would be just as real and tangible as the universe in which we live.

I can accept the idea of multiverses, but have a difficult time with the notion of parallel universes. When viewed from the perspective of the grand master plan called the Plan of Salvation, I just don’t see how there can be a seemingly infinite number of people just like me who are living alternative realities based on different outcomes to events in my lifetime. However there is a sense of parallel universe or alternate realities in the Doctrine and Covenants. It is the Manifesto on polygamy by Wilford Woodruff in Official Declaration I.

The Lord showed President Woodruff what would happen if the Church did not stop polygamy. He wrote:

The Lord showed me by vision and revelation exactly what would take place if we did not stop this practice. If we had not stopped it, you would have had no use for . . . any of the men in this temple at Logan; for all ordinances would be stopped throughout the land of Zion. Confusion would reign throughout Israel, and many men would be made prisoners. This trouble would have come upon the whole Church, and we should have been compelled to stop the practice.

This revelation is astounding! The Lord did not suggest what might come to pass. The Lord did not show Woodruff what might happen. The Lord showed him exactly what would happen if polygamy did not stop. It is almost as if the Lord was giving President Woodruff a glimpse into a parallel universe where polygamy did not end. Could such a place really exist?
 
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