Slashdot Mirror
SETI Project Scientist Discusses Prospects
An anonymous reader writes "Today Astrobiology Magazine interviewed SETI@home Project Scientist, Dan Wertheimer, about subjects including the first detailed 'best of SETI' candidate reobservations for repeating telescope acquisition on the most promising 166 star candidates. Their policy is not to release precise sky coordinates on the best ones yet (so far a signal called SHGb11+15a), with this type of Gaussian signal shape. The candidates number some 400 million Gaussians and 5.7 billion spikes."
but I, for one, welcome our new radio communicating alien overlords.
I'd love to give it a go with my very own personal radio telescope (dish.jpg). Sure it'd be hard to point, and maybe not possible to receive anything at all, but I'd like to try :-)
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
Because the networks haven't been putting out anything but complete and utter crap. Maybe some alien crap will be better.
It'll probably turn out to be an alien goatse when they finally get it decoded.
damn, i didn't think clearchannel had THAT much influence
Forget it. They're laughing at us. We're trying to find transmissions based on how we'd transmit data now. We're looking for smoke signals from civilizations that use Wavelet enncoded HDTV. We're trying to find cizilizations similar to our own; intellegent species have probably advanced way beyond some local interplanetary WIFI model. They're probably chuckling at our feeble attempts right now. Chuckling in their own vieny large headed kind of way. Puny humans.
Why, of course we'll decode it. Then, we'll find the instructions to build a capsule of some sort. Well, of course all the governments will go bankrupt (or very close) building it for it to get sabotaged by some idiot. Then, an odd and insanely rich person will decide to build one in secret so that they can carry out the test... wait.. I think I've seen this all somewhere before...
bork bork bork!
After we get signal, you ask?
Main screen turn on, of course.
I have been pwned because my
What will be the next step after we detect a signal?
/. them into oblivion!
Clearly, we will
The study also mentioned that they processed the radiotelescope signal to extract the audio component. Listen to SHGb11+15a.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price? That's what I would say! :)
Gorkman
XJS*C4JDBQADN1.NSBN3*2IDNEN*GTUBE-STANDARD-ANTI-U
> If Aliens were trying to communicate with use why wouldn't they use radio/tv signals that would get out attention.
Well, that would explain Ally McBeal.
Kent: "So, professor, would you say it's time for everyone to panic?"
Prof: "Yes, I would, Kent."
Nothing in these stories specify why they're not releasing the co-ordinates yet, and I thought Slashdot readers might be particularly interested in this.
I work at a computer lab which is used by a branch of a certain space agency (not NASA, but they have similar policies) and we process a lot of data for these folks (It's a bit like SETI@Home, but we get what are called the 'higher level' packets, given only to accredited packets of ramen.)
When you're dealing with signals from large distances (over a few thousand miles) you need a lot of gain on your aerial to get a strong signal. This is why they use giant dishes at places like Aribico, because the largeness of dish allows the signal to be taken and magnified when it gets here, so you get a clearer signal from a noisy signal (for the non scientific people here.. it's like how in CSI they can zoom in a noisy picture and 'clean it up' or look round corners and stuff).
Well, this high gain aerial 'sucks up' (again, non science speak) a lot of the signal. This means if they gave out the co-ordinates everyone would try to listen in to the stuff coming from that area, and diminish all of the signal so that SETI couldn't pick up anything even on their big aerials. It's kinda like how if a radio station has more listeners, they have to turn the signal up.. but we can't tell the aliens to do that!
The same thing happens with light, but to a lesser extent. Theoretically if you had a million people looking at a single LED, the light would be so spread out that it would appear to go off. This is why, as children, we're told not to look at the sun, because if we all did that, we would be plunged into darkness.
Anyway, I hope that cleared it all up.
mogorific carpentry experiments
"Their policy is not to release precise sky coordinates on the best ones yet (so far a signal called SHGb11+15a), with this type of Gaussian signal shape." Guess they're afriad of someone /.'ing the coorodinates?
Yes, we are laughing...
I mean, it's like asking if Jesus comes back will he prefer Linux or BSD. The significance of the event so far outweighs the debate that the debate is rendered meaningless.
;)
Well, as long as he does not prefer Windows - I tend to agree.
Well duh, blow it up of course.
And if he does we can always just have him nailed to a cross or something...
I'm just kidding! We're talking about Linux users here, not a bunch of zealo...oh, wait...
do not read this line twice.
You say that now, but wait until SCO claims prior art on anal probing.
I got a question for you.. nothing that disses your faith, just something i wanted to know.
why (do you think) god is so active in the bible but he hasn't done anything in the past mmmmmmm 1000+ years? i'm talking big events. like the 40 year flood, the destruction of 2 cities, the 7 plauges, the whole jesus thing.. is seems (to me) like we're either doing something right and he is leaving us alone because of it or he stoped caring..
Yeah, I want my computer analyzing proteins, which will then be used by large drug companies to make expensive drugs that I will end up paying huge amounts of money for when I need them in my dotage, with the only known side effects being impontency and the random growth of extra limbs.
Great.
We already know that what the mainstream music industry (at least, here in the US) is putting is crap.
Do we really need to launch a satellite to figure that out?
Message repeats.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
We'll get a "cease and desist" letter from some inter-gallactic lawyer citing the DMCA.
$0.02 (CDN)
I still strongly think that we should maybe just 'shut up' instead of sending signals all over the place and trying to contact another planet.
/.. The aliens will be pissed off if they get a couple million 'grow your penis' messages.
One of these days a civilization will catch one, spot us and they will destroy us just because we could later hurt them if we continue to develop and spread.
Damn we are sending signals since the 30s and even if they are weak, they must be quite far now.
I'm fine with listening but I wouldn't send high power messages like we are doing.
Remember about that guy that used to send his spam in deep space ? It was covered by
Iraq: war to save the U
That is about the same energy as exploding 175 tons of TNT per pea.
Hmmm, reminds me of the morning after a night out on the town.
I mean come on, folks. Jesus uses a Mac. It's obvious. And any other view is heresy. Can I get an Amen?
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
Or it could be that there are no aliens in the universe because God didn't create them. In fact, if He had created them, it would have said so in the Bible.
There are no penguins, because God didn't create them. If He had, it would have said so in the Bible.
Therefore Linux is a tool of the Devil!