Europe's New ET Life Search Programme

hotsauce writes "The Guardian has a report on Europe's ambitious new programme to search for extra terrestial life. ESA has started a program called Cosmic Visions which will launch a series of satelites, starting with Gaia in 2011, and possibly culminating with the Exo-Earth Imager, a mission consisting of 10.000 3-metre mirror telescopes. The French are leading the charge with Corot in 2008."

Comments

New processing algorithms

[2.7182]

I've heard about new algorithms that are going into effect at the Aricibo telescope that use wavelets to get much better results. Apparently a lot of old data is going to be re analyzed.

Re:New processing algorithms

[Feminist-Mom]

That's true - Coifman from the Yale math dept. that has a company that is doing this. But it hasn't hit the popular press yet. Among the mathematicians it is controversial whether it will work.

Re:New processing algorithms

[Anonymous Coward]

We have a range of computational tools available for signal detection, from ones that have very fast algorithms but suboptimal detection to those that perform optimal detection. Currently, SETI uses fast algorithms. Adapted Waveform Analysis is a tradeoff somewhere between those two. They will have to demonstrate that it's a good tradeoff, however.

10.000 in European = 10,000 in the U.S.

[benhocking]

For those who didn't know.

Re:Whats with the EU using '.' instead of ','

[ZigMonty]

Because in the EU they use ',' as the decimal separator?

10,434.39 becomes 10.434,39

Re:Whats with the EU using '.' instead of ','

[__aagctu1952]

OK people, why does the EU use '.' as the thousandth's place separater instead of ','? It's really stupid. How can you tell if 10.000 is 10,000 or ten point zero zero zero?? It's totally ambiguous! Oh sure, the CONTEXT, right, because scientists and engineers love figuring out the order of magnitude of a number based on it's context.

First, as I really really hope you are aware, Europe is not a single hegemonous country, and neither is the EU (despite their attempts to make it so). Thus, customs will differ between countries.

Second, how is "." for decimal places and "," for separators any less ambiguous?
(if you must know, I prefer no separators myself)

On topic: kudos to ESA! Although I severely doubt that we'll find any ETs, projects like these almost always get a lot of beneficial scientific data as a bonus... and if not, you at least get a few pretty pictures out of it ;-)

Re:Trying to contact ET

[magarity]

a problem is that lasers are so rediculously focused

At point of sending, yes, lasers are very focused. However they spread very widely over interstellar distances. Still, from a conservation of energy point of view a laser is much more efficient than blasting radio in all direction.

But I think it depends on the nature of the communiction. If alien civilization #1 at star A already knows #2 is located at star B then laser is absolutely the way to go. Radio is more of a shout in the dark method. Whether you believe there are wolves or other travellers in the dark depends on whether you shout.

More cover-up, waste of money...

[eclectic4]

See this. If "over 400 government, military, and intelligence community witnesses testifying to their direct, personal, first hand experience with UFOs, ETs, ET technology" isn't good enough for you, then start here to research our gov's own documents, and then go here and dismiss these reports with "swamp gas" or "venus" or "a flock of birds". And lastly, read "UFOs and the National Security State", one of the very best and most referenced book on the subject using our own gov's documents once again.

This "we may contact other intelligent creatures someday" is a complete and utter farce.