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ET Will Phone Home Using Neutrinos, Not Photons

Posted by timothy on from the speak-and-spell-is-cross-particle-compatible dept.

KentuckyFC writes "Neutrinos are better than photons for communicating across the galaxy. That's the conclusion of a group of US astronomers who say that the galaxy is filled with photons that make communications channels noisy whereas neutrino comms would be relatively noise free. Photons are also easily scattered and the centre of the galaxy blocks them entirely. That means any civilisation advanced enough to have started to colonise the galaxy would have to rely on neutrino communications. And the astronomers reckon that the next generation of neutrino detectors should be sensitive enough to pick up ET's chatter."

18 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. Imagine the first alien message! by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Funny

    We'll learn precisely what kind of chemical product aliens use to enlarge their penis.

  2. Civil rights of aliens by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can I assume they'll need galactic warrants for these cosmic wiretaps?

    --
    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
    1. Re:Civil rights of aliens by grantek · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Of course, ET'll be using transport-layer encryption we've never seen, so it'll just look like random noise and we'll dismiss aliens again :)

    2. Re:Civil rights of aliens by veganboyjosh · · Score: 5, Funny

      Thank you, Frank Shoemaker!

  3. Neutrino@Home by Metorical · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does this mean I have to leave my computer on running Neutrino@Home listening for Extra Terrestrials while destroying my home planet?

  4. Still bound by the speed of light by Lord+Byron+II · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Any civilization that wants to communicate across the galaxy is going to use something (and I don't know what that something would be) other than a particle that can't travel faster than light. The Milky Way is about 100,000ly across, so the ping times from one side to the other would be 200,000 years - try playing Intergalactic Counter Strike over that.

    Neutrinos might be good for short distances (100ly), but then, you're less likely to encounter interference sources. Since photons are easier to emit and detect, they are the more likely choice.

    In summary: photons for short distances, since interference isn't a factor and nothing for long distances since lag time makes meaningful communication impossible.

    1. Re:Still bound by the speed of light by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The Milky Way is about 100,000ly across, so the ping times from one side to the other would be 200,000 years - try playing Intergalactic Counter Strike over that. You're assuming a being that senses time as we do. An alien creature might live for millions of years and generate the simplest thought in years. two hundred thousand years might be a blink, for them.

      The time from big bang to big crunch might be a "day" for them. Our entire civilization would be like a lightning flash. They'd consider carbon based civilizations as random events that cover entire galaxies in an instant and then fade to void by the next.

      If that's the case, I don't think we'd be much interested in their messages, though.
    2. Re:Still bound by the speed of light by sysusr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The time from big bang to big crunch might be a "day" for them. Our entire civilization would be like a lightning flash. Are you suggesting some sort of hyper-slow motion state (metabolism, perception etc)? If so, that would be an extreme natural disadvantage. They wouldn't even be able to keep up with the geological events on their home planet, let alone adapt to predators.

      Such a species cannot survive. Even a lack of natural predators wouldn't help: geologically active planets would take care of them.

      "Nature always finds a way."
      --
      \x72\x6D\x20\x2D\x72\x66
    3. Re:Still bound by the speed of light by Thanshin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Such a species cannot survive. Even a lack of natural predators wouldn't help: geologically active planets would take care of them. Such a species could be "big" enough as to not be affected by such measly matters.

      Such a species might live and sense the universe in several more dimensions than us. A single galaxy in a single three dimensional volume might be the smallest of it's body "cells".

      Planetary geological activity would bother them about as much as quark behavior bothers us. i.e.: They'd need much advancement to even be able to detect it.
    4. Re:Still bound by the speed of light by sm62704 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Such a species cannot survive

      Not if they're made of meat.

      --
      mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
    5. Re:Still bound by the speed of light by LWATCDR · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It does seem unlikely but an extremely long lived life form would tend to see time differently.
      Think of your own life. When you are 10 the idea of working on one project for a year seems like forever. Heck you can not even stand ten minutes of down time. It seems sooo long to you.
      By the time your 40 a year seems like a short amount of time and five minutes is a blink of an eye.
      If you where a 1000 years old and where going to live for another 50,000 years waiting 200 years for a reply wouldn't seem so bad.
      Even waiting a thousand years for data to come back from a probe is very doable.
      But no I do not think you can have ultra turtles.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  5. What about those from the sun? by molo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I thought there were billions of neutrinos coming from the Sun every second. Wouldn't that provide a lot of noise to drown out your signal?

    -molo

    --
    Using your sig line to advertise for friends is lame.
    1. Re:What about those from the sun? by MobyDisk · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There's also billions of photons coming out of the Sun every second. Yet we still use light to communicate.

  6. So, to find any aliens on Earth... by Hankapobe · · Score: 5, Funny

    all we would have to do is see who's buying a lot of dry cleaning fluid?

  7. TFA is wrong by soulsteal · · Score: 5, Funny

    Everyone knows ET used trees, the wind, some string, a coat hangar, a record player and a speak'n'spell to communicate.

    Duh.

  8. Speed of Light != Useless by LakeSolon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are alot of posts saying "Well it's still not faster than the speed of light, so it's still useless for a pan-galactic civilization".

    If your two options are: A) communicate at the speed of light, or B) don't communicate...

    I think it's reasonable to assume you'd find some communication, no matter how slow, useful.

    We've gotten so accustomed to (what is to our senses) instantaneous communication it's easy to forget that empires existed across much of our globe when the fastest method of communication was a sailing ship.

    We've seen our 'world' shrink a great deal in the past few hundred years. Is it so hard to imagine it growing again?

    1. Re:Speed of Light != Useless by Creepy+Crawler · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Back in the Roman Empire days, they could communicate with Rome using towers built on each others horizon. They then used light codes (similar to morse) to then relay information back to the Caesar.

      They had it down to 18 hrs from Great Britan... I think that's damned impressive.

      --
  9. Re:Encryption? by utnapistim · · Score: 4, Funny

    Do you think that ET will be using encryption? Yes, but it wouldn't help: we have a Mac.
    --
    Tie two birds together: although they have four wings, they cannot fly. (The blind man)