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SETI@home Science :
Can our TV signals be picked up on other planets?
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AndyW Send message Joined: 23 Oct 02 Posts: 5862 Credit: 10,957,677 RAC: 18 |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7544915.stm Interesting article on the BBC website.
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1202 Program Alarm Send message Joined: 16 Jun 99 Posts: 239 Credit: 19,164,944 RAC: 38 |
There was a guy on a chat show here in the UK just now saying that sending this signal is a bad idea because the aliens might come and get us... :-s Metal Detecting |
Taurus Send message Joined: 3 Sep 07 Posts: 324 Credit: 114,815 RAC: 0 |
There was a guy on a chat show here in the UK just now saying that sending this signal is a bad idea because the aliens might come and get us... :-s They wouldn't need our radio signals to know that we exist when they could use fairly simple planet detection technology analogous to what we have now to not only detect the existence of our world but also the fact that there is life here. Anyway, never really understood what exactly they would "get us" for...? :P |
HTH Send message Joined: 8 Jul 00 Posts: 691 Credit: 909,237 RAC: 0 |
Why would they "take us"/"eat us"? Our meat would probably be poisonous to them and if they do not have enough food on their planet, why would they do interstellar travel? :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D So, here I already made a proof that ET civilization isn't harmful. Let's send some signals to them so they can figure out who we really are. Henri. Manned mission to Mars in 2019 Petition <-- Sign this, please. |
Steve Bergman Send message Joined: 20 May 07 Posts: 48 Credit: 292,679 RAC: 0 |
Anyway, never really understood what exactly they would "get us" for...? :P Presumably, they would come for our women. Isn't that what invading space aliens do? |
Taurus Send message Joined: 3 Sep 07 Posts: 324 Credit: 114,815 RAC: 0 |
Anyway, never really understood what exactly they would "get us" for...? :P Heck, I came here for the women and I haven't had much luck so far! :P |
Uli Send message Joined: 6 Feb 00 Posts: 10923 Credit: 5,996,015 RAC: 1 |
Anyway, never really understood what exactly they would "get us" for...? :P Off topic find single women here ? Just in case ET likes us chickadees. Back to the topic now ;) Pluto will always be a planet to me. Seti Ambassador Not to late to order an Anni Shirt |
Fred J. Verster Send message Joined: 21 Apr 04 Posts: 3252 Credit: 31,903,643 RAC: 0 |
Anyway, never really understood what exactly they would "get us" for...? :P Yeah, we haven't even the slightest idea, what an alien would look like!? Maybe the look like fish, trees, birds, shrubbery, or whatever? :) Or something we never/ever dreamed off. |
jason_gee Send message Joined: 24 Nov 06 Posts: 7489 Credit: 91,093,184 RAC: 0 |
... shrubbery... ... Shrubberry! ... LoL "Living by the wisdom of computer science doesn't sound so bad after all. And unlike most advice, it's backed up by proofs." -- Algorithms to live by: The computer science of human decisions. |
Steve Bergman Send message Joined: 20 May 07 Posts: 48 Credit: 292,679 RAC: 0 |
Indeed. I just finished rereading a 1971 short story by Arthur C. Clarke called "A Meeting With Medusa" which involves rather gargantuan life in, of all places, the atmosphere of Jupiter. We'd best take care regarding any assumptions we make about alien life, or blind dates. |
James Send message Joined: 15 Aug 08 Posts: 4 Credit: 204,851 RAC: 0 |
Anyway, never really understood what exactly they would "get us" for...? :P Why assume that aliens even know what a woman is... who's to say they reproduce in any way remotly similar to the way we do... in fact, there is no reason to believe that they would resemble us in any way at all. They could be 23 feet tall with 6 arms, and a giant spring like thing to bounce around on... who knows... they developed on a completly different planet! to reproduce, Maybe they just split in two... or even have some stranger method we can't even think of. |
KD [SETI.USA] Send message Joined: 24 Oct 99 Posts: 459 Credit: 2,513,131 RAC: 0 |
There used to be a SETI Institute chart showing how far out we could see our own signals, using our own current technology. The large radar sites that once made up the DEW (Delay Early Warning) line during the Cold War were shown to go the furthest out -- a few light years. "Some of our radars are easily detectable quite far, hundreds of light-years, into space, if the aliens wish to try, and if they're in the beam," says Seth Shostak, an astronomer at Seti. I don't know how they are now saying "hundreds of light years", unless they are speculating on ET being more advanced. The Inverse Square Law sucks... |
John McCallum Send message Joined: 5 Dec 04 Posts: 877 Credit: 599,458 RAC: 8 |
Being an S/F reader the body shape of Aliens,is,I have noted a fairly frequent topic in most early S/F stories only a few recent ones touch on it and only in passing.As for the TV signal being detected perhaps the carrier wave may be but probibly not any meaningful content more likley to detect radio broadcasts especily the high power ones that try to be recieved across a large Geographic Area. Old enough to know better(but)still young enough not to care |
Larry Monske Send message Joined: 17 Sep 05 Posts: 281 Credit: 554,328 RAC: 0 |
Our earliest transmissions were radio wavwelenghts. Early TV transmissions are probally out to 55 light years or so. Most were omnidirectional and at that vast distance maybe a carrier wave would exist. I think that is what the tripletts and gaussians in seti@home. ET would have to accidentaly tune in at the right frequency and could maybe triangulate the sourse but it has to be a very good reciever. The top 200 hits could very well be some type of ET normal transmissions. Many are around stars that have been detected that are hits also have saturn or larger type planets around them. Cancri 55 has four planets confirmed by Keck observitory. Between the first 3 in close and a very large gap to the fourth planet away from the star. This leaves room for terrestial type planets like earth. This star system has many reoccuring signals from this part of space. Another plus for this star system it has a sun like star slightly smaller and slightly dimmer than our sun. I think nearby stars would be watching Hitler giving speeches and shortwave transmissions at this time. Some older radion stations have tremedously powerfull signals. Who knows maybe we can show them I Love Lucy reruns. |
skildude Send message Joined: 4 Oct 00 Posts: 9541 Credit: 50,759,529 RAC: 60 |
lets not forget the old signals are all analog signals. I might be mistaken but I recall these signals being dispersed fairly rapidly through space In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face. Diogenes Of Sinope |
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