Are We Overlooking Alien Beacons?

Message boards : SETI@home Science : Are We Overlooking Alien Beacons?
Message board moderation

To post messages, you must log in.

AuthorMessage
Scarecrow

Send message
Joined: 15 Jul 00
Posts: 4520
Credit: 486,601
RAC: 0
United States
Message 1007775 - Posted: 24 Jun 2010, 15:48:10 UTC
Last modified: 24 Jun 2010, 15:48:54 UTC

ID: 1007775 · Report as offensive
Michael Watson

Send message
Joined: 7 Feb 08
Posts: 1383
Credit: 2,098,506
RAC: 5
Message 1008176 - Posted: 25 Jun 2010, 16:04:01 UTC

Such a beacon, sweeping a narrow beam through the galaxy could account for the famous, momentary, 'Wow Signal', detected at Ohio State University in 1977. The same frequency and sky position have been listened to many times since, without success. Without knowing the schedule on which the beam returns to a given spot, like Earth, listening at random times for such a brief signal is very likely to fail. Continuous monitoring of the frequency and sky position of the Wow Signal would seem to be the logical way to test this hypothesis. This would require a system of three radio telescopes at intervals of ~ 120 degrees of longitude. Each could pursue other work when the source, in Sagittarius, was below the local horizon, about 2/3 of a 24 hour period. These need not be especially large radio telescopes, as the Wow Signal was noted to be very strong.
ID: 1008176 · Report as offensive
Profile PKII Project Donor
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 28 May 07
Posts: 165
Credit: 2,729,646
RAC: 0
United States
Message 1009780 - Posted: 29 Jun 2010, 15:44:41 UTC

Someone should monitor the part of the sky the wow signal was discovered all the time. Maybe they just sent out a short signal for a brief amount of time every so many years.

Are we sending a constant narrow band signal into deep space? I've read papers that say they never found a repeat signal in the same area so it must not be a real signal. However no one has been listening all the time. Maybe we are just missing the schedule they are broadcasting.
ID: 1009780 · Report as offensive

Message boards : SETI@home Science : Are We Overlooking Alien Beacons?


 
©2024 University of California
 
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.