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SETI@home Science :
Are We Overlooking Alien Beacons?
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Scarecrow Send message Joined: 15 Jul 00 Posts: 4520 Credit: 486,601 RAC: 0 |
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Michael Watson Send message Joined: 7 Feb 08 Posts: 1384 Credit: 2,098,506 RAC: 5 |
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. |
PKII Send message Joined: 28 May 07 Posts: 165 Credit: 2,729,646 RAC: 0 |
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. |
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