SETI science update

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Message 1219307 - Posted: 16 Apr 2012, 20:39:00 UTC

There has been no SETI science for 1 week. ;)

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Message 1219325 - Posted: 16 Apr 2012, 21:45:06 UTC - in response to Message 1219317.  

But if I can thrive in the north east of England on Pot Noodles,and Marmite Sandwiches,
you just have to keep believing there is a planet out there,where the conditions aren't
so hostile to life as we know it.

We must keep looking !!! :)

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Message 1219329 - Posted: 16 Apr 2012, 21:54:01 UTC - in response to Message 1219317.  
Last modified: 16 Apr 2012, 21:55:17 UTC


...After all, this project has been going on for 13 f'ing years, and we haven't seen any results at all. Nil, zero, keine, nothing. Not anything that even hints to any ET being out there. Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that there are any lifeforms out there anywhere in space, beyond this planet.

But, the crunching have at least kept a lot of homes warm and cozy.


Have you seen this one???

I've been dying to know some more about it.... But no information yet.
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Message 1219407 - Posted: 17 Apr 2012, 0:31:40 UTC
Last modified: 17 Apr 2012, 0:42:23 UTC

I wasn't implying it was evidence. I was just implying that things like that are interesting, and it would be great to know more...

But as you pointed out, it's not updated often (ever?).

Maybe if they teased us a little or put back a little information for us, as we are the ones footing the bill for electric and hardware, in a sense. (especially the guys around here who build crunching rigs specifically for seti... I just donate time from my existing equipment, others put real cash into this stuff)

I just started this, so I won't be giving up soon. However I'd love some coordinates or other information about some of these more intriguing signals. Or at the very least, rule 'em out.

And don't forget, we are doing new types of processing now. I don't know details of this stuff, 'cause I'm a noob here, but Kepler stuff will be being processed, and we are already doing this Astropulse stuff.
Plus there is a interesting part of the sky that should be getting looked at a little closer just in case. And we don't control the telescopes....

[and of course somewhere in the back of my strange mind will always be the question: would we even be told?...]
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Message 1219437 - Posted: 17 Apr 2012, 1:43:43 UTC
Last modified: 17 Apr 2012, 1:50:58 UTC

John3760, and the rest of you,
Yes, this "SETI science" section of the boards does get quiet at times. So really, its up to ourselves to keep the forum "alive" by posting the odd message and joining in the chat. But just because this part of the forum goes quite, does not mean there is no life outside earth. And you guys know that!

I always come here to this specific forum, the "SETI science" forum, and the other "Non SETI science" forum too. I do it because i feel comfortable here. I feel comfortable chatting about all the various aspects of SETI type science. So i'm coming to this same forum for over 5 years now.

Some people follow their favourite football club. Some people collect stamps. Some people are into their cars. Some people go hill walking. But me? I like to study, understand and discuss all the aspects that surround science, and especially SETI type science. I love this science, i need this science, and i crave this science. I want to learn more and more about this science to gain expertise and understanding. And ultimately i want to push the boundaries of this type of science so it will succeed in the end and we can confirm that the universe is just full of life.

Life should be everywhere, we just have to be clever to find it! That is why i now carry out my own research, scientific research. And when the time is right, i will publish the work i have done. And let me add, the results of my scientific investigation are shocking. I had no idea there were so many holes in modern science until i went looking myself. You will all find out when the time is right!

Johnney.
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Message 1219740 - Posted: 18 Apr 2012, 0:33:02 UTC
Last modified: 18 Apr 2012, 0:38:26 UTC

Is there a SHGb designation (or something similar) associated with this candidate?

Or was it again just a gaussian score being detected? Or maybe it rather was a pulse?
Do you get a spike score in return, or maybe some triplets as well?

When does a signal become narrowband or narrowband-width in nature, making it different than the rest of the signals (numbers) floating around or passing by?

Does it depend on the count of the pulses/gaussians, or does it relate to the score which might be obtained for the similar pulses/gaussians relating to such a candidate?

If the numbers being returned by the client is never thought of as being narrowband or narrowband-width signals, is Seti@home then in fact looking for a signal which cannot be detected in the current client?
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Message 1219785 - Posted: 18 Apr 2012, 3:27:35 UTC - in response to Message 1219563.  
Last modified: 18 Apr 2012, 3:29:37 UTC

everybody knows they dont even check any results nor do any further investigations. they firmly convinced that 99.999999999999999% of everything (pulse/triplets/etc) are from our earth interferences and will always be. so they dont check, they dont believe.
WE ARE the only believers ^^

all those there are from pegasus
thats all i know :(

Michel448a,
Thats a very good point there! I think your right, they don't bother to check the results that get returned and they do reject the vast majority of signals describing them as our own earth radio interference. I think the scientists working on this project are lazy and have lost faith in what they are doing.

To get results in science you have to push hard and keep questioning the methods you are using to get your results. And if your not getting any results, you have to change your methods and adapt. I don't think this happens with the guys here at SETI@home. If you read the old news items for the last 10 years, all they ever do is fix the computers and servers that keep breaking down. I know money is in short supply, but still. Nobody cares about computers, we want science, we want ET!

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Message 1219836 - Posted: 18 Apr 2012, 5:08:05 UTC
Last modified: 18 Apr 2012, 5:08:23 UTC

Is there a limit for the fit/chi square in the results which are returned back to the server?

Could this number be lower or much lower than 1.00 in some instances, or could it as well become higher than 1.42?

If so, would such a number if present or existing be able to tell us anything more about the possiblity of extraterrestrial presence?
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Profile William Rothamel
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Message 1219874 - Posted: 18 Apr 2012, 10:42:33 UTC - in response to Message 1219836.  

I assume that they are trying to see if the signal is Gaussian (comes from a random process such as noise). If the curve is a good fit then it would not be a candidate for an intelligence bearing signal. The Chi-squared number relates to the probability that the signal is not Gaussian. That is if it is Gaussian then it will occur only at a very small percentage of the time. Chi square numbers can be fairly large--up to 40 or more for instance yielding a very small probability of being random. I am making assumptions here and may have it backwards from what they are actually doing.

The problem would be that Earth-bound or satellite signals would score high and would also show intelligence if analyzed for intelligence. Also various stellar events produce non random signals. So a painstaking "Clutter Map" would have to be built by analyzing all of these non random signals.

If we could guess at the form of the signal that we were looking for we could auto-correlate and see if such a signal would "pop up" out of the noise. Signal processing techniques are well known and are effective in improving the signal to noise ratio.

Hopefully, any intelligent alien signal would be intended as opposed to a stray TV or Radio broadcast. A Mathematically oriented signal would be much easier to recognize. Perhaps a carrier switched on and off or modulated to count out the prime numbers.

It would be helpful if there were a way to know for sure that a signal was not emanating from the Earth.

Just some idle thoughts--somewhere there must be an explanation as what is exactly being done in signal processing, clutter elimination, sky mapping and in follow-up.
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Message 1219875 - Posted: 18 Apr 2012, 10:57:02 UTC - in response to Message 1219874.  



It would be helpful if there were a way to know for sure that a signal was not emanating from the Earth.


One way to be sure the signal didn't emanate from earth would be to put you listening equipment on the far side of the moon.
Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.
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Message 1219991 - Posted: 18 Apr 2012, 18:10:41 UTC - in response to Message 1219836.  

Is there a limit for the fit/chi square in the results which are returned back to the server?

Could this number be lower or much lower than 1.00 in some instances, or could it as well become higher than 1.42?

If so, would such a number if present or existing be able to tell us anything more about the possiblity of extraterrestrial presence?

Yes, it could be lower than 1.00, a perfect fit is 0.0. No, it could not be above 1.42 unless the project decides to increase that threshold.

A very good fit which is persistent (observed multiple times at the same point in the sky) is what the Gaussian search is looking for. If reobservation confirmed the persistence and other characteristics of the signal did not contradict the hypothesis that it is a narrowband transmission from astronomical distance, it would be a good indicator of an artificial source most probably constructed by an extraterretrial civilization.
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Message 1219997 - Posted: 18 Apr 2012, 18:29:25 UTC - in response to Message 1219874.  

Joe Segur staded that the next S@H would include autocorrelation. This is very good news.
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Message 1220150 - Posted: 19 Apr 2012, 4:43:33 UTC

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Message 1220161 - Posted: 19 Apr 2012, 4:54:01 UTC
Last modified: 19 Apr 2012, 4:59:57 UTC

I'd bet there are a thousand WOW signals buried in what we've analyzed. SAH just passed two billion completed work units and results.

Problem is, no one's looking. I just happened to read a NTPCKR post from Matt (right at the top of this forum.) It's four years old. Four years just came and went and I haven't seen anything indicating that there's a concerted effort to put these two billion results to use.

I don't blame the SAH team as they are already overworked having academic careers outside of SAH, it's terribly underfunded, and the majority of the effort expended on it is just keeping it going.

I just keep crunching away hoping they have enough of a windfall that they can catch up on the tremendous backlog and sift through these billions of results, finally putting them to use. Either that or Kepler data will provide a fresh start and it won't all go into backlog.

Edit: And it appears Michel448a already covered all this two posts ago. :^)
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Message 1220178 - Posted: 19 Apr 2012, 5:43:10 UTC

Ntpckr software is written and runs. Yes it does need tweaks, but it is functional. We only see the "public" side. That portion is a resource hog. To go farther, 2 items are needed. First they need more powerful hardware. Thank the GPU people for starting to provide for that. Second they need trained eyeballs to look at the waterfall plots to find if they are RFI or something more interesting. Another Seti project looks like it is trying to train eyeballs to look at waterfall plots. Valuable experience which will be incorporated.

As to the likelihood something interesting has been observed but not found in that data, I doubt that. Once you understand the actual limits of the equipment, you begin to understand, today we can only find an ET that is intentionally trying to be found and somewhere near us. If we built 10,000 Arecibo dishes on the far side of the moon, then we might be able to find a nearby ET that isn't broadcasting a beacon, or one that is broadcasting a beacon in a fair chunk of our galaxy.

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Message 1220374 - Posted: 19 Apr 2012, 17:55:58 UTC
Last modified: 19 Apr 2012, 18:03:34 UTC

What makes a series of triplets in a task a better candidate for a possible "narrowband" signal than a gaussian being of the similar type or similar in nature?

Do you need a series of pulses in order to be able to transmit a signal?

Are spikes representing a (specific) part of a given pulse, or is it a separate element on its own?

Regardless of score, whether or not a pulse is "flat" or not, it really does not tell anything about possible intelligence.

Still, information is thought of as being transmitted by means of pulses, which in particular or specific series are derived as being gaussians on their respective own.

Is a pulse count of 30 better than a gaussian count of 30?

BTW: Credit > 2.5 million now.
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Message 1225563 - Posted: 1 May 2012, 1:16:48 UTC - in response to Message 1220230.  

This im sure is as interesting as veiwing security tapes. No one really takes the time to scan them good. Just a vast amount of information , no time , no personal, funding problems etc., then again the intelligent species of another world might be whales with no need to travel nor waste energy with contacting something outside their world. We only can hope maybe someday someone will say HELLO! For now and the very long future we are restrained to spaceship earth. In 3 billion years we will be enttering the influence of the virgo cluster it will change our sky and our well being as a species.
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Message 1225577 - Posted: 1 May 2012, 1:58:38 UTC - in response to Message 1225563.  
Last modified: 1 May 2012, 2:01:20 UTC

In 3 billion years we will be entering the influence of the virgo cluster



By that time frame we will have long ago been roasted by our sun as it turned into a red giant.
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Message 1225602 - Posted: 1 May 2012, 4:25:43 UTC

I sometimes wonder what percentage of a typical spiral galaxy has low enough levels of radiation and a low enough density of stars to allow life (as we know it) to develope. Also how many forms of life can evolve quickly enough to be able to avert all the different ways extinction can befall a planet.
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Message 1225607 - Posted: 1 May 2012, 4:57:37 UTC - in response to Message 1225602.  
Last modified: 1 May 2012, 5:08:07 UTC

Also how many forms of life can evolve quickly enough to be able to avert all the different ways extinction can befall a planet.


I'll bet we can deduce that fact right now.

Take the number of known living (and perhaps extinct) "relic" species [old species that remain essentially unchanged] that have survived major extinction events on earth. Compare that number to the total of known species on our planet, and you will have a fair hypothesis of the ratio.

[Edit]
It's been many years since I was in a biology class but perhaps family or genus would be more appropriate than species...
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