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Question about waterfall plots.
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Author | Message |
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musicplayer Send message Joined: 17 May 10 Posts: 2430 Credit: 926,046 RAC: 0 |
You know, someone are still doing the task of observing the sky for intelligent signals. Radio signals, that is. This task is being carried out by means of both http://setilive.org as well as setiathome.berkeley.edu, as well as others. When visiting http://setilive.org, choose CLASSIFY - Signals from the menu and you may be able to see some waterfall plots from different radio sources in the sky which have been previously observed. These waterfall plots are possible radio sources and these sources may be different ones, including satellites. They could also be coming from UFO's. So are these waterfall plots meant to be signals from such sources and if they are signals then, do they have a numerical representation which is similar or equal to the numbers which may be obtained by means of running the Seti@home client? Please explain this to me. Thanks! |
tullio Send message Joined: 9 Apr 04 Posts: 8797 Credit: 2,930,782 RAC: 1 |
It is not easy to understand the intentions of the SETI Institute. AFAIK SETILive should be used to filter the data received by the ATA for radio interference and pass only possible ET signals to Open SonATA, which needs VMware to be used. But all this is just my opinion. Tullio |
musicplayer Send message Joined: 17 May 10 Posts: 2430 Credit: 926,046 RAC: 0 |
I used the new video editor tools available for the YouTube videos to edit one of my earlier uploads. The video is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExxzG98hnGw . The original may be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2ZeYJXYhjI . |
Michael Watson Send message Joined: 7 Feb 08 Posts: 1383 Credit: 2,098,506 RAC: 5 |
I help out at SETI Live. I'm told that the hope is that the human eye and brain can detect signals that the computers may miss. If several people see the same signal, represented by a straight line in the waterfall displays, and it seems to have the characteristics expected of a SETI signal, they will aim the ATA back to that spot in the sky and see if they can acquire a signal. They search selectively, using a list of target stars either believed or confirmed to have planets. They use the lists of stars with planets from the Kepler Space Telescope, and other exo-planet search projects. |
Bob DeWoody Send message Joined: 9 May 10 Posts: 3387 Credit: 4,182,900 RAC: 10 |
I wouldn't recognize an intelligent signal unless "Hi Bob" came out of my speakers. I have been allowing Seti@home to use my computer almost 24/7 for over twelve years now. Sometimes I watch the screen saver animation but most times I don't. I hope that my participation has helped in the search for intelligent signals but I'm not really interested in trying to interpret the data myself. 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. |
rob smith Send message Joined: 7 Mar 03 Posts: 22186 Credit: 416,307,556 RAC: 380 |
Given the nature of what all the various SETI radio projects are looking for I very much doubt that any message will be human decodeable, but it will have patterns that make it non-stellar in nature. Think about what the net emissions from earth would like like from a few light years away and you will get my drift. Bob Smith Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society) Somewhere in the (un)known Universe? |
musicplayer Send message Joined: 17 May 10 Posts: 2430 Credit: 926,046 RAC: 0 |
Power Fit Score 4.24 3501625.250 4674483.086 What is maxpow here? |
tullio Send message Joined: 9 Apr 04 Posts: 8797 Credit: 2,930,782 RAC: 1 |
Last time I visited www.setilive.org there were more than 76k registered users but only 3 were classifying. You need time and patience to do this king of searching. Given the inefficiency of digital computers in pattern recognition (this is what is being done) I would use a neural network, which can learn from experience. Tullio |
Michael Watson Send message Joined: 7 Feb 08 Posts: 1383 Credit: 2,098,506 RAC: 5 |
Three were classifying when I checked a minute ago. The ATA is inactive at the moment. A few people are classifying archival data, which is reported to be useful for statistical purposes, and improving the algorithms. The numbers are typically higher when the ATA is providing live data. People are intrigued with the possibility of being in on the discovery of a real SETI signal, as it happens. Improbable? Yes. But such odds have kept some gold prospectors on the search for years. Sometimes it pays off, and in a big way. |
tullio Send message Joined: 9 Apr 04 Posts: 8797 Credit: 2,930,782 RAC: 1 |
I do not want to criticize the SETI Institute. But I think we are doing more at SETI@home and other BOINC projects. Also LHC is not running now and so are the Gravitational Wave interferometers, but we are still crunching data. Tullio |
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