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SETI@home Staff Blog :
So where's the science..?
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Gal Starfinder EVE player (phioniex lords) Send message Joined: 26 Apr 07 Posts: 4 Credit: 48 RAC: 0 |
So they've found a class M planet around Gliese 581. Let's look at it a little closer. From looking at our planet, life has adapted to every enviroment this planet has thrown at it, so if that rule apply's to all life in the galaxy, then it shouldn't matter what enviromental effect's take place, any planet with life given water WILL produce life. for all we know life on the planet around 581 could consist of armadillo like creature with protective hide's to combat the enviroment, or even live underground, but to dismiss the idea of intelligent radio using lifeform's living on the planet is a very quick way to limit the chance of picking up telltale radio signal's from other system's. (life will alway's find a way) 'jurrasic park' |
Cameron Send message Joined: 27 Nov 02 Posts: 110 Credit: 5,082,471 RAC: 17 |
Wow I like This Blog Forum, Might actually help add interest and knowledge for and about the project. Well perserverance and paitence seems to be the motto for SETI@Home. currently 500,000 registered users currently inactive or uninterested. I'm not sure how many were active throughout Classic but It had over 5,000,000 registered at the end (there were duplicate identities and such amoungst them). I didn't know we were pushing the technology so much in those early years. Well we're feeding the advance of science by doing this that science will once again spike the publics interest and participation, which will ebb (unless they can recieve some tangable results) and we will be continuing to feed the science |
Gal Starfinder EVE player (phioniex lords) Send message Joined: 26 Apr 07 Posts: 4 Credit: 48 RAC: 0 |
Wow I like This Blog Forum, Might actually help add interest and knowledge for and about the project. because of seti's lack of results has cause intrest in the project to disapate over the years, i belive it needs to rethink it approch to the way it searches. With the current space science focused on 'planet finding' seti needs to adapt, maybe by following in the wake of the 'plant finders' and consentrating on the systems found with planets and sending those results to seti@home for checking as high proitiy, and lowering old data on the data chain. because we now have a viable way of detecting planet's around other stars the focus should be on them. |
Odysseus Send message Joined: 26 Jul 99 Posts: 1808 Credit: 6,701,347 RAC: 6 |
because of seti's lack of results has cause intrest in the project to disapate over the years, i belive it needs to rethink it approch to the way it searches. AIUI directed searches are pretty well out of the question because of the project’s lack of funding: all the Arecibo data used by S@h are obtained by eavesdropping on other astronomers’ research projects, so to speak. I don’t know what it costs, or what kind of official or prestigious support is required, to obtain observing time with full control of a world-class radiotelescope, but I’m sure it doesn’t come cheap or easily. |
Patrick Hanson Send message Joined: 31 Dec 06 Posts: 1 Credit: 29,241 RAC: 0 |
Maybe they should point the radio reciever at the new planet that was discoverd recently. |
W-K 666 Send message Joined: 18 May 99 Posts: 19317 Credit: 40,757,560 RAC: 67 |
Maybe they should point the radio reciever at the new planet that was discoverd recently. Not possible, Aricibo dish is fixed, with only slight adjustment available to the instrument platform. I covers approx 8 to 30 degrees north. The new planet discovered was way south. Andy |
Gal Starfinder EVE player (phioniex lords) Send message Joined: 26 Apr 07 Posts: 4 Credit: 48 RAC: 0 |
Maybe they should point the radio reciever at the new planet that was discoverd recently. was it an optical telescope or radio telescope which was used to find Gliese 581c?, could the seti group ask for any radio data from the group which found Gliese 581c and process it for 'lifesigns'? |
letharGic Maze Send message Joined: 1 Jul 99 Posts: 4 Credit: 39,370,053 RAC: 87 |
...allowing outside resources to help Not the kind of resource you had in mind, I know, but in relation to a necessary precursor to any resource, donations (or lack thereof), frequently noted here as an impediment to said resources, I have one question: where is Google? They can contemplate scanning every book in every library, they have every square kilometre of this planet viewable online and - gosh - they must scan this very blog, along with billions of other websites, every -how many days? So searching a few million stars should be small change surely and within its mission "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Just change "world" to "universe". Sorry if it is a case of 'been there, done that' |
Eric Korpela Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 1382 Credit: 54,506,847 RAC: 60 |
It was optical data. Spectra of Gliese 581 were analyzed to look for Doppler shifts due to the gravitational effects of the planet. @SETIEric@qoto.org (Mastodon) |
Demiurg Send message Joined: 2 Jul 02 Posts: 883 Credit: 28,286 RAC: 0 |
Actually Seti research has been going on for just a few years. And just for a small piece of the sky. And with infinitely small funding compared with the life sciences and other sciences that produces "things". But I will try to answer your question about why we should do it. 1. Shouldn't we who are humans be curious about what is around us? 2. If ET do exist, would it not be fun to know that ET does? 3. If ET is anything like us ET would probably send a bomb down our throat, I would like to at least have a small warning. 4. ET might be nice and want to help us. 5. Any reason you feel like inserting. Carl /Edit... I forgot, we have also just searched a fraction of the wavelengths. We have for instance never looked at radio/tv frequensies. Or other more obscure frequensies. Let's say into the Feynman-radio concept. It is SEXY to DONATE! Skype = demiurg2 |
IndicaSativa Send message Joined: 30 Jun 07 Posts: 1 Credit: 2,688 RAC: 0 |
Good thread folks. I'm new to the project, but I leave BOINC on all the time, my PC runs 24/hr a day 7/days a week. It's linux based so it is quite stable and seems to be running BOINC quite well. Thanks for explaining here what the project is, where it's going, and what the plan is! Great stuff and keep up the good fight! |
Geek@Play Send message Joined: 31 Jul 01 Posts: 2467 Credit: 86,146,931 RAC: 0 |
snip.... 6. ET could also be thinking....I wonder how they taste? Boinc....Boinc....Boinc....Boinc.... |
doublechaz Send message Joined: 17 Nov 00 Posts: 90 Credit: 76,455,865 RAC: 735 |
Kinda like pork. (Just in case they are listening...) |
Robert Huber Send message Joined: 5 Jul 07 Posts: 1 Credit: 66,427 RAC: 0 |
I believe with all this data one could begin a technique such as "clustering". Once you have identified the valid data samples and formed specific clusters I believe the next step could be to look at time and sequence of the data within those clusters and search for identifiable wave patterns. By projecting these patterned clusters into the future, you can begin something called "next occurrence prediction. If the prediction proves to be valid within a cluster, then you can examine the resulting cluster in more depth looking for harmonics within the entire spectrum of the cluster.......just an idea. Dr. RCH |
Bernie Send message Joined: 18 Aug 06 Posts: 1 Credit: 86,154 RAC: 0 |
I'll finish up by stating that the actual science, while moving at glacial speeds, is not going stale. Remember these signals are potentially coming from light years away - so a few years' delay isn't going to hurt the science. It will hurt user interest, though, which is always a concern and a source of frustration for us - that's a topic for a later time. I thought this topic might provide insight into the SETI mission statement. I hoped to gain a better understanding of the projects immediate objectives, its timescale and a summary of current results. I am a little disappointed that the focus seems to be elsewhere - on the difficulty of the science, the shortage of equipment and manpower, and above all, the need for more funding. Such concerns are legitimate, of course. Without adequate resources a project of this magnitude cannot succeed. On the other hand, if the goal is to attract greater participation and contributions, more attention might be paid to stirring public interest. In the early days of SETI there seemed to be greater expectation of achieving tangible results. Now people seem resigned to perfecting the methodology and awaiting the development of theory and technological advances. That's all very reasonable sounding, but it fails to capture the imagination of supporters who look for tangible results in a reasonable timeframe. Perhaps it's time to address that "topic for a later time" in order to prevent further erosion of interest. I'm happy to continue providing my modest supply of excess CPU cycles into the indefinite future, even if nothing ever develops. But I'd need to see more definite plans for achieving short term objectives before considering monetary support. I'd want to know that funding would be applied to more than an academic study to further the training and experience in research that might find some future application. I've seen too many independent projects falter and die when investigators lose their initial enthusiasm or reprioritize efforts because of changing priorities and new interests. This isn't meant as a challenge. I just wanted to share my opinion. |
ML1 Send message Joined: 25 Nov 01 Posts: 21017 Credit: 7,508,002 RAC: 20 |
... I've seen too many independent projects falter and die when investigators lose their initial enthusiasm or reprioritize efforts because of changing priorities and new interests. ... Well... Considering the people and the long history and the volunteer support for this project, I'm very sure there's more than enough enthusiasm to keep this going for a long time yet. There's also easily enough enthusiasm to keep the donations and funding rolling as needed. Even so, there's no room for complacency. To get the science moving sooner rather than later, rather than all this bottom-of-the-barrel scraping some proper science funding would be very welcome! Keep searchin', Martin See new freedom: Mageia Linux Take a look for yourself: Linux Format The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3) |
Pappa Send message Joined: 9 Jan 00 Posts: 2562 Credit: 12,301,681 RAC: 0 |
Evening Everyone It has been a long weekend, Seti and Seti Beta are still running... Matt Stated in his Blog that Near Time Persistency Checking (nitpkr) is back in the works... That tells that all work units that have been crunched will get checked... MutliBema Tells even more as we can get it here... So as Nitpkr gets here the you have more information about the Science that you have helped to produce! In the not far to distance past, Seti was in danger or closing down! Thanks to the respone of many individuals, "We" are still here! Please consider a Donation to the Seti Project. |
Lee Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 3 Credit: 188,125 RAC: 0 |
As time goes on more SETI@home pariticipants are frustrated with the perceived lack of scientific progress. So what's the deal? In our "Right Now" society, we have become accustomed to getting answers before the question. I'm sorry, this ain't "Star Trek", you don't have "Spock" or the Universal Translator, and there IS a lot of empty out there. If we don't look, we'll never see. It may be hundreds of years before we actually intercept a true communications signal and we might miss something as simple as " .... .. " (look it up in a Morse Code handbook). I'm just a dumb old trucker, but I've seen a lot of stuff. I saw a cloud bank one time that I thought was a mountain. It took some time for me to figure out what it was. The same thing applies here, it's GONNA take some time. |
Jim Baize Send message Joined: 6 May 00 Posts: 758 Credit: 149,536 RAC: 0 |
... it's GONNA take some time. Very well stated, Lee. |
AnneBrodie Send message Joined: 16 Jul 00 Posts: 4 Credit: 246,319 RAC: 0 |
As time goes on more SETI@home pariticipants are frustrated with the perceived lack of scientific progress. So what's the deal? Very interesting post. I used to work in the UK NationalHealth Service, and do understand about lack of funding and slender staffing. I'm now retired after a stroke, but wish I could volunteer to help you out over there. Keep up the good work. I've just made a [small] donation and will continue to work units for you as befpre. Take care, all. 'In the depths of the lunatic asylum, the Bossybabe is queen' Shakespeare [not Bill - his sister] |
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