What if we started searching for gamma rays instead of radio waves?

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rOZZ
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My first thought is that gamma rays aren't generated by normal human actions. Radio waves are a entwined part of our lives. I would wonder what an alien civilization would be doing that would generate gamma rays, without causing harm to themselves.

Steve

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Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

You did get me thinking a bit. Radio waves can be modulated and carry communication. I am not sure if gamma rays could carry communication, other than a binary on/off mechanism. If gamma rays were somehow being produced at high levels by an alien civilization, and weren't modulated or pules in some form, it would be fairly difficult to distinguish them from other natural causes.

Steve

I should be working instead of posting..... Snicker.

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Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

You did get me thinking a bit. Radio waves can be modulated and carry communication. I am not sure if gamma rays could carry communication, other than a binary on/off mechanism. If gamma rays were somehow being produced at high levels by an alien civilization, and weren't modulated or pules in some form, it would be fairly difficult to distinguish them from other natural causes.

Steve

It could be a possibility IMHO.

I should be working instead of posting..... Snicker.

LOL :D

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rOZZ
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It is possible to modulate gamma-waves, but one has to be more than extremely careful, get it wrong, point it in the wrong direction, or.. and you will end up frying things. Probably not a very practical way of transmitting over vast distances as they do get scattered very readily by annoying little things like Hydrogen atoms...

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

My first thought is that gamma rays aren't generated by normal human actions. Radio waves are a entwined part of our lives. I would wonder what an alien civilization would be doing that would generate gamma rays, without causing harm to themselves.

Steve

Perhaps they have found the magic element with a electron spin transition to build a gamma ray laser. Would be a nasty weapon, or perhaps a power source for a light sail type of space probe?

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Perhaps they have found the magic element with a electron spin transition to build a gamma ray laser. Would be a nasty weapon, or perhaps a power source for a light sail type of space probe?

As I believe in highly evolved intelligence throughout space, I want to +1 that.

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rOZZ
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You did get me thinking a bit. Radio waves can be modulated and carry communication. I am not sure if gamma rays could carry communication, other than a binary on/off mechanism. If gamma rays were somehow being produced at high levels by an alien civilization, and weren't modulated or pules in some form, it would be fairly difficult to distinguish them from other natural causes.

Steve

I should be working instead of posting..... Snicker.

Gamma Rays are just a very high frequency i don't see any reason why it could not be used to modulate a signal on to it ...it would probably be a good choice for interstellar communication since as far as i know has the ability to pass through smaller asteroids etc ...besides from beeing deadly to us hrhrhr

back in school we used a 1500W microwave took the part out and modulated a tv signal onto it ....works like crap over a longer distance but it does work

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I came down with a bad case of i don't give a crap

detecting warp signatures? that might work for non-cloaking space races

What if other intelligence does not WANT to be found (modification to ‘L’ in the Drake equation) - I am just finishing a sci-fi book with this central question - Earth in particular is a young planet orbiting a young star with a VERY nascent ability to radiate EM waves (radio, etc.) - do we really want to alert anyone out there that we are here - just like indigenous tribes sending emissaries across an ocean – chances are almost a certainty based on stats that any other intelligence would have to be MUCH more advanced and given earth’s experience VERY dangerous to come in contact with – inferior civilizations never fair well in these circumstances – maybe ALL intelligent civilizations come to the same conclusion and find a way to block any radiation out of their system to avoid such encounters – I would.

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do we really want to alert anyone out there that we are here -

In the case of a highly evolved intelligent species I'm sure they already know we are here.

What if other intelligence does not WANT to be found

I think you might be right on this.

I also think that the cosmic background radiation can provide us with a lot of information concerning the history of our universe.



Found an interesting article on the subject:

http://arxiv.org/abs/1412.3886


Full article:

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1412.3886v1.pdf

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rOZZ
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