Why is SETI so powerful?

[Soggysocks]

"it is one of the least likely to obtain tangible results relative to its objective"


Well....maybe we love a challenge

Obviously young Paduan....you are without knowledge...and seek enlightenment.

We as a human species for Eons, have looked to the stars. We have configured constelations to represent mythical beasts and Gods to try to explain what we do not know or understand. It's through this evolutionary search for understanding that we now know Earth revolves around the Sun....not the otherway around.

Millenia ago, Our ancesters decided to record what they had discovered....their experiences on cave walls. It is this same basic desire to search for unknown things and pass on our discoveries, that drives us. And when we find something.....we will leave legacy's. Seti@Home will be only one of those legacies.

So you see young Paduan....it's not a matter of what is important or probable.....it is what is possible that is the True objective.


I only hope, Young Paduan, that you come to understand.

 

[AMDnewbie2006]

I remember a special on National Geographic that said that it would be almost imposible for aliens to visit us because they are probably so far away that would have to creat a "worm"-I think that's right- and travel through time to reach us, they also said what if they brought deadly germs to our planet, or what if they couldn't breath oxygen or maybe exposed to radiation and alot of other crazy stuff...What is Rosetta Folding for??

 

[networkman]

It was once said the Earth was flat.. that if you sailed out too far you'd fall off the edge. :Q

It was once said that if Man were meant to fly, God would've given him wings.

It was once said that the sound barrier could never be broken.

I see a pattern here.

It was once said that we were alone in the universe...?

 

[scottish144]

Originally posted by: networkman
It was once said the Earth was flat.. that if you sailed out too far you'd fall off the edge. :Q

It was once said that if Man were meant to fly, God would've given him wings.

It was once said that the sound barrier could never be broken.

I see a pattern here.

It was once said that we were alone in the universe...?

I never said we were alone. I simply don't believe that SETI is advanced enough to have a pluasible chance at detecting aliens. Unless the aliens enter Earth's oribt, at which point it will be moot. If aliens have the capability to communicate at intersteller ranges, than they are using an extreme of the spectrum beyond those Wavelengths that SETI can detect.

 

[Assimilator1]

I simply don't believe that SETI is advanced enough to have a pluasible chance at detecting aliens

Maybe your right about the spectrum issue ,or maybe their using some other form of communcation altogther ,but if we don't look we'll never find ,& if we don't start the search it can never be refined or overhauled.This is more than likely going to be a longterm project ,I'm thinking in terms of decades!.

Btw if their were aliens within multiple 10s of lightyears away from us using the spectrum we currently search in ,then communication would be possible ,maybe not between individuals but certainly between socities here & there.

Soggysocks
Hey nice explantion there ,I'm gonna keep that one!
Did you copy it from elsewhere?
Btw ,Paduan??

 

[GeoffS]

Paduan = little grasshopper...

 

[Assimilator1]

Ah I see ,definatley a copy then

 

[networkman]

Originally posted by: scottish144
I simply don't believe that SETI is advanced enough to have a pluasible chance at detecting aliens.

Really? Even it was just "garbage" signals like the TV stuff we've sending out since the 50's? It could even we'd detect detect ET signals that are hundreds or even thosands of years old, well before they became advanced enough to use new communications technologies that we can't even conceive of.

 

[Soggysocks]

Actually Assim....I probubly miss spelled Paduan from Star wars. You know....Obiwan called Young Skywalker Paduan...or maybe paduwan......... But thanks for the compliment. It was original....kind of.....Its was a culmination of all my years reading books & articles about Nasa, watching movies and documentaries. Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clark and Issac Asminoff.
Not to mention.....Buck Rogers, Dr. Who, And Captian Kirk...among others.


Actually...if I were 30 to 35 years younger....i would be looking to set my sites on a career with Nasa or Scaled Composit's. That is where the future lies ......exploration. It is going to drive the Economies of all nations, despite the greed of corporations and fundamentalist ney sayers like Asama Bin Laden or the would be dictaters like George W .


And Like Networkman said...." Once the Earth was flat...but then Columbus sailed and it became round........:Q


and was man was ment to fly? YES.........God gave him airplanes.........


The sound barrier couldn't be broken....but then came Bose speakers........... need I say more?

 

[scoser]

Spelled correctly, it's padawan. A padawan is a Jedi that is apprenticed to a Jedi Knight or Jedi Master to learn more about the Force and the galaxy as they go on missions with their master.

If you require further geeky information about Star Wars, let me know.

Either that or just join the Team's uFluids team. uFluids is simulating fluid flow in microgravity situations, such as fuel in starship fuel tanks.

 

[Soggysocks]

Thanks Scoser....I might just do that....and I've been geeky since about 1958.....just to let you know.

 

[AMDnewbie2006]

Originally posted by: Soggysocks
Actually Assim....I probubly miss spelled Paduan from Star wars. You know....Obiwan called Young Skywalker Paduan...or maybe paduwan......... But thanks for the compliment. It was original....kind of.....Its was a culmination of all my years reading books & articles about Nasa, watching movies and documentaries. Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clark and Issac Asminoff.
Not to mention.....Buck Rogers, Dr. Who, And Captian Kirk...among others.


Actually...if I were 30 to 35 years younger....i would be looking to set my sites on a career with Nasa or Scaled Composit's. That is where the future lies ......exploration. It is going to drive the Economies of all nations, despite the greed of corporations and fundamentalist ney sayers like Asama Bin Laden or the would be dictaters like George W .


And Like Networkman said...." Once the Earth was flat...but then Columbus sailed and it became round........:Q


and was man was ment to fly? YES.........God gave him airplanes.........


The sound barrier couldn't be broken....but then came Bose speakers........... need I say more?

but Bose is crap, lol, I've always wanted to go into astronomy or maybe become an astronaut, but i heard that the space program was getting less funding so I wasn't sure, I'll probably go into IT, but I might reconsider NASA. Also I don't believe we are alone in the universe as someone said, I think it's too damn huge for that to be the case, it's like we're a grain of sand on a large beach, but it will take decades or maybe centuries before we come in contact with anyone else IMO

 

[networkman]

You can always mix the fields and become a planet hunter!

 

[Assimilator1]

Good points NWM

Originally posted by: Soggysocks
Actually Assim....I probubly miss spelled Paduan from Star wars. You know....Obiwan called Young Skywalker Paduan...or maybe paduwan......... But thanks for the compliment. It was original....kind of.....Its was a culmination of all my years reading books & articles about Nasa, watching movies and documentaries. Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clark and Issac Asminoff.
Not to mention.....Buck Rogers, Dr. Who, And Captian Kirk...among others.


Actually...if I were 30 to 35 years younger....i would be looking to set my sites on a career with Nasa or Scaled Composit's. That is where the future lies ......exploration. It is going to drive the Economies of all nations, despite the greed of corporations and fundamentalist ney sayers like Asama Bin Laden or the would be dictaters like George W .


And Like Networkman said...." Once the Earth was flat...but then Columbus sailed and it became round........:Q


and was man was ment to fly? YES.........God gave him airplanes.........


The sound barrier couldn't be broken....but then came Bose speakers........... need I say more?

lol

scoser
Interesting project ,is it a new one?
Any links to NASA?

 

[GLeeM]

Originally posted by: networkman

Originally posted by: scottish144
I simply don't believe that SETI is advanced enough to have a pluasible chance at detecting aliens.

Really? Even it was just "garbage" signals like the TV stuff we've sending out since the 50's? It could even we'd detect detect ET signals that are hundreds or even thosands of years old, well before they became advanced enough to use new communications technologies that we can't even conceive of.

I've been out of the loop for a while.

Has technology come so far lately that we could detect "garbage" signals from 1000s of light years away?

I thought it would take a POWERFUL signal pointed directly at us

 

[networkman]

Consider just the optical for a moment.. light from a star is being emitted in every direction, not just directly at us. In the radio spectrum it may well be that the only signals we detect from pulsars are those along the poles.. same with x-ray emissions from gas swirling into blackholes. Point is, we do not necessarily need to be on a direct line-of-sight to receive signals.

I would even speculate that we might detect signals but not know exactly where they come from based on recent theories and discoveries involving the warping of space-time by very massive objects. It is conceivable that a signal heading in a particular direction could be affected by such a body and bent into a new heading.

As for my "garbage" comment, I was reflecting on our own TV program transmissions as being that very garbage that other civilization may detect, and by the same token, us with theirs(if they have any).

 

[kmmatney]

I'm doing primegrid and I don't know why....I'm not even sure if my stats are counting for the TeAm as a whole. Doesn't show up in some of the total Boinc stats.

 

[scottish144]

Originally posted by: kmmatney
I'm doing primegrid and I don't know why....I'm not even sure if my stats are counting for the TeAm as a whole. Doesn't show up in some of the total Boinc stats.

Way to completley hijack my thread

Anyway, in the BOINC Manager under the "Projects" tab you should see "TeAm Anandtech" under the "Team" category. If you don't see that, your credit does not count towards the TeAm.

Anyway, I'm also skeptical about detecting signals (as should be obvious from my previous posts). Wouln't the signal be so faint as to be unintelligible by the time it reached us?

 

[Coquito]

[He-Man]I... Have.. The POWER!!![/He-Man]

/swings around plastic sword in triumph

 

[Assimilator1]

Originally posted by: scottish144

Originally posted by: kmmatney
I'm doing primegrid and I don't know why....I'm not even sure if my stats are counting for the TeAm as a whole. Doesn't show up in some of the total Boinc stats.

Way to completley hijack my thread

Anyway, in the BOINC Manager under the "Projects" tab you should see "TeAm Anandtech" under the "Team" category. If you don't see that, your credit does not count towards the TeAm.

Anyway, I'm also skeptical about detecting signals (as should be obvious from my previous posts). Wouln't the signal be so faint as to be unintelligible by the time it reached us?

Not nessacarily ,it does depend on a whole load of things ,but the Arecibo dish is very sensitive ,I'm sure one of us could dig out some facts on its receiving abilities if you like?

 

[networkman]

Arecibo Radio Telescope info

"This giant telescope has scrutinized our atmosphere from a few kilometers to a few thousand kilometers where it smoothly connects with interplanetary space. With its radar vision it studies the properties of planets, comets and asteroids. In our Galaxy it detects the faint pulses emitted hundreds of times per second from pulsars. And from the farthest reaches of the Universe quasars and galaxies emit radio waves which arrive at Earth 100 million years later as signals so weak that they can only be detected by a giant eye like this one."

 

[scottish144]

Originally posted by: networkman
Arecibo Radio Telescope info

"This giant telescope has scrutinized our atmosphere from a few kilometers to a few thousand kilometers where it smoothly connects with interplanetary space. With its radar vision it studies the properties of planets, comets and asteroids. In our Galaxy it detects the faint pulses emitted hundreds of times per second from pulsars. And from the farthest reaches of the Universe quasars and galaxies emit radio waves which arrive at Earth 100 million years later as signals so weak that they can only be detected by a giant eye like this one."

I noticed it mentioned quasars and galaxies. Not alien radio towers.

 

[networkman]

Until very recently we couln't prove there were planets orbiting stars outside our own solar system either.

The universe is a really REALLY big place!. Just because we haven't managed to find something yet doesn't mean it isn't out there waiting to be found.

 

[Assimilator1]

Scott
The point is that it can detect really faint signals ,so there's some chance

 

[GLeeM]

Originally posted by: networkman
Arecibo Radio Telescope info

"This giant telescope has scrutinized our atmosphere from a few kilometers to a few thousand kilometers where it smoothly connects with interplanetary space. With its radar vision it studies the properties of planets, comets and asteroids. In our Galaxy it detects the faint pulses emitted hundreds of times per second from pulsars. And from the farthest reaches of the Universe quasars and galaxies emit radio waves which arrive at Earth 100 million years later as signals so weak that they can only be detected by a giant eye like this one."

Thanks, networkman, for the great information

1. Your examples are all from "more than POWERFUL" sources. They are the most powerful things in the universe. How much would it cost us in dollars to send that powerful of a signal?

2. From how far away (how many lightyears) could the Arecibo Radio Telescope detect the type of radio signals that have been leaking from our planet for the last 50+ years?

TIA for answer to number 2!