Alien Life, Coming Slowly Into View

[Gerald]

I Remember That, it was amazing, but probably very far away

[Torplexed]

What would be ironically funny is if the "WOW!" signal was the last power discharge as the alien transmitter was powered down. Fifty million years after detecting our biosphere and getting no response, they finally gave up just as we started to listen.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

What would be ironically funny is if the "WOW!" signal was the last power discharge as the alien transmitter was powered down. Fifty million years after detecting our biosphere and getting no response, they finally gave up just as we started to listen.

Yeah we was for blunt,

[Sammi79]

Here's to hope - to find any evidence of life, intelligent or not, that did not originate on our quaint little earth, would be the most mega thing since the moon landings or ever for that matter. Even a tiny fossil bacteria. Not in my lifetime I think.

This pretty much sums it up for me though, the last line in particular :

[Gargamel]

We've only been searching for 50 years. Ask me again in 50,000 if we should give up.

[Gerald]

In this situation, then we assign it to someone else "if the planet is left"

[Gerald]

[August]

What would it take to broadcast a signal that can be read on a distant planet? Power obviously. Lots and lots of power, but in what form?
Radio Frequency, Light, Microwave?

No matter what form one uses signal attenuation is gonna be a bear.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by August

What would it take to broadcast a signal that can be read on a distant planet? Power obviously. Lots and lots of power, but in what form?
Radio Frequency, Light, Microwave?

No matter what form one uses signal attenuation is gonna be a bear.

Exact, in what form will the power come from

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by August

What would it take to broadcast a signal that can be read on a distant planet? Power obviously. Lots and lots of power, but in what form?
Radio Frequency, Light, Microwave?

No matter what form one uses signal attenuation is gonna be a bear.

Radio and Microwaves are light.

Space is a wonderful medium for radio signals. Those involved in SETI seem confident that the signals we sent on purpose to some near by stars could be read if someone was there. Even just a basic repeating signal (like prime numbers) or other unambiguous sign (massive nuclear blasts or a fusion/fission reaction with increasing color shift beyond what is normally observed) would be clear signs of intelligent life.

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by August

What would it take to broadcast a signal that can be read on a distant planet? Power obviously. Lots and lots of power, but in what form?
Radio Frequency, Light, Microwave?

No matter what form one uses signal attenuation is gonna be a bear.

Actually, it was purposely done once here on Earth that I know of from the giant Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. Although, arguably more as a PR stunt than anything else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message

The Arecibo message was broadcast into space a single time (not repeated) via frequency modulated radio waves at a ceremony to mark the remodeling of the Arecibo radio telescope on 16 November 1974. It was aimed at the globular star cluster M13 some 25,000 light years away because M13 was a large and close collection of stars that was available in the sky at the time and place of the ceremony.The message consisted of 1679 binary digits, approximately 210 bytes, transmitted at a frequency of 2380 MHz and modulated by shifting the frequency by 10 Hz, with a power of 1000 kW. The "ones" and "zeros" were transmitted by frequency shifting at the rate of 10 bits per second. The total broadcast was less than three minutes.

The binary 'message' consists of:

1. The numbers one (1) through ten (10)
2. The atomic numbers of the elements hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and phosphorus, which make up deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)
3. The formulas for the sugars and bases in the nucleotides of DNA
4. The number of nucleotides in DNA, and a graphic of the double helix structure of DNA
5. A graphic figure of a human, the dimension (physical height) of an average man, and the human population of Earth
6. A graphic of the Solar System
7. A graphic of the Arecibo radio telescope and the dimension (the physical diameter) of the transmitting antenna dish

However, the chances, even if our galaxy is teeming with life, of someone listening, at the right frequency, at the right time, in the right direction is so mathematically remote as to be barely worth considering.

[August]

Originally Posted by Sammi79

Not in my lifetime I think.

Don't be so sure. People who witnessed the Wright Brothers first flight were on hand to watch man land on the moon.

[Sammi79]

Originally Posted by August

Don't be so sure. People who witnessed the Wright Brothers first flight were on hand to watch man land on the moon.

Well it is certainly not impossible, and I would be overjoyed if it were to happen within my lifetime, however - the problems of the vastness of the universe compound the calculations, for a start the observable part extends for roughly 13.7 billion light years. For us to 'hear' a signal from another intelligent transmitter we need to be close, within our own galaxy at least (a few hundred light years max). The probablity (given the physical vastness of what we can see) that this might happen is an infintesimal or very very close to 0. Then we have the problem of time. How big or long is time? even if the universe is teeming with life, the probability that 2 intelligent lifeforns evolve within the same window of time (a few thousand or possibly 10s of thousands of years)- is again an infintesimal. Multiply these 2 probabilities together, because we need to be not only physically close but also close enough in time and the result you get (even if as we suspect life is common in the universe) is so close to 0 as to be not really worth thinking about. Even if life is common (and we have no proof that it is yet) It is very likely that right now in our time, no other life exists within our universe.

Still, here's to hoping. No reason to stop looking.

[Torplexed]

And then you've got physicists like Stephen Hawkins who advocate that, than rather than trying to establish contact, humankind should try to avoid contacting alien life forms. "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans." However, he doesn't seem to be opposed to interstellar eavesdropping.

[Gerald]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

And then you've got physicists like Stephen Hawkins who advocate that, than rather than trying to establish contact, humankind should try to avoid contacting alien life forms. "If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans." However, he doesn't seem to be opposed to interstellar eavesdropping.

In the previous post here, discussed the form in which the signal can come from, and it could be basically anywhere, then our references are severely restricted, to reasonably speculate as to new technology or similar equipment get permission, to get a "perspective" which is difficult to take you mentioned the people like Stephen Hawkins does not see potential in this kind of signals intelligence