astronomers find over 150 signals of possible extraterrestrial intelligence

[Mr. Cactus]

So SETI actually found all these radio signals? How did it find so many at once??

The Arecibo radio observatory in Puerto Rico takes in massie amounts of raw data, and sends manageable amounts to Seti@home clients. This is known as distributed supercomputing, using multiple low-powered computers to effectively create a massive, high-powered supercomputer, and the users have so far contributed over 100 million hours of processor time to analysis of data. It's like the dual-processor idea taken to extreme levels.

They took promising-looking signals found by these clients and scanned only the interesting ones again (it takes a lot of time and power to move the sensor array on the dish, it's the one they used for the last few scenes in "Goldeneye" ) Unfortunately, none turned out to be a sign of life this time.

In response to another of your questions, yes, stars can give off radio waves. A pulsar is a super-dense, rotating neutron star that emits radio waves from its poles, perpendicular to its axis of rotation. One of the first false alarms in the SETI program was caused by a pulsar that rotated at exactly the same rate as the Earth, giving the impression that an intelligent group was trying to signal its presence to anyone who might be listening by broadcasting loud signals at regular intervals. When it was analyzed, it was discovered that the signals consisted of nothing but cosmic background noise, although the pulsar was a significant discovery.

For some humor: Another false alarm was the discovery or microwave radiation from slightly above the horizon at the same point at 3:30PM every day. It was found to be a false alarm when one employee of the observatory was absent for a day, and did not microwave his lunch while on break at 3:30PM.

Many other programs use distributed supercomputing, including United Devices, a program dedicated to the search for cures for cancer and smallpox.

btw, Oyo, my friends love your website.

 

[Arch]

I would also like to add to Mr. Cactus post, by saying that Jupiter also gives off "mysterious" radio signals at around 23 MHz. Something I learned in astronomy class.

 

[Lethe78]

i dont get it ..

I was busting on you because you tend to make more enemies than friends, and I figured, using that logic, that you will be killed by one of them before you see intelligent life from elsewhere.

I was only fukin with you though.

 

[Obyeybyeogone]

O thanks Cactus I have Seti@home installed now as well

 

[no country for old wainds]

Wow, Seti. I forgot all about that. My dad had that installed on his PC like, two years ago. That was pretty cool.

 

[[0hr]Sunlapse]

Haha.... I love how the scientists use thier evidence to come to a scientifical conclusion or prediction that we will see aliens in exactly "100 years". Right......... how the hell do you predict things like that.......

 

[Stygian_Apothegm]

Haha.... I love how the scientists use thier evidence to come to a scientifical conclusion or prediction that we will see aliens in exactly "100 years". Right......... how the hell do you predict things like that.......

same way you predict that a hotpocket takes 30 minutes to cook.

 

[Obyeybyeogone]

Aliens have green penises lol!

Are green penises shorter or longer than black penises??

 

[Stygian_Apothegm]

aliens are asexual.

 

[Yicjdic]

Haha.... I love how the scientists use thier evidence to come to a scientifical conclusion or prediction that we will see aliens in exactly "100 years". Right......... how the hell do you predict things like that.......

They said within 100 years. There are ways of predicting this...although of course it is all statistical. Based on a equation called the Drake equation astronomers guess how many stars have planets rovolving around them that have intelligent life that are capable of transmiting radio waves, i think the best guess is somewhere in between 1 in 10,000 or 1 in 100,000 depends on who you ask. Then you find out how many stars we've searched so far, how fast detection technology is growing, and guess the number of stars you think you may have to look at before you see a good population sample of 10,000 or 100,000 stars. If you do an integration of the technology growth equation as a funtion of time you can determine how many years (based on best estimates) that it will take to detect an alien signal. By the way common misconception...if we find this signal we wont be communicating with the aliens..we might not even be able to decipher what message they are transmitting...let alone get a reply from them for the next 1000 years or so.

 

[TheSilentMan]

*brain fries* :zombie:

 

[Static]

If aliens show up I bet you $50 they WON'T destroy US, and we WILL destroy THEM!