Jump to content
Join the Unexplained Mysteries community today! It's free and setting up an account only takes a moment.
- Sign In or Create Account -

SETI project to look for Alien laser flashes


Recommended Posts

Quote

SETI project wants to hunt laser-wielding ETs

The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) focuses mainly on looking for radio signals from civilizations elsewhere in the galaxy, but the SETI Institute is taking a new approach – and it involves lasers. Seeking funding via a crowdfunding campaign, the Institute wants to build a series of specialized camera observatories to constantly scan the entire sky in search for transient laser flashes that could be signs of intelligent life.

http://newatlas.com/seti-lasers-extra-terrestrial-alien-life/50500/



 

Quote

 

Why We Need a New Type of SETI Instrument

Imagine this scenario: On a world orbiting a neighboring star, a society more advanced than our own has used large telescopes to survey all the planets within a few hundred light-years.  In this sample of a million worlds, it finds that one percent show the tell-tale atmospheric gases that indicate life.  One of these is Earth.

This society is sufficiently distant that clues to the existence of Homo sapiens, in the form of high-powered radio signals, have yet to arrive.  But their scientists know that Earth is laminated with biology of some kind.

And so, simply as a wake-up call to any intelligence that might be here, they occasionally “ping” Earth with a short flash of laser light – the kind of signal that any technically competent species could recognize as artificial and deliberate.

Such pinprick light flashes could be routinely dotting the heavens today, but we wouldn’t know.  Most telescopes are insensitive to short light pulses, and in any case are focused on tiny patches of the sky.  We would no more be aware of such signals than Columbus was of Jupiter’s moons, despite the fact that they were in plain sight.

http://www.seti.org/why-we-need-a-new-type-of-seti-instrument7


 

 

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I also think we will see other life, before we hear it, with advanced telescopes that are forthcoming.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

we are looking for evidence of alien life that still use light or EM spectrum for communication. how much longer are we going to use EM for communication? 50 years? how much longer until we develop a viable quantum communication method? so we are looking for civilizations that exist in a maybe 300 year period of time. if they use other methods, more advanced methods, how will we detect it?

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, pbarosso said:

we are looking for evidence of alien life that still use light or EM spectrum for communication. how much longer are we going to use EM for communication? 50 years? how much longer until we develop a viable quantum communication method? so we are looking for civilizations that exist in a maybe 300 year period of time. if they use other methods, more advanced methods, how will we detect it?

 

actually when we look at stars we are literally looking back in time


 

Quote

 

Why is looking out into space the same as looking back in time?

This is because of the finite speed of light. When we look at objects that are very large distances away from us, the light that is hitting us now will have started from the object quite a long time ago, so in effect we aren't looking at what the object looks like now but what it looked like some time ago (when the light was emitted).

For example, Proxima Centauri, which is the closest star to us (other than the Sun), is about 4 light-years away. This means that the light we see from it now left the star about 4 years ago. Something catastrophic could have happened to the star within those four years and we can't know about it yet (but that's unlikely, by the way!).

http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/133-physics/general-physics/general-questions/835-why-is-looking-out-into-space-the-same-as-looking-back-in-time-beginner


 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

SETI is looking for Earth2 along with humanoid2. Indeed, a very small slice of the intelligent-life pie.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, pbarosso said:

we are looking for evidence of alien life that still use light or EM spectrum for communication. how much longer are we going to use EM for communication? 50 years? how much longer until we develop a viable quantum communication method? so we are looking for civilizations that exist in a maybe 300 year period of time. if they use other methods, more advanced methods, how will we detect it?

It is a track of logic that a hypothetical alien civilization, with a hypothetical higher level of technology than humans, stepped through levels of "lower" technology during their development. So it is probable that this hypothetical alien civilization used EM for communication attempts/ communication in their past, maybe successfully. If they might use other channels than EM today, they would use EM today as well because its a known medium to communicate. Its unlikely that a highly developed hypothetical alien civilization would not use all the options that are available, when looking for contact/s.

Edited by toast
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, pbarosso said:

we are looking for evidence of alien life that still use light or EM spectrum for communication. how much longer are we going to use EM for communication? 50 years? how much longer until we develop a viable quantum communication method? so we are looking for civilizations that exist in a maybe 300 year period of time. if they use other methods, more advanced methods, how will we detect it?

we have to work with the technology we have at present and that's all we can do and hope for best . with our own progress we should adopt new ways of hunting alien life 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If SETI detect a signal from an alien civilisation in the EM band it may well have been transmitted so long ago that the senders of the signal have either become extinct, left their home star long ago or evoloved to become non-corporeal. 

It'd still be really iinteresting to know that other civilisations exist or existed, even if all we can do is watch their version of EastEnders.

Maybe gravitational waves used to modulate transmissions might give a more real time veiw of the universe, admittedley that would essentially involve plucking the fabric of space-time like a guitar string.

I like the idea of using quantum entaglement as a method of communicating real-time over vast distances, but unless the aliens are going to teleport an entangled particle directly into an ion trap we're unlikely to have a conversation with an alien civilisation, or learn anything of their present status

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/18/2017 at 8:54 AM, toast said:

It is a track of logic that a hypothetical alien civilization, with a hypothetical higher level of technology than humans, stepped through levels of "lower" technology during their development. So it is probable that this hypothetical alien civilization used EM for communication attempts/ communication in their past, maybe successfully. If they might use other channels than EM today, they would use EM today as well because its a known medium to communicate. Its unlikely that a highly developed hypothetical alien civilization would not use all the options that are available, when looking for contact/s.

thats what i said. we are looking for an alien civilization that "used" Em band for communication for (im hypothesizing here)--300 years... certainly we should expect to intercept some EM communication somewhere, sometime.....except we havent yet. it is also unreasonable to assume that they would still use it if there is a much better way to communicate, we dont use smoke signals anymore or signal fires or sound at great distance....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, pbarosso said:

it is also unreasonable to assume that they would still use it if there is a much better way to communicate, we dont use smoke signals anymore or signal fires or sound at great distance....

Your smoke signal comparison makes no sense. It is obvious by logic that a hypothetical alien civilization that would use other than the EM band for "internal" communication whould use the EM band as well when the target is to find signals from unknown civilizations. To exclude the EM band would reduce the chance for success by factor X and would make the search illogical. Its also unlikely that a hypothetical alien civilization, at a more advanced level of technology than humans, would not know about the EM band because the universe is filled up with, like radiation, IR background and photons issued by stars. Anyway, its my impression that the claim "they use other channels than EM" is more related to a kind of esoteric driven musings than driven by logic and facts.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I thought the SETI project had been mercifully put out of its misery.

 

On 7/18/2017 at 9:09 AM, pbarosso said:

we are looking for evidence of alien life that still use light or EM spectrum for communication. how much longer are we going to use EM for communication? 50 years? how much longer until we develop a viable quantum communication method? so we are looking for civilizations that exist in a maybe 300 year period of time. if they use other methods, more advanced methods, how will we detect it?

This is another aspect scientists do not seem to be looking at. They seem to think that all civilizations are going to go through the same stages of development as we have and furthermore make the erroneous assumption that they will be using the same type of technology to communicate and observe as we have done.

Remember when that space probe was sent out and it contained gold discs with information on it?  The laughable part of it being that these discs were basically records and we assumed other civilizations are going to have turntables on their crafts or planets. It was almost too embarrassing to take seriously.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, Ryu said:

Remember when that space probe was sent out and it contained gold discs with information on it?  The laughable part of it being that these discs were basically records and we assumed other civilizations are going to have turntables on their crafts or planets. It was almost too embarrassing to take seriously.

Thats incorrect because nobody assumed that other civilizations would have turntables. There are some very logical reasons discs were unsed. The discs have a nearly 100% resistance against radiation, are waterproof and are resistant (up to a certain but very high level) of vibration. There is no other data storage medium thats such stabile in keeping the data over a very long period of time.

In addition, the disc medium has been choosen because it could be read out even by technicans who are at the same stage of technology as humans in at least the 19th century and I would say that even Leonadro da Vinci could had managed to extract the data. Besides the data, the Golden Disc`s contain visual operating instructions showing how to do it, and its very simple. Simple in a way that low tech civilizations can read the data and also very high advanced hypothetical civilizations millions of years ahead of us.

Edited by toast
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, toast said:

Thats incorrect because nobody assumed that other civilizations would have turntables. There are some very logical reasons discs were used. The discs have a nearly 100% resistance against radiation, are waterproof and are resistant (up to a certain but very high level) of vibration. There is no other data storage medium thats such stable in keeping the data over a very long period of time.

In addition, the disc medium has been chosen because it could be read out even by technicians who are at the same stage of technology as humans in at least the 19th century and I would say that even Leonadro da Vinci could had managed to extract the data. Besides the data, the Golden Disc`s contain visual operating instructions showing how to do it, and its very simple. Simple in a way that low tech civilizations can read the data and also very high advanced hypothetical civilizations millions of years ahead of us.

I realize that. I was just trying to say that the discs were, basically, vinyl records (gold plated ones too) and from what I recall, the inscriptions showed how the discs could be played which is fine except that it is assumed that a "low tech" civilization even has turn-tables -which is how many aspects of those records are designed to be played.

I understand your point but I am simply saying that it is a leap in assumption to think other civilizations developed their technology along the same line as ours has. They may not even understand the glyphs used for playback directions.

Edited by Ryu
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 We aren't currently able to receive messages by some better method than electromagnetism-- that includes both radio and laser beams. All we can do is our best, which is far better than not trying at all. Some civilizations, not too far in advance of our knowledge, may be willing to accommodate us, and send something we can receive.

It  doesn't seem too much to expect that the means of playing back the Voyager disks could be understood by a more advanced civilization, at least ones with mentalities enough like our own to make mutual understanding possible, under any circumstances.

I found the aspiration and vision behind the Voyager records to be very inspiring, in any case, even if they're never played back.

Edited by bison
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is also possible that signs of alien civilization are so vast they have escaped detection, being ascribed to natural phenomena.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Ryu said:

I understand your point but I am simply saying that it is a leap in assumption to think other civilizations developed their technology along the same line as ours has. They may not even understand the glyphs used for playback directions.

But we had, and still have, only one working matrix available to form an assumption and we acted based on this single matrix.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

53 minutes ago, Hammerclaw said:

It is also possible that signs of alien civilization are so vast they have escaped detection, being ascribed to natural phenomena.

Could very well be, for sure. But we can really only look for what we would recognize as intelligent signals. It is a tough one.

Cheers,
Badeskov

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, badeskov said:

Could very well be, for sure. But we can really only look for what we would recognize as intelligent signals. It is a tough one.

Cheers,
Badeskov

Yes, but we may very well be like a hypothetical tribe of primitives looking for intelligible smoke signals from New York City.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lets not forget the Voyager probes, BILLIONS of miles away and yet we still get their signals

 

How Much Longer Will We Talk to the Voyagers?

The little probes that could are about to leave the solar system, and even after 35 years in space, Voyagers 1 and 2 can still communicate with the home planet. As they careen deeper into interstellar space, however, this will only grow more difficult.

Since its 1977 launch, the Voyager 1 probe has passed gas-giant planets, beamed back the famous Pale Blue Dot picture of Earth from afar, and is now passing through the limits of the solar wind's reach. Its sister craft, Voyager 2, took the first pictures of the outer gas giants, Uranus and Neptune. Likewise, it's leaving the solar system.

Despite the Voyagers' incredible distance and its 1970s hardware, scientists can still communicate with them. But how much longer will they be able to talk to the first man-made crafts to venture so far? Turns out, nobody is totally sure.

"We thought we might not be able to go beyond where we are right now," says Jim Hodder, the operations manager in charge of the arrays of antennae responsible for Voyager communications. "But because we advanced our ground systems over the past few decades, I think right now it's about another 10 years."

Distance isn't such a big problem. Technological advances since the 1977 launch have made our antenna arrays incredibly powerful, Hodder says. For example, the Deep Space Network—a series of three antenna arrays strategically placed in rural locations around the world—can send and receive messages to and from the areas well outside our solar system. Cooling the 70-meter antennas to 18 degrees Kelvin ( minus 427 F) reduces noise, and the radio waves transmit data from probes and satellites loud and clear.

The real reason scientists can't communicate with Voyager indefinitely is that the pioneering probes' fuel supply is not infinite. Eventually they will run out of juice and be left to wander the galaxy alone.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/a8029/how-much-longer-will-we-talk-to-the-voyagers-11479518/

 


 

Quote

 

Voyager 1, which is zipping along at 38,000 mph (61,000 km/h), is currently 11.7 billion miles (18.8 billion kilometers) from Earth. Voyager 2 took a different route through the solar system and is now 9.5 billion miles (15.3 billion km) from home

https://www.space.com/22783-voyager-1-interstellar-space-star-flyby.html


 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looking (where)? Short pulse (ping) of laser light does not sound likely. We will see.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As far as I know, there hasn't been any attempt to align photons within a packet to transmit a coded message in a single packet. Anyone heard of a code using this method? or know a way to decode such a 'message'? that window of opportunity is mighty small.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.