Scientists Now Searching for "Alien Transit Systems"

a reply to: JadeStar

This was all I could think of when the quoted article described the theoretical apparatus.
design.osu.edu...

tron.wikia.com...

a reply to: Aliensun

Could you link to one or two of these posts, please?

a reply to: Thecakeisalie

It isn't really the wake of a solar sail craft that's being searched for. Rather, it is the 'leakage' or overage of narrow angle confined microwave or other em frequency beams used to propel them. These would actually be a fairly good beacon if aimed closely enough in our direction to detect. While they wouldn't necessarily carry any encoded information, they would likely be a fairly narrow spread of the EM spectrum optimized for the specific materials of the sail and least amount of energy loss at long distances.

Any civilization with the capability for interplanetary travel surely at one point had their own "I Love Lucy" type of era? So how can these Ivy Leaguers think that we'd detect those microwave bursts (which travel at the speed of light, right?) before the ET Lucy radio signals (which also travel at light speed?) I agree with the poster who said this is SETI distraction. Or an appeal for more funding. Or both.

originally posted by: Zobel
Any civilization with the capability for interplanetary travel surely at one point had their own "I Love Lucy" type of era? So how can these Ivy Leaguers think that we'd detect those microwave bursts (which travel at the speed of light, right?) before the ET Lucy radio signals (which also travel at light speed?) I agree with the poster who said this is SETI distraction. Or an appeal for more funding. Or both.

turns out even though the interstellar medium is rarified: that medium , coupled with the inverse square law; would put the signal below background noise level within a couple of light years distance.

however military and civilian ATC radar signals are strong enough to be detected 100 light years away from their source.

a reply to: Zobel

Being a more confined beam, they would maintain their signal strength for greater distances than an omnidirectional broadcast like I love grelblatz. Also, they may be a higher power transmission to begin with, given their purpose. Both of these would lend themselves to giving a potentially greater possibility of detection. But, the narrow beam also has the disadvantage of needing to be directed relatively straight in our direction to detect.

It's better to intercept them first then to be intercepted.
But I think the odds are small.

Why not focus on quantum communication systems that listening for extraterrestrial quantum communication ?

a reply to: 0bserver1

But one of the biggest attractions of quantum communication is truly unbreakable encryption. And if they are sufficiently advanced enough to have mastered that technology, there's probably a good chance they already know of our existence and possibly the level of our own technology. Would you want the unstable guy down the street using or intercepting your wifi? I doubt we would be able to distinguish their signals from the background simply for that reason.

a reply to: pfishy well I think we only have to search for the lesser evolved being or equal . All the higher civilizations would probably shield their communication.

If this is the model for finding civilizations that it's orderly selected by evolution. Then we do not have seach for the higher evolved being,because they will find us first.. I say problem solved we wait and see .

But I think evolution also generates from environmental properties. If we develop better optics because our atmosphere let us see more then other planets have ,then other species will concentrate more on what their world has to offer. So there goes my theory of evolution. .

a reply to: JadeStar

from www.evawaseerst.be...

Scholz’ star flew through the Oort cloud about 75.000 years ago.

The gods created the mega disasters about 12.000 years ago.

That makes us believe they are about 12.000 or more years further in their evolution. An evolution –if you compare it to the one humanity is making- that takes giant leaps almost every day (in a manner of speaking).

Who knows of what the gods are capable of at this moment? We are simply ot in the ability to search for them but they may be in the abilty to look at us. (The only reason Seti and other organisations exist is because you never know if our creators made an intelligent life form on another plantet nearby or on a planet like the ones near scholz's star.)

Maybe our crators now use wormholes or other forces based on magnetism, like the so called UFO’s to reach and influence us? Maybe they have means we can’t even imagine.

If they are ‘good’: why should they left their creatures (us) unprotected? (Edgard Mitchell is telling us somewhat the same.)

Conclusion: an unlikely large number of high-ranking persons told us (and are still telling us) that aliens are watching humanity. That seems not so crazy.

Our creators could be our guardian angels coming from about 20 light years away, not in a material form but in bundles of white lights loaded with energy (and maybe consciousness) to keep an eye on our evolution.

It would be far easier to just blow the lid off the existing power structure and SSP and get the existing technologies down here to be studied and the hidden histories brought into the light. But I suppose in the meantime something like this could actually uncover something. Supposedly there are interesting things all over this solar system and galaxy, as well as buried on this planet. How about looking for natural stargates? Closer looks at the sun? How about a privately funded agency that we can actually trust to look around in space instead of Never A Straight Answer? That way we know if we see something on a camera it won't be immediately blurred/fuzzy and/or written off as something that belongs there.

originally posted by: zatara

originally posted by: pfishy
I have to admit, I was half hoping the OP article would be about distortions in spacetime due to frequent warp travel through certain areas, and a method to search for it. TNG really set the bar too high for my science fantasies.

Because folding space with a wormhole is the most fastest way to get somewhere in the universe I propose searching for wormhole signatures in space.

Actually, that is precisely what I intend to do with my robot when deployed...

It turns out that the signature of a wormhole is very much like that of gravitational lensing...I can write software to recognize such a phenomena and perform "off line" analysis to determine (hopefully) IF it was a wormhole or not...and if lucky, we can get a glimpse at ET's area of space in the process.

This is something that can be done to any existing body of data. The Kepler data for instance could be "mined" for such signatures, or indeed any field of view from any telescope.

a reply to: smarterthanyou

Those agencies that you speak of exist now. They are in their infancy, but it all has to start somewhere.
I am, of course, referring to SpaceX, Orbital Sciences, the Planetary Society (sort of ), Virgin Galactic, Bigelow Aerospace (the only private company to orbit a viable inhabitable structure prototype. 2, actually.)
Unfortunately, I think most of us were simply born too early to see our dreams of human space exploration come true.

a reply to: tanka418

Isn't this being researched already, though to an admittedly limited extent? This paper discusses a slightly different method, concentrating mostly on supermassive black holes, but you might find it interesting. Though, to forewarn you, it is from the arxiv site, so it may be too heavy on the technical aspects for some. Also, it must be downloaded.

arxiv.org

Why are we spending money on trying to find artificial light on Pluto in the unlikely event that aliens have set up a base there?

What a ridiculous waste of money.

There are so many issues on Planet Earth that can be addressed from money going to this sort of ridiculousness. If scientists actually put their heads together to solve problems on Earth rather than putting their formidable intelligence into trying to find aliens that may or may not exist, we'd all be a lot better off.

Let's stop spending money on stuff like this.

a reply to: babybunnies

I agree that we have plenty of problems here on Earth to solve. But 'what if'?
What if we make contact with an extraterrestrial race who has been through the same troubles and has solved them?
Admittedly, this is rather Trek-y but what if they would be perfectly willing to help us, but don't want to interfere with our development until we reach a level of advancement that allows us to discover them?
I know these are HUGE 'ifs'. But many technologies developed for or as a direct result of research into space travel and space itself have already helped to eliminate many of the world's issues.

originally posted by: babybunnies
Why are we spending money on trying to find artificial light on Pluto in the unlikely event that aliens have set up a base there?

What a ridiculous waste of money.

There are so many issues on Planet Earth that can be addressed from money going to this sort of ridiculousness. If scientists actually put their heads together to solve problems on Earth rather than putting their formidable intelligence into trying to find aliens that may or may not exist, we'd all be a lot better off.

Let's stop spending money on stuff like this.

Do you know how little is actually spent on space? For 2015 NASA's budget was $17.5 Billion...that is out of a total of around $3.8 Trillion, or about 0.005% (one half of one percent)

Given that NASA and the "space budget" have provided science and technology to make our lives here on-world significantly better (things like your computer and phone, car, ...), I should think more should be spent.

By the way; there is not a single aspect of your and everyone's life here on Earth that has not been significantly improved by the effort (as a species) to move into space...

originally posted by: pfishy
a reply to: tanka418

Isn't this being researched already, though to an admittedly limited extent? This paper discusses a slightly different method, concentrating mostly on supermassive black holes, but you might find it interesting. Though, to forewarn you, it is from the arxiv site, so it may be too heavy on the technical aspects for some. Also, it must be downloaded.

arxiv.org

Thanks...I visit that site frequently...and, I'm a big boy now, with a big boy's education, though not specifically in astronomy, or astrophysics.

And here we have yet other aspects of the wormhole, though in this case perhaps ore applicable to Blackholes...I shall have to evaluate this and see what the impact is on being able to recognize wormholes...my goal to virtually automate the process...computer vision and AI should be able to do this...

a reply to: tanka418

The comment about it being potentially science-heavy wasn't directed to anyone specific. Just to hopefully let people without the desire or ability to try and read it avoid disappointment.

Anyone else notice that Phage is approaching 100k stars? :-)