Australian SETI-Astronomers Detect Unknown Signal

We have no idea what an advanced species might use.

If we went back in time, say 1000 years ago, and tried to explain a radio the people would think it was magic.

If I went back 100 years ago and tried to explain to people Quantum Teleportation, they would think it was a crock of bovine scat.

Even 50 years ago alot of scientists would have issues with it.

I personally think Qubit transmission might be more plausible than radio or laser, but I don't think there is a method yet to detect any form of qubit transmission. Since it would use quantum entanglement to transmit information, I have no idea how that could even be detected.

reply to post by MikeboydUS

I have no idea how that could even be detected.

Well in theory you would have to have a device capable of receiving and decoding information being carried by gravitons and gravity waves.

What in that old quote from Arthur C. Clarke?

Any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic.

reply to post by jkrog08


Thats only if the system involved graviton communication.

At the present we don't know if gravitons exist, they are theoretical, and will be near impossible to detect.

Can Gravitons be Detected?
www.springerlink.com...

I personally think the qubit transmission might involve some particle that completely bypasses 3 dimensional space.

Trying to detect communication channels that involve "hyperspace" would be impossible on modern day earth.

[edit on 18/5/09 by MikeboydUS]

Here is an update on this story:

www.theaustralian.news.com.au...

The quest of SETI astronomers, however, is not just for the discovery of an Earth-like planet but for life intelligent enough to transmit meaningful signals across vast stretches of space. For more than 40 years, they have been doggedly searching for alien transmissions via radio telescope, tracking tens of millions of radio signals across different sections of the night sky, but so far the results have been, by any scientific standard, dismal.

There has been a handful of false alarms - the detection of short, intense bursts of electromagnetic energy that might be transmitted by an advanced civilisation - but these have been later shown to be caused by other cosmic phenomena, such as quasars.

The belief that an alien civilisation might also be listening to our television and radio signals has also been dashed by the recent discovery that the signals don't, as once thought, reach into deep space: they eventually become so weak that they disappear in the roar of the electromagnetic noise.

That is partly why the OZ OSETI (o for optical) project and a handful of its US counterparts have turned to laser pulse technology in what is the most ambitious effort yet to detect a signal from an alien species. "For an advanced civilisation, radio wave technology would be old hat," Bhathal says. "My strong feeling is that if there are (extraterrestrial intelligence) civilisations out there, they will send the signal by laser pulses or laser flashes."

In 2000, science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, a former patron of the Australian SETI project, advised Bhathal to "let the better spectrum, light" drive his search for ET. Bhathal's OZ OSETI project is the only dedicated project for searching for ET in the optical spectrum in the southern hemisphere.

"NASA is already using lasers for space communication and it's not unrealistic to imagine that an extraterrestrial intelligence might be using them as well," Bhathal says.

"In terms of Earth technology today, we have achieved a maximum of 1015 watts of laser power for a brief period, butan advanced civilisation could have lasers with powers of 1025." He admits, however, that our failure to pick up any interstellar signals so far could mean that advanced civilisations are using a communications technique still not discovered on Earth.

"It is risky to judge everything by our own technology," he says.

reply to post by grover


Laser-like signal coming from Gliese 581e???
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by zorgon
UPDATE

Have that reply from Dr Bhathal

Hi Ron

Thanks for your email. I think a couple of people from the European press made a mistake and associated my work with the work on extra-solar planets. I am carrying out a search for ETI in the optical spectrum. We are looking for laser pulse signals from outer space.

The signal we detected came from the southern constellation Tucanae. Please find attached the signal for your use in your publications.
We are still in the process of trying to figure out whether it is an ETI signal.

Cheers.

Ragbir

This is a celestial map of the constellation Tucana, the Toucan.



[edit on 5-9-2009 by zorgon]

Originally posted by grover

Besides that this is one of the most poorly written piece I've ever read...
Even with the horrible grammar it is an interesting read...

You ARE aware that the blog is a GERMAN site and what your reading is merely a translation?

:shk:

[quote
Thing is I don't know what stellar object would produce a laser like light beam though since they are highly focused energy beams.

Yes well... that is PRECISELY the 'thing' isn't it?

Originally posted by pavil
I would think using a laser to communicate would be a rather inefficient way to broadcast, as you will only be hitting a very small section of the universe around you while radio waves and the like travel basically is every direction from your planet. Even if you knew the location you wanted to laser beam your transmission to, the obstacles in the way and the math involved in hitting your target in another Solar System seem too hard to overcome.

Oy...

First of all we are using lasers for transmitting data now...

Second radio waves carry data my modulation... and all the signals that have left earth since we began broadcasting radio and TV are just now reaching the 100 light year range and by the time those signals even get to Alpha Centauri (a mere 4.2 light years away... the signal is so degraded that no one will be able to understand anything

Third... and just because we intercepted it doesn't mean it was meant for us... might have been a momentary pulse as 'they' focused on their target... Why assume they were trying to hit another solar system? We beam lasers to send power to satellites and soon to bases on the moon... a stray shot would go out and be spotted somewhere else, but we are not targeting another solar system

Originally posted by Shakesbeerthen exactly how are they made & why can't we duplicate them ourselves?

Not sure how come you 'Croppies' always manage to sneak in that viral marketing for 'cropcircleconnectors'

This thread is NOT about crop circles..

But to answer your question...

Like this

Originally posted by jkrog08Why would we assume the basic communication systems of advanced ETs would be anything we can conceive?

Well if there INTENTION is to communicate with another species, would they not be intelligent enough to send a signal that the intended recipient could understand?

I mean if I was writing a letter to a Russian who did not speak English I would most likely NOT use Greek

They could be using communication bands in the EM spectrum we have not discovered yet.

ANY EM spectrum communication for interstellar distances would be pointless and stupid... as EM is limited to the speed of light, at least until we develop sub space radio ( a concept we already have conceived )

Or better yet they could be using a type of quantum communication device. Here is a bit of info on the later...

Well that seems most likely... but as you just showed... we already understand that as well

The thing that bothers me is WHY people always assume that ET's MUST be smarter than us.... WHY? Because they made a spaceship to get here? Tesla gave us that 100 years ago... WWII and greed are what stopped us. Ben Rich said “We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity….. anything you can imagine we already know how to do.” - Ben Rich, former Head of the Lockheed Skunk Works

What if those visiting Earth are some galactic trogladites or pirates that stole some saucers? Or some upstart planet that shot down some visitors and reverse engineered the craft... but unlike us their government went ahead with it instead of hiding it?

The only difference needed for ET to visit us is ONE piece of technology a star drive be it electrogravitic or warp drive. Discoveries are serendipitous... had we listened to Tesla we would already be out there... and no wiser than we are now...

We already have work on gravity shielding and warp drives... the papers are at LLNL. LANL. U of W/M...and even at NASA

But all those claiming how advance these aliens must be... still cling to the fact that they are using doodles in crops to send us a message no one can understand

I would laugh... but man its sad... truly sad...

No wonder those ET's don't want anything to do with this Kindergarten planet...

And a truly advanced level 3 civilization would care about us as much as we care about a colony of ants

Now in my opinion what SETI should be doing is monitoring LOCAL SPACE

If there are as many alien ship hanging around Earth and our solar system as yawl claim, surely we would pick up some local ship to ship chatter or ship to ground crew chatter... or even ET phoning home...

Unless they are all using radio silence and communicating via telepathy... another concept we can understand


[edit on 5-9-2009 by zorgon]

reply to post by MikeboydUS


Hey mike,

We already have prototype Gravity Wave Communications technologies that will allow instantaneous communication. Even Buzz Aldrin is working on a more public version of it with Gravwave:

Of the applications of high-frequency gravitational waves (HFGWs), communication appears to be the most important and most immediate. Gravitational waves have a very low cross section for absorption by normal matter, so high-frequency waves could, in principle, carry significant information content with effectively no absorption unlike electromagnetic (EM) waves. Multi-channel HFGW communications can be both pointto- point (for example, to deeply submerged submarines) and point-to-multipoint, like cell phones. HFGWs pass through all ordinary material things without attenuation and represent the ultimate wireless system. One could communicate directly through the Earth from Moscow in Russia to Caracas in Venezuela—without the need for fiber optic cables, microwave relays, or satellite transponders. Antennas, cables, and phone lines would be things of the past.

-High-Frequency Gravitational Wave
Communications Study (GravCom®)

*If you choose to research the matter further, you will find that in the real-world no one talks about 'gravitons'. Such talk is relegated to the folks who never made it out of Academia.

(I am just sayin, don't be surprised if you don't see 'graviton' anywhere)

It's a wave, baby! Woo!


[edit on 6-9-2009 by Exuberant1]

reply to post by zorgon


they should make a movie about an ET civilisation receiving those original broadcasts. that would be awesome.

I remember the bit on Contact when they realised the ET's had just heard Hitlers broadcasts.

Originally posted by grantbeed

I remember the bit on Contact when they realised the ET's had just heard Hitlers broadcasts.

Consider those speeches as lessons on how to get an economy out of a slump.

If you were an ET, wouldn't you want to contact the most economically sound and politically stable nation? Especially if that nation has objectives which lay in the stars. America was in a depression that Germany had just got out of. And I doubt the aliens would want anything to do with Uncle Joe.

In any case, I don't think the German transmissions would have made it out that far. The aliens would have to rely on interpretation of other sensor data to extrapolate the messages. In other words, their sensor technology would have to be such that they would be able to discern the information content of the transmission by examining matter which had been exposed to it.

This is the direction we are headed in with our technology.


*This may be the origin of the Akashic Record, which Ancients knew about and could access.


[edit on 6-9-2009 by Exuberant1]

Originally posted by grantbeed

they should make a movie about an ET civilisation receiving those original broadcasts. that would be awesome.

Don't forget our movies 50 years ago were showing what we did to any Aliens and they will just be getting "I love Lucy" and the Beatles and the fact we nuked a few cities

Stars within 50 light years



www.atlasoftheuniverse.com...

reply to post by zorgon


yes, thats right. I dont think they would think too much of "the day the earth stood still" !!

just imagine it. some other civilisation sitting down watching our TV from the very start.

eventually they will be exposed to pop idols and big brother. lets hope they switch it off before it gets to that stage!!


very cool diagram by the way zorgon.

[edit on 6-9-2009 by grantbeed]

Originally posted by MikeboydUS
If we went back in time, say 1000 years ago, and tried to explain a radio the people would think it was magic.

A 1000 years ago people used magic which we can't explain

If I went back 100 years ago and tried to explain to people Quantum Teleportation, they would think it was a crock of bovine scat.

A 100 years ago Jules Verne was describing the Apollo Mission

Originally posted by zorgon

A 1000 years ago people used magic which we can't explain

A 100 years ago Jules Verne was describing the Apollo Mission

And 2400 years ago, Democritus of Abdera put forth his systematic argument for the primacy of the atom.

*I'd say it looks like humanity has had a Governor put on it.