Alien Signals From Space - A Theory

I have a theory:

I was originally was going to post this in the thread created by DaddyBare -

The WOW signal (6EOUJ567) first contact

However, I would prefer to get views separately on this theory and didn't want to take away from the topic of that thread.

In the OP, the following quote by the gentleman (Jerry Ehman) that discovered this signal is where this theory stems:

“Even if it were intelligent beings sending a signal,” he said in an interview, “they’d do it far more than once. We should have seen it again when we looked for it 50 times.”

Now my theory:

Hypothetically, let's say an Advanced Alien Species was actively seeking intelligent life throughout the vast Universe (for what purpose aside). So they send out an array of signals of varying signal types. Let's assume that radio signals would be the first in the array to more (perhaps undiscovered) advanced communication platforms. Seemingly, if a species was advanced enough to receive, decode, and eventually respond to one of these signals then the lines of communication would be established.

From what we know of our own advancement, it doesn't happen overnight. Therefore it is plausible to presume that this Advanced Alien Species would only send one transmission burst of varying signals on a periodic basis. Lets say one transmission burst every 100 years. If they receive no response, fine, the next transmission will go out in a 100 years in the hopes that the species has advanced enough to receive one of the signals in the array.

Now let's assume that the WOW signal we received was one of these theoretical centennial transmissions of multiple signals within one transmission array. In our level of advancement at the time we just so happened to receive the WOW signal in the array which we'll assume was the most basic of the accompanied signal types.

The Aliens, possessing the intelligence they seemingly would, would realize that a civilization would need time to evolve/advance in order to receive and reply to said signal hence the theoretical 100 year cycle.

Technically, we've been responding since we developed the ability to transmit Radio waves, more or less, via all the Radio and TV transmissions that we've inadvertently sent out into the Universe. Albeit it has been suggested that these waves haven't made it far enough to have reached anywhere of significance, but do continue to expand through the Universe as you're reading this.

So when a species responds with a message within a specific format it could allow for a gauge of sorts for the Advanced Alien Species to determine the receiving species level of advancement based on their reply.

So that's it...that's not too far fetched is it?

reply to post by UberL33t


Interesting thought process....sounds like you could parse that down into a a logline for a movie script idea....oh, wait, it's been done already (darn!)

Still....we are dealing with the speed of light, as a limit.

We are assuming a technologically advanced species that happens to have the wherewithall, and patience to embark on such a long term program (of course, we only assume their lifespan is similar to our in length, etc....many et ceteras...)

There is also the question of how BIG space is, and whether there is any specific directional aim, to this alleged "signal"...I suppose these alleged "beings" could narrow, and therefore, not waste efforts on areas of their "sky" that don't contain suitable stars of the proper type, that would be most likely to harbor planetary systems suitable to life...

BUT, the biggest problem that (I think) we will keep bumping up against is one of time scales....and NOT just the speed of light issues....but the SCALE of evolution, and how in overall ranges of time, OUR species (we puny Humans) haven't existed for very long, at all.

The Galaxy, and the Universe too, is so vast, and so ancient, that to expect EVERY lifeform that ever evolved to be on a sortof parallel time-frame with ours is, well....amazing. It would be an AMAZING coincidence.

If we only separate timelines by 100,000 Earth years, then you might be able to see my point, here. BUT, 100,000 years is just a TINY blip in time...consider the dinosaurs, here on Earth, a variety of species that survived for MILLIONS of years....

See it yet? I hope so....










[edit on 5 May 2010 by weedwhacker]

reply to post by weedwhacker

we are dealing with the speed of light, as a limit.

Based on our current knowledge, yes

that to expect EVERY lifeform that ever evolved to be on a sortof parallel time-frame with ours is, well....amazing.

As far as evolution is concerned, we only have our own to base anything off of. We theorize that there is life in the Universe, if it happened here then why not elsewhere. Locally (our Solar System) it is theorized that there could be microbial life in the water under the ice on Europa and the possibility of microbial life on Mars for that matter. If we ever verify this then evolution is no longer constrained to time but will be more associated with conditions for said evolution to ensue.

Earth, possesses the perfect conditions for life. There are too many unknowns to even fathom the amount of similar conditions that could be located in the Universe. It took Billions of years for Earth to get where it's at. That's not to say that other perfectly conditioned planets in the Universe could have been around a lot longer than Earth. On that notion, levels of evolution could span from microbial to advanced species and everything in between.

reply to post by UberL33t


About your speed of light response...

Based on our current knowledge, yes

Well, that was kinda-sorta my point. OUR current knowledge.

I mean....some very advanced civilization could be spreading information out there that we have NO TECHNOLOGY to 'receive', or maybe even not yet comprehend the science.

It's like expecting Europeans to be able to see "smoke signals" sent up by indigenous peoples of the Americas, centuries ago....

Furthermore, IF "they" (and if they exist) are using something very, very advanced, then perhaps "they" don't want to hear back from any of us who are so 'primitive' to not be able to respond, in using that same technology.

Lots and lots of speculation, which is fun, but way, way too much anthroporphizing, so far.




[edit on 5 May 2010 by weedwhacker]

trying to mix 2 theories together\science and religion

What if 70 to 80 million years ago aliens sent a transmission to earth and received a reply from "Pre-Adamite Man"? Upon receiving the return message they in turn made first contact with PAM In the Earth capital of Atlantis.

After meeting Zeus the Earth's Emperor, Possibly they could have found PAM a twisted war like culture on the brink of destroying the Earth or they could have been close to entering space.

Perhaps the alien race made the decision to fire a weapon into the Earth somewhere around the Yuchatan Pennisula "Atlantis Location". However the aliens misjudged the yield of there weapon when the projectile pierced the atmosphere and fell through the hole in the ozone layer with little resistance. The weapon impacted near What is now the Gulf of Mexico, igniting the poluted greenhouse gas laden atmosphere caused the immediate extinction of several species.

Emperor Zeus was killed and buried in a triangular tomb somewhere near Bermuda. The survivors of the E.L.E went on to build pyramids that pointed to the heavens as a reminder to future generations to not send message into space. Because all the survivors were from the same areas the soon devolved into sub-humans due to inbreeding. Eventually due to the blast that rocked the earth everything died and the Ice caps melted flooding the whole earth making formless and void.

The wow signal is said to have originated near the direction of Chi Sagittarii, which is made of up three stars. X1 is 220 light years distance, X2 is 1200 light years distant, X3 is 506 light years distant.

If they are awaiting our reply which they might assume we would have sent after we received their signal, they still have some 187 years left to wait at a minimum. Did we reply? I cant recall ever reading if we sent anything back.

They may well have sent other signals in the past or in the interim, but if we aren't monitoring that piece of space at the same time, in that frequency, we may have missed it.

Lets keep in mind that they would have to know we were here first to specifically communicate with us and keep trying.

We may have just been number 5001 on a list of 10000 odd stars they sent that signal too, and it was blind luck we caught it.

Its very hard to say, theres just so much we dont know.

reply to post by weedwhacker


Anthropomorphizing? Absolutely!

It's human nature to do so.

perhaps "they" don't want to hear back from any of us who are so 'primitive'

That was the idea behind the array of signals within each transmission ranging from primitive to advanced. Therein based on the response would allow the ones that generated the signal to gauge the advancement level and either respond further, or ignore them as you suggest until they have responded on the advanced side of the scale.

This way they could weed (no pun ) out, if you will, species that do not yet make the cut so to speak. They either destroy themselves or advance accordingly.

Lots and lots of speculation, which is fun

I concur, and I appreciate your contribution to the thread.

reply to post by Gaderel

I cant recall ever reading if we sent anything back.

Aside from the 50 or so years of Analogue Signals that we've beamed into space, which wouldn't have come close to reaching the stars you've mentioned. The only other response, more of an introduction, is the Voyager spacecraft to the best of my knowledge that is.

reply to post by Loken68


Loke, that's a good a theory as any. Mostly anything before recorded human history is primarily based on speculation and theory. So who's to say you're not spot on with your theory.

I was trying to read but your avatar is bugging me out...
I keep falling off my chair!

Great topic though I love this stuff

Not only would they possibly be more advanced, Lets say for a momment they sent the signal when they were at our level of technology. So 200 years ago they sent the signal towards us, we caught it. now we send the same signal back at them in radio form. The have had 200 years to gain new ways of passing signals. perhaps they have abolished the use of radio wave communications. So now they never receive our reply. Perhaps they were looking for advanced races to help them (as some members here on the boards want) So we sent a signal to a dieing race of aliens who may not even be listening anymore. or maybe they had their own climatic event. Or maybe they blew themselves up, sadly in 180 years we wont be around to find out, and maybe our children will know of aliens if they are listening. Hopefully in that time we can send ships to them.

Lots of if and so in there. It's just speculation.

reply to post by Gaderel

...Chi Sagittarii, which is made of up three stars. X1 is 220 light years distance, X2 is 1200 light years distant, X3 is 506 light years distant.

You just (knowingly, or unknowingly) made a very good point ABOUT stars, as we observe them from our vantage point.


ALL too often, most Humans think of the stars (and the "constellations") in terms of two dimensions, as if they are just pinpoints in some dark velvet "sky" draped overhead.....

...when, in fact, the stars out there are in THREE dimensions, and the 'arrangements' (constellation patterns) we see are just an illusion.


I continue to be baffled by that, and how some people seem to just not "get it".

There are videos (If I can find one, I will post) showing animations of various perspectives of stars' arrangements, from different vantage points, and ALSO showing how the relative arrangements will vary (and have varied) over hundreds of thousands, and millions of years, since EVERY star is constantly in motion, relative to every other star, in our Galaxy, in one way or another.

(Yes, in general, the Galaxy is rotating about a 'common' center, but not nearly as 'organized' way as we see in the motions of the various planets in our Solar System, for instance).

Much, much more complex and chaotic.

Oh, and just a personal peeve, but let's remember...."Solar System", refers to "Sol" (our Sun)....any other organized system of a star and its planets would be a "Star System" generically, or IF the Star has a designaiton, then we could use that to further identify it.

ALSO, the term "galaxy" is mis-used (not here, yet, but in many other places). Oh, and "Inter-Galactic", while I'm on about it....

...Travel within our own Galaxy would be "Intra-Galactic"....the prefix "inter-" describes travel between the locations mentioned. As in, "Interstellar"....travel between two different stars.

"Intra-stellar" (or 'Intra-Solar', for our system) would describe travel between the planets...or, of course, could say "Inter-planetary" too.

Hope this clears up a few of the technical details, and descriptions. just for snits and grins.....




[edit on 5 May 2010 by weedwhacker]

reply to post by UberL33t


I meant specifically to this signal, but yes I was aware of the others you mentioned. If we didn't send something back, seriously what a wasted opportunity, even if it would be a minimum of a 200+ year wait for a reply.

reply to post by anubis9311


"anubis"...another good description, and postulating.

AND, a germ of a possible story idea, except that has been done, already...in sense.

(Darn, I wish I could remember better....might have been a Robert Heinlein short story....)

Story, in nutshell (and this has religious undertones that disturb me, not becuase they offend me, but because I have problems understanding the concept of 'organized' religion in general...)

....back to story. A manned mission to a star system that is about, oh, say 2,000 LY from Earth (story was written in the 1950s, I believe, so the system was 1,950 LY away...)

Happens to be a Catholic priest onboard (don't question the logic, it WAS the 1950s...). When they arrive, they discover that the star had gone nova. The outermost planet has an obvious artifact, a monument, left by the race that knew they were doomed. They had interplanetary travel ability, but not interstellar.....

So, the gist is, the crisis the priest suffers, trying to reconcile his "faith", with what he believes to have been a primary event to be pivotal to the "birth" of his "faith", in the first place....the nova, seen on Earth, roughly 2,000 years before.....and his knowledge that another entire species was lost, as a result....

Chilling, huh?

Why do Scientists and others assume that Aliens would be sending RADIO signals to us?

What if there are other civilizations out there who don't use or understand electricity any more than we understand their form of power/communication?

I have always entertained the possibility that us humans have been going about it wrong from the get-go - as far as using electricity.

Is it possible that's just one of the many avenues that can be taken to "power" things????

Things that make ya go "hmmm"...

Wouldnt line of sight come into play ?

We even have that problem on earth, if I am on one side of the planet and someone is on the other there are only two ways to communicate:
1) satellite
2) wire/cable

Wont a simple radio signal get so mixed and distorted by all of the objects floating around in space that we wont be able to tell, unless we get amazingly lucky.

I think sometime in the near future we will develop a communications system that has to do with quantum entanglement. And as soon as we "turn it on" we will here chatter like we have never heard before.

Would seem ridiculous for an extremely intelligent interstellar species to communicate using radio signals in space. Its like slapping the water while your bathing in the ocean and expect some person on the other side of the ocean to hear you slapping the water. PS: multiply the size of the ocean by a trillion or so and you get the picture.

PS: I dont know the answer to this, but what is the closets star to us and how long would it take to send a radio signal back and forth. Im sure its probably 100s of years if not more.



[edit on 5-5-2010 by R3KR]

reply to post by R3KR

Wouldnt line of sight come into play ?

I am going to say no. As the Earth is in constant rotation I think that the signals would have been thrown out into space in a spiral rotation. I found this picture that more or less shows what I am trying to say as well as how far our signal has gone. I am going on the notion that the projected signal location is this image is correct.



Image Source

reply to post by R3KR


Line of sight, you are spot on!! Kudos, that is a piece of the puzzle (and good thing to bring up, lilke the way you reason! )

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Saw an answer from OP about Line-of-sight....good point, except....you have to remember to think in ALL directions....not just merely the way one hemisphere of the Earth faces, as it rotates about its axis...right?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now....

PS: I dont know the answer to this, but what is the closets star to us and how long would it take to send a radio signal back and forth. Im sure its probably 100s of years if not more.

Well, to be perfectly technical, the nearest star (and this is always the answer to this trick question) to us is our own Sun. About eight light-minutes away.

However, the real question is which is hte nearest outside our Solar System....well, that would be Alpha Centauri (and Alpha Proxima)...in fact, I think there are THREE stars associated with that system, but those are the two primaries.

They are about 4.3 LY away. SO....IF you wished to send a signal, at light speed, it is 4.3 years (give or take a few hours, for the relative movements of earth, and any planet that might be there) each way.

NOW....try to find a way to make the signal strong enough, when transmitting, to be receivable, etc, etc.....and, better make your message as good one. It's a long wait for a response.




[edit on 5 May 2010 by weedwhacker]

reply to post by impaired


Its an assumption but what is the alternative?

Radiation is prevalent throughout the universe in many forms, any advanced species should be familiar with it, and it is assumed would have harnessed it at some stage for communications.

Likewise electricity is a basic building block of technology and science.

what other forms of communication would you suggest?

reply to post by UberL33t


LOVE that image!!!

Especially because it has "Wolf 359" on it ( a Star Trek: TNG reference....."we have engaged the Borg! )

Also, 40 Eridani --- which I think is mentioned, one time or another, as the home system of Vulcan....or, one of their colonies, forget which....another Star trek reference. I think I'm seeing a pattern, there....

Of course, some of the more recent popular TV shows they reference are mostly cable shows, so they really aren't likely to have been 'broadcast' out to our friendly ( and I expect perplexed ) ET neighbors!