What If A Morse Code Signal Came From Space?

So, a signal in the pattern of Morse Code comes from space - would we be able to pinpoint the direction it came from and how long away it originated from?

Additionally, how would we deal with it if the code translated into "Is anybody out there? Can anybody hear us?"

Finally, (providing we were able to determine where it originated from and how far away such a point of origin was) what if this message came from somewhere like a 1000 light years away? How would we deal with that fact (it being so far away)?

It might be noted that morse code was developed in the 1830s, which is less than 200 years ago.

Check with Amateur radio enthusiast's. My old hobby, and have heard / read about such signals that were sent 'X' amount of years back, eventually returning. I have heard or read such, but I personally have - lets call it - my own doubts, until I actually receive such. Also read once about 2 unsuccessful Russian astronauts who failed to return homw and their craft simply bounced off and headed in the wrong direction. Still out there apparently. This was discovered many years back by two Italians - also Ham radio fans........ The whole story is out there on a website, read it a good few years back. Will let you know which website when and if I find it again.

en.wikipedia.org...

The above is a follow-up to the original story I earlier read.

It would read, "Hey dumbasses, stop killing each other."
2nd

How would they figure out Morse, and English?

I wouldn't believe it. Nothing's particularly special about Morse.

There has been a signal received called the WOW signal, well not in Morse though.
But I would'nt expect aliens to use old fashioned Morse code.

reply to post by HomoSapiensSapiens


We would send a reply message -

We are sorry but the civilization you are trying to reach is not advanced enough at this time. Please leave a message at the sound of beep.

Boooooop

By the time Earth's morse code signals reached 1,000 light years away, we would already have made ourselves extinct.

America has to keep bringing in 10-20 million foreigners every year because they poisoned the populace and are using various money making ventures to generate $ and jobs....while killing us at the same time.

Right now we're in "Cage Rage #2"....hammering plastic spacers into peoples spines.....makes the surgeons very quick fast....but its killing all the poor souls they're doing it to.

We won't be around when someone answers US back.

Some people above have mentioned that aliens would not send signals using Morse code.

Well, digital signals are NOT that much different!
Morse code is simply a string of ON - OFF's
Digital signals (a little bit faster) are a string of ON - OFF's.

My guess - if we received a signal, it would say - Get the BBQ on coz your all invited to be our dinner.

reply to post by HomoSapiensSapiens

So, a signal in the pattern of Morse Code comes from space - would we be able to pinpoint the direction it came from and how long away it originated from?

To be able to even find a signal you have to point the dish exactly towards where the signal comes from.
So yes we would know at least very close to where it came from.

The signal more than likely would not be in Morse Code, since that code is actually for human language.

However if you are talking about a signal that is obviously artificial in nature (as one poster said, a binary code, or an actual analog signal that has been modulated with a higher frequency, like we do with radio and television signals), the answer to some of your questions have some "depends" attached to them.

Direction: if anyone was listening, it would depend on the type of receiver and antenna they are using, and how long the signal was being transmitted. Only a directional antenna (IE a dish) would be able to pin point with any accuracy the RA (Right Ascension) and Dec (Declination) coordinates of where in the sky it would be coming from. The reason the length of transmission is important is because as someone else posted: if it's a very short signal, it might be picked up only by a HAM radio operator once, who may just shrug at it.
But if it's a long transmission, it can be reported and then radio astronomers can use their dishes to look for that signal.

Knowing How Far Away It Is: again, depends on a few things. If it was a very long, looped broadcast that lasted for at least 6 months, it would be easy because we could use parallax to pin point the distance (up to 1,500 light years away). The reason for the 6 months is because the Earth needs to move around in it orbit for us to use that parallax.
Signal strength might be a clue too, however if we don't know how strong the signal was when it left, it would be a bit hard to determine how far it's come. But if it was a very strong radio signal, I would speculate that it would be originating at least inside our solar system (just my opinion).

What we would say back? That would depend on know what the signal was trying to tell us. That may or may not be something we can do. For example: let's say aliens were able to hear the Titanic's last radio transmission. It was in Morse Code, and it simply contained a short message about the ship sinking, and coordinates and needing help.
Would that be enough for any one to learn or translate a language? Think about how long we looked at ancient egyptian hyroglyphs and still didn't not understand what they were saying until the Rossetta Stone was found. I think eventually we may have learned how to read those images the AE left for us......but what if we'd only had one small section of wall to look at, and that was it?

If it's 1,000 light years away, any message we sent back would take 1,000 years to get there, which means who ever sent it will have had to wait 2,000 years.......long time to wait for a reply.

Originally posted by HomoSapiensSapiens
So, a signal in the pattern of Morse Code comes from space - would we be able to pinpoint the direction it came from and how long away it originated from?

that really depends, won't it bounce off different planets? wouldn't it get scrambled and harder to find the point of origin? it could take thousands of years for it to even make it to earth but imagine all the different planets and stars that would've blocked or bounced the signal somewhere else.

if it was morse code, i'd think it was the Battlestar Galactica and the 12 Colonies coming

Originally posted by HomoSapiensSapiens
So, a signal in the pattern of Morse Code comes from space - would we be able to pinpoint the direction it came from and how long away it originated from?

Yes. As Juleol said previously, to be able to receive the signal and have it show above the background noise, a large, high-gain antenna (or an array of them) would have to be pointing pretty much right at the source. To be able to confirm the signal, the aliens would have to transmit for an extended period of time so that we could A.) stumble across the signal, and 2.) aim other telescopes to verify the signal.

This was well-depicted in the movie "Contact". The Very Large Array detected a signal. The operators nearly have a heart-attack when the signal stops, but then it repeats. The next thing they do is contact another observatory to confirm the signal and source (This is why an alien signal could not be covered-up. Since the process to determine if a signal is valid automatically brings-in astronomers all over the world, word of the discovery would be all over the planet before TPTB became aware of it. "You can't stop the signal, Mal.").

Note that the Wow! Signal was only detected by one telescope. The signal was not discovered in real-time, but rather during data analysis after the fact. When the same and other telescopes searched the same area, the signal was not repeated.

By a similar token, the Arecibo Message was transmitted only once, in a single direction. Maybe someday it will be someone else's "Wow! Signal".

Additionally, how would we deal with it if the code translated into "Is anybody out there? Can anybody hear us?"

It would be huge news for a while, but I think it would fade into the mainstream background after a few months. I think most people recognize the possibility/probability of intelligent life out there. The confirmation would be nice, but most of us would go about our business, IMHO.

Although Carl Sagan's "Contact" is well known, I actually think James Gunn's "The Listeners" was a better novel on the subject. I recommend it highly.

Finally, (providing we were able to determine where it originated from and how far away such a point of origin was) what if this message came from somewhere like a 1000 light years away? How would we deal with that fact (it being so far away)?

In "Contact", the source of the signal was ~27 light years away (irrc), but this was only relevant because the aliens were responding to their detection of our radio signals. There was no attempt at radio-dialogue, as such. In "The Listeners", the source was ~50 light-years away. We detect them, send a response and get their reply nearly a century later. If the aliens are 1,000 light years away, then no radio-dialogue would be possible.

I think that this reinforces my point above: We would finally know for a fact that "we are not alone", but it might not affect our day-to-day lives. On the other hand, much knowledge could be gained by each side transmitting their sums of knowledge (including science, history, philosophy & art) regardless of whether a dialogue is possible. .

Originally posted by eriktheawful
...or an actual analog signal that has been modulated with a higher frequency, like we do with radio and television signals), the answer to some of your questions have some "depends" attached to them.

You can't "modulate with a higher frequency", in fact, you run into all sorts of noise problems if you modulate much faster than 10% of the frequency of your carrier...

Originally posted by Bedlam
How would they figure out Morse, and English?

I wouldn't believe it. Nothing's particularly special about Morse.

Well that would be the mystery. In other words, we don't actually know much about the universe and whilst we believe that we're the first and only humans, we might in fact not be; not to mention that there might be "other Earth" analogues out there or something. You never know with the universe. For all we know there could be identical Earths far out in the universe where a mirror society exists....

reply to post by HomoSapiensSapiens


Just want to reaffirm what pretty much everyone else has said- if it was morse code, probably not extraterrestrial in nature as it has not been around for that long, and considering the vastness of space...
If you're interested in this, read contact, the movie was typical Jodie Foster BS but the book is sci-fi gold.
As far as ET messages go, it would make sense to humans if they sent binary messages coding for geometric maps (as in contact) that were broadcast in the hydrogen frequency (that would stand out...to humans). However that makes a lot of assumptions about ET behaviour (i.e. that they also find hydrogen and a concept of binary significant). The fact is that there is no precedent to base anything on.
We can always hope for something like this though
Support SETI@home

Originally posted by HomoSapiensSapiens
You never know with the universe. For all we know there could be identical Earths far out in the universe where a mirror society exists....

Morse is so totally arbitrary (as is English) that you'd be as likely to end up with "Lonely Bull" as an unofficial NSA theme song in the sixties. Sheesh.

Originally posted by Bedlam

Originally posted by eriktheawful
...or an actual analog signal that has been modulated with a higher frequency, like we do with radio and television signals), the answer to some of your questions have some "depends" attached to them.

You can't "modulate with a higher frequency", in fact, you run into all sorts of noise problems if you modulate much faster than 10% of the frequency of your carrier...

We take sound (a low frequency of like 10 Hz to 20 kHz) and modulate it with a higher electromagnetic frequency so that it can be amplified and propagated using a transmitter and antenna.

Here in the US we have AM radio that is 530 kHz to 1600 kHz. That's using Amplitude Modulation. We also use Frequency Modulation known as FM radio which here in the US is normally the bandwidth between 87 MHz to 108 MHz.

So yes, we take an analog signal, and modulate it with a higher frequency, so it can then be amplified greatly by a microwave transmitter and will propagate over large distances:

Radio

I used to work on Radars while in the US Navy and know quite a bit about radio frequency transmitters and receivers.