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Coffee House => Coffee House Boards => CH / Science and Technology => Topic started by: whabang on September 02, 2004, 03:41:28 PM
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Big news! (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20040830/seti.html)
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SHGb02+14a has a frequency of around 1420 megahertz, a frequency that some argue would be one that extraterrestrials would use, since it is one of the main frequencies at which hydrogen absorbs and radiates energ
Eh? Can someone explain?
And its I before E except after C dammit! ;-)
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SHGb02+14a has a frequency of around 1420 megahertz, a frequency that some argue would be one that extraterrestrials would use, since it is one of the main frequencies at which hydrogen absorbs and radiates energy
Uhm, that would be one of the frequencies that you wouldn't want to use, since interstellar hydrogen would suck it all up!
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whabang wrote:
Big news! (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/afp/20040830/seti.html)
Naaah, that's just Doommaster again... :-)
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@Kenny
So I'm not the only one who things that statement makes no sense then?
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Seems its not big news after all.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3621608.stm
But researchers connected with the project told BBC News Online on Thursday that no contact with extraterrestrials had been made.
"It's all hype and noise," said its chief scientist, Dr Dan Wertheimer. "We have nothing that is unusual. It's all out of proportion."
And Dr Paul Horowitz, of Harvard University, who specialises in hunting for possible alien contacts added: "It's not much of anything at all. We're not investigating it further."
Unless its a coverup, I guess it's time to just go back to looking.
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Hum,
the wavelength of 21 cm is very empty of background noise.
It`s the idea station to listen into . . . radiation with a very specific frequency--1420 million cycles per second is the natural frequency of a precession of the spin of an electron as it encircles the atomic nucleus of hydrogen, the dominant material in the universe.
It is, by a factor of at least 1000, the most prominent radio frequency in the galaxy. Moreover, it falls precisely in the window of frequencies that, like visible light, can be transmitted and received through an atmosphere capable of supporting life. . . . IT is the universal ILS beacon.
But when we tune into it, we tune slightly above that frequency, and listen to an extremely narrow range of radio frequencies--the so-called "water hole" between the hydrogen line of 1420 megahertz and the first hydroxyl line of 1662 megahertz.4
There are no other known spectral lines between these frequencies, suggesting that civilizations would use this range for communication because it is a very quiet channel.
The "quietness" of this range of frequencies indirectly implies what it is that SETI researchers are looking for: noise. Beyond the omnipresent cosmic background radiation remaining from the Big Bang, there is almost no natural emission in this range, and even the background radiation is essentially at a constant level. Even low-power transmitters exceed this natural background.
Also, there are practical limitations to our ability to receive many of these frequencies, especially from our protected position beneath the shield of the earth's atmosphere.
Frequencies below 15 Mhz or so, are rarely used due to absorption of these waves by the ionosphere (an atmosphere). At the upper end of the frequency range, limitations are imposed by the technology needed to receive signals with such tiny wavelengths.
Most amateur radio telescopes fall between 18 Mhz and 10,000 Mhz.
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@Blob
Most of these clear channels are clear of noise because they are absorbed by something. Not really the best way to contact alien civisations.
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Hum,
no, not really .(though , of course all radiation will be absorbed eventually)
See:
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-419/s2.4.htm
Theres a gap of between the hydorgen line(1420) and hydroxyl lines (1612 to 1720) that has no spectral lines in it.
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All the same, listening on the clear bands strikes me as trying to listen to a radio on board a submarine half a mile underwater, just because there there's no static. (But no signal either.)
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Hum,
http://linas.org/theory/seti.html
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"Klaatu borada nikto" (http://members.yourlink.net/jgerard/gort/klaatu.wav)
http://members.yourlink.net/jgerard/gort/images/FG003-S.jpg
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Clash of the Titans, KennyR vs. Blobrana! Place your bets :-P
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No offense KennyR, as I always enjoy reading your posts but:
"Go Blo-ob, go Blo-ob, go Blo-ob......"
If the alleged signal's source is several light years from the nearest star in the neigbourhood then what could be producing it?
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It's someone's overclocked athlon 1.4GHz :-D
I'm joking :-P That's really fascinating actually! I wonder if this will be something like Contact, where Elenor Arroway (who would possibly be blobrana) gets to go to a star through a wormhole. That movie was pretty cool.
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graffias79 wrote:
I wonder if this will be something like Contact, where Elenor Arroway (who would possibly be blobrana) gets to go to a star through a wormhole. That movie was pretty cool.
Or it could be like Niven & Pournelle's Footfall... Maybe they're elephant-like aliens intent on colonising Earth an enslaving us?