"Laser Pulse" Discovered Coming From Space

[HuskyCaucasian]

SETI Picks Up Regular Laser Pulse Emanating From Space

AFTER you've spent more than 20 years hunting for an alien signal, you think you'd be celebrating if you noticed a mysterious pulse suddenly rising up on your computer readouts. A regular pulse, amid the random clatter of the cosmos, suggests that someone very smart at the other end is sending a message.

 

But when Ragbir Bhathal, an astrophysicist at the University of Western Sydney, who teaches the only university-based course on SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) in Australia, detected the suspicious signal on a clear night last December, he knew better than to crack open the special bottle of champagne he has tucked away for the history-making occasion.

 

Instead, he's spent the past few months meticulously investigating whether the unrecognised signature was caused by a glitch in his instrumentation, a rogue astrophysical phenomenon, or some unknown random noise.

 

Even if he picks up the signal again - he's been scouring the same co-ordinates of the night sky on an almost daily basis since - the scientific rule book dictates he'll need to get it peer-reviewed before he can take his announcement to the world. "And that is a lot of ifs," he concedes.

......

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.

 

The link is to the longer article, I just took a few snips.

[BobDylan]

This stuff never ceases to amaze. Whatever is out there, I am sure it is beyond my imagination.

[Balta1701]

This stuff never ceases to amaze. Whatever is out there, I am sure it is beyond my imagination.

And I'm sure that whatever is out there...resistance to it will be futile.

[HuskyCaucasian]

And I'm sure that whatever is out there...resistance to it will be futile.

I fear it's a Romulan coming to destroy earth.

Edited May 16, 2009 by Athomeboy_2000

[dasox24]

How come everyone always assumes we're the ones who would be so far behind technologically? Who's not to say we're the super-advanced society compared to what else may be out there?

Edited May 17, 2009 by dasox24

[KipWellsFan]

Who's not to say we're the super-advanced society compared to what else may be out there? How come everyone always assumes we're the ones who would be so far behind technologically?

 

Good question. Maybe this notion comes from ideas about UFOs and science fiction tales. Perhaps, the idea of little green men being able to come to our planet, obviously possessing more advanced technology, has seeped into our collective conscience.

 

And is this following part true? I knew the universe was large but man...

 

What we do know is that our sun is a perfectly ordinary star in a rotating island of 100 billion stars, the Milky Way galaxy, which in turn is just one of 100 billion or so galaxies in the observable universe.

 

 

[Balta1701]

How come everyone always assumes we're the ones who would be so far behind technologically? Who's not to say we're the super-advanced society compared to what else may be out there?

Because we've had the ability to do this sort of communication for less than 100 of our Earth years. If there is another civilization out there that has developed to the level of using radio, by the time the signal gets to us it will have taken thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, or hell, 10^9 years. And if we're the first ones to get to this point, then the universe is a very boring place.

[lostfan]

Good question. Maybe this notion comes from ideas about UFOs and science fiction tales. Perhaps, the idea of little green men being able to come to our planet, obviously possessing more advanced technology, has seeped into our collective conscience.

 

And is this following part true? I knew the universe was large but man...

100 billion is being very conservative actually, there could be as many as 400 billion stars in the galaxy, we don't really know. And as far as the other galaxies out there keep in mind the word "observable," we can't even see most of them from Earth because they're outside of the visible light spectrum because of their position/speed/whatever, or their light is so far away that it's too weak/hasn't even reached yet.

 

But yeah, bottom line, the universe is almost incomprehensibly big.

[Reddy]

100 billion is being very conservative actually, there could be as many as 400 billion stars in the galaxy, we don't really know. And as far as the other galaxies out there keep in mind the word "observable," we can't even see most of them from Earth because they're outside of the visible light spectrum because of their position/speed/whatever, or their light is so far away that it's too weak/hasn't even reached yet.

 

But yeah, bottom line, the universe is almost incomprehensibly big.

 

you can take out "almost"

 

i can't even comprehend 100 billion, much less 400, or those outside of our range of sight.

[G&T]

How come everyone always assumes we're the ones who would be so far behind technologically? Who's not to say we're the super-advanced society compared to what else may be out there?

 

If they are far behind us, then they aren't going to receive the message anyway because they won't have the technology to receive it. So you could be right, but to make that assumption would mean not to try.

[Steve9347]

But yeah, bottom line, the universe is almost incomprehensibly big.

Hence why the notion that we're the only life out there is absurd.

[lostfan]

Hence why the notion that we're the only life out there is absurd.

Fully agree. And for people who don't believe in other life being out there because of religious beliefs or whatever, I ask how do they know that God only bothered putting life on Earth? If He made the universe, he can put whatever He wants in it.

[Steve9347]

Fully agree. And for people who don't believe in other life being out there because of religious beliefs or whatever, I ask how do they know that God only bothered putting life on Earth? If He made the universe, he can put whatever He wants in it.

Including disco bars.

[BobDylan]

Because we've had the ability to do this sort of communication for less than 100 of our Earth years. If there is another civilization out there that has developed to the level of using radio, by the time the signal gets to us it will have taken thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, or hell, 10^9 years. And if we're the first ones to get to this point, then the universe is a very boring place.

 

All of it might be subjective. What if the laws of physics differ thousands/millions/billions/trillions of light years away? Maybe it is impossible for them to fly, for instance, but possible to send radio waves across galaxies in a matter of minutes. Who is more technologically advanced in that case?

Edited May 17, 2009 by BobDylan

[Flash Tizzle]

Has anyone ever thought of the idea of proportion in the universe?

 

I don't know, but I've never heard anyone even humor the idea that aliens visiting from far reaches of the universe are hundreds of times larger than we are. Do we just assume that because laws of physics are consistent across the universe that extraterrestrial beings would be similarly portioned to us? Couldn't they be far larger, or maybe smaller?

 

[BobDylan]

Has anyone ever thought of the idea of proportion in the universe?

 

I don't know, but I've never heard anyone even humor the idea that aliens visiting from far reaches of the universe are hundreds of times larger than we are. Do we just assume that because laws of physics are consistent across the universe that extraterrestrial beings would be similarly portioned to us? Couldn't they be far larger, or maybe smaller?

 

Huh? This idea is all over film, literature, and of course, video games - especially larger ones. Take a look at the game "Spore." The most powerful empire in the game is a race of tiny, pussy looking things that had to have mated with gremlins at one point in time.

[HuskyCaucasian]

Hence why the notion that we're the only life out there is absurd.

The Catholic church publicly stated that it's entirely possible and likely there is extraterrestrial life. That should say a lot.

[kev211]

Because we've had the ability to do this sort of communication for less than 100 of our Earth years. If there is another civilization out there that has developed to the level of using radio, by the time the signal gets to us it will have taken thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, or hell, 10^9 years. And if we're the first ones to get to this point, then the universe is a very boring place.

To add to this if they developed the technology to travel to our planet then they are defiantly more advanced then us.

[Flash Tizzle]

Huh? This idea is all over film, literature, and of course, video games - especially larger ones. Take a look at the game "Spore." The most powerful empire in the game is a race of tiny, pussy looking things that had to have mated with gremlins at one point in time.

Well, first off I was fairly drunk when writing that. But in my mind I was thinking of biologically based aliens as big as mountains; something far outside of what we'd consider.

Edited May 17, 2009 by Flash Tizzle

[SouthsideDon48]

How come everyone always assumes we're the ones who would be so far behind technologically? Who's not to say we're the super-advanced society compared to what else may be out there?

 

 

Actually, I think there's more technoligically-advanced species out there and less technologically-advanced species out there as well. I kinda feel like we're probably more in the middle of the road, but we can very well be one of the lesser advanced species just based upon how relatively young our technology is compared to ages of other planets that can be out there. I kinda expect the more older a planet is, the more likely there is more advanced technology compared to younger planets with younger civilizations.

 

I mean, we've only been driving cars for about 100 years now, I think our technology is still a little primitive compared to what our technology can become in 200 or 300 years in the future.

 

 

[BobDylan]

Well, first off I was fairly drunk when writing that. But in my mind I was thinking of biologically based aliens as big as mountains; something far outside of what we'd consider.

 

Aliens the size of Jupiter would be cool - the humpback whales of the Universe, traversing around and swallowing Earth-like planets like they're brunch.

[NorthSideSox72]

Aliens the size of Jupiter would be cool - the humpback whales of the Universe, traversing around and swallowing Earth-like planets like they're brunch.

Sounds like something they would have in an old Star Trek episode.

 

[Kyyle23]

Sounds like Galactus.....sorta

[BobDylan]

Sounds like Galactus.....sorta

 

Do you read SciFi? I need some book recommendations. I was at the book store the other day looking to pick one up, but I had very little idea what was good (outside of what I've already read) and most of the covers look too queer to be good literature.

[RibbieRubarb]

They should have sent a poet...