Frank Drake first scanned for extraterrestrial signals 50 years ago.
Image: Courtesy of SETI institute
In Brief
- Within decades advances in computing power will allow astronomers to scan enough stars in our galaxy to have a reasonable chance at detecting a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization.
- News of the discovery of an extraterrestrial signal will reach the public almost immediately. A conspiracy to hide or suppress the evidence of alien intelligence would be all but impossible.
- The content of the signal may never be understood. The assumption that mathematics or physics could serve as a cosmic lingua franca among civilizations may be misguided.
- Would revealing our existence to the universe at large attract the attention of hostile aliens? Such fears are probably groundless, despite the warnings of some prominent scientists.
More In This Article
One day last spring Frank Drake returned to the observatory at Green Bank, W.Va., to repeat a search he first conducted there in 1960 as a 30-year-old astronomer. Green Bank has the largest steerable telescope in the world—a 100-meter-wide radio dish. Drake wanted to aim it at the same two sunlike stars he had observed 50 years ago, Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani, each a bit more than 10 light-years from Earth, to see if he could detect radio transmissions from any civilizations that might exist on planets orbiting either of the two stars. This encore observing run was largely ceremonial for the man who pioneered the worldwide collaborative effort known as SETI—the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. As a young man, Drake had half-expected to find a cosmos humming with the equivalent of ET ham radio chatter. The elder Drake did not expect any such surprises from Tau Ceti or Epsilon Eridani. The Great Silence, as some astronomers call the absence of alien communiqués, remains unbroken after five decades of searching. And yet so does Drake’s conviction that it is only a matter of time before SETI succeeds.
“Fifty years ago, when I made the first search, it took two months—200 hours of observing time at Green Bank,” says Drake, who is now chairman emeritus at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. “When I went back this year, they gave me an hour to repeat the experiment. That turned out to be way too much time. It took eight tenths of a second—each star took four tenths of a second! And the search was better. I looked at the same two stars over a much wider frequency band with higher sensitivity and more channels, in eight tenths of a second. That shows how far we’ve come. And the rate of improvement hasn’t slowed down at all.”
This article was originally published with the title Contact: The Day After.
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55 Comments
Add CommentOn the Day After Contact it seems remarkably silly to assume we would have any chance to decipher an intercepted alien transmission. First, it will not be a two way conversation in which we could even try to “establish a referent” such as a “table” or “Pi”. We’d be eavesdropping on a transmission not intended for us; a transmission sent decades or centuries ago, that would take decades or centuries before our first attempt at a response could be received.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSecond, John Elliott’s hopes to decipher another language would seem much more credible if he could first decipher something much closer like the language between dolphins, birds, or even rats. To assume we can infer the structure of an alien language based on examining 60 human languages assumes aliens think and communicate like people. Earth’s other creatures don’t seem to, in spite of similarities in brain structure and evolutionary commonalities. That suggests we wouldn’t know an alien language if it fell on us.
That Drake's Equation did not consider the enormous benefit provided by our lucky moon, the product of an even luckier interplanetary collision early in the Solar system's development, pretty much invalidates its usefulness.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf humanity is lucky enough to survive on Earth the end of this century, that would demonstrate perhaps a two hundred year window that we might be reasonably expect to receive another technological civilization's EM communication signals, offset by the even more significant signal propagation delay. Good luck with making that connection in the next couple of years, if the stars are _all_ in alignment.
I agree 'jtdwyer', if the stars and planets are going to be aligned with the center of the universe on December 21st, 2012, that would be the best time to scam for alien communication, but like 'SkookumJim' said that we may not even be able to recognize an alien communication if it hit us in the face. Wouldn't subspace communication have to be connected to a particle of light for it to reach its destination after entering hyperspace somehow, or it would take eons for it to reach its destination? An alien race with that kind of technology would have no need to beam that particle of light toward us...would they. If aliens on other planets are like the animals on this planet, they would have no need for verbal communication over distances like that, and if they are using radio waves, it would never make it to Earth in any recognizable form. I think we are wasting our time in looking for alien communications.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@SkookumJim, In the case of intercepting Alien domestic broadcasts it would likely be somewhat difficult to determine their language although there are ways to do that. If the message was accompanied by pictures it would be much easier. But, since we are talking about technologically advanced alien life, the dolphin analogy is not relevant. We wouldn't be receiving messages from alien rats or birds but rather a civilization that had complex symbolic communication. With symbolic communication one only needs to determine which thing or concept the symbol applies. A better analogy would be trying to decipher hieroglyphs or Aramaic. On the other hand, if the message was directed outward, just like the messages we sent with the voyager spacecraft then they would be designed to be understood. The opposite of obfuscation. By tying in the message with physical phenomenon we establish a universal basis from which to communicate.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@jtdwyer, "That Drake's Equation did not consider the enormous benefit provided by our lucky moon" again jt you are making a generalization error. You are assuming that because we benefitted from having a moon, that a moon is essential for intelligent life. There is no evidence to support this. There are a rather large number of phenomenon that could provide the same benefits and in fact in our own system Jupiter and the other jovian planets also act as a shield. You are not using your imagination. You are looking at an existing system and saying all systems must be exactly like this for the system to work. Strange from someone who claims to be an "out-of-the-box" thinker.
@JamesDavis, "Wouldn't subspace communication have to be connected to a particle of light for it to reach its destination after entering hyperspace somehow" You are confusing reality with fiction, or are you still hungover from New Years?! "I think we are wasting our time in looking for alien communications." you obviously don't understand what science is about. Perhaps you should try to understand the purpose of science before making inane comments on a science site.
'robert schmidt', I stand by my comment. I probably have forgotten more science than you will ever know. Our current technology has proven that science fiction is reality. How do you propose sound or images can travel through great distances of space and still be a worth while communication if its speed is not hyped up somehow? If that is the case, aliens communicating with each other would probably be unrecognizable as a communication to us until our technology equals or comes close to theirs. On the universal scale, our society hasn't even reached level one. An alien with that kind of technology would be at least a level 3 society.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@JamesDavis, "'robert schmidt', I stand by my comment. I probably have forgotten more science than you will ever know." To forget it you must first have known it and I see no evidence that you ever even knew the basics, let alone more advanced concepts such as information theory and relativity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"How do you propose sound or images can travel through great distances of space and still be a worth while communication if its speed is not hyped up somehow?" what do you define as "worth while"? Is that a scientific term Mr. Science-Forgetter? Regardless, information cannot travel faster than the speed of light. There is no "subspace" in the context you're speaking of. That is Star Trek. Star Trek is fiction. Step away from the TV and look out a window (if the doctors will let you). The stuff outside your window is reality, the stuff on your TV usually isn't.
"On the universal scale, our society hasn't even reached level one." what are you smoking? Is level two where the aliens communicate via intergalactic ESP? Or is that level three? I guess we need to wait until we evolve those big bulbous alien heads and green, grey or blue skin before we can join the conversation.
Two way intergalactic communication would be difficult. Instead, societies that chose to communicate would likely broadcast encyclopaedias worth of info about themselves in an easy to understand format. In fact, the preface of the communication would likely contain the info needed to understand it. That is assuming they want to tell us anything about themselves. We have recently chosen not to broadcast but instead to listen. If everyone takes that position there may be nothing to hear. In that case we would be limited to deciphering their domestic radio signals which we may receive centuries or millennia after the civilizations have gone extinct. In order to understand the messages we would have to do what we already do in archaeology, interpret based on artefacts (Exoarchaeology).
Sorry James but you are a nutter. You don't seem to understand that just because some sci-fi author has written it that it is therefore technically possible, let alone financially viable which is ultimately what determines if something can be done.
It's great to dream and imagine, but this is a science site not a sci-fi site. Ultimately your ideas should be based on reality. That is assuming you share this reality with most everyone else.
Sorry for presuming that the stabilizing influences of the moon on Earth's axial rotation was more generally understood.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was not inferring that the moon acts as an effective shield from cosmic impacts, since anything approaching the Earth-moon system will be more gravitationally affected by the Earth's mass, just as the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 illustrated in the Jovian system. The lunar impact shield presumption is a myth - there is no evidence to support it other than the preponderance of impact craters visible on the moon, which is actually the product of preservation in an environment without geological activity, an eroding atmosphere or running water.
You'll have to think of a better attack than that - if you really want to get personal we could meet someplace and make it physical!!! Or, you could simply refrain from making personal remarks in you comments. I'm sorry you feel so inferior that you must compulsively lash out at others to overcompensate - it's not my fault: I did not bully you as a child, although I would consider doing so now.
@jtdwyer, I would hardly consider my last comment an attack but perhaps I am not suffering from paranoid delusions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe shield hypothesis was one example I illustrated though I am aware of the others. I think you would be hard pressed to prove that the shield provided by the moon and outer planets was not of benefit to life on earth. The fact that you would think that others believe the difference in the number of impact craters on the moon vs. the earth is proof of the shield hypothesis, only proves how little you know about the subject. Any first year (or even high-school) geology student knows that the difference in visible craters is due to erosion, volcanism and, to a lesser extent, plate tectonics. But clearly the fact that there is a crater on the moon implies that that asteroid didn't hit the earth, i.e. the moon shielded us! Tough concept but you may get it someday. When single meteorite impacts can trigger a global extinction event it is not hard to imagine what would have happened if only a small number of the asteroids that cratered the moon got through. But again, not likely an uncommon setup in terms of solar systems.
The other benefits we got from the moon such as axial tilt, rotation and tides are hardly things that would be completely unique to the earth. Moons themselves are common in our solar system so there is no reason to believe they are uncommon elsewhere. Some of those other moons are quite large (Titan) so it is not improbable that exoplanets may also have large moons that provide tides. Tide pools may have forced early life to become more durable and complex because of periodic drying as well as changes in temperature and salinity. This may have prepared them for more global scale catastrophes allowing some to survive and evolve during a time of rapid change.
A Martian day is only marginally longer than an earth day so either it was also impacted by a planetoid or planetary rotation has other causes. In either case, planetary rotation seems to be common.
Both Venus and Uranus have axial tilts. That is three planets in our solar system alone! So planetary tilt is hardly rare.
I find it not surprisingly hypocritical of you to feel free to make ill informed disparaging comments about the work of scientists but protest when others criticise you. Let's face it JT, the only reason you whine about my comments is because it allows you to deflect attention away from your comments so instead of discussing the facts you can indulge your persecution complex.
Other commentators do not seem to feel the compulsive need to include personal remarks such as:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"You are not using your imagination. You are looking at an existing system and saying all systems must be exactly like this for the system to work. Strange from someone who claims to be an "out-of-the-box" thinker."
This is direct evidence of some personal behavioral issue. Keep it to yourself.
Dr Judith Curry has posted the following guidelines as a New Years Resolution. I think they would be appropriate here too.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Strategies for making effective posts:
* Respond to the argument, not to the person. What another participant stated on another blog in another context should not be used to discredit or otherwise challenge the participant. Changing your mind in response to new evidence and arguments is valued here.
* Only respond to comments that you feel are deserving of your attention, and ignore the rest. By being ignored, commenters who are not deemed interesting by others will give up and go elsewhere.
* Don’t take criticisms personally, don’t rise to “bait” or attempts at “gotchas.” Make the points YOU want to make.
* If you make a mistake, acknowledge it.
* Be patient with people having less technical expertise or background than yourself."
And, yes, I have been guilty in the past, but I will try to follow this etiquette in the future if yall will.
@Postman1, good points I will keep them in mind. Could we also add;
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this* Don't speak with absolute authority about things you know little to nothing about.
* It is more productive to ask questions rather than make statements when you don't understand something.
* Your hour or two of reading science blogs has not given you enough of a knowledge base on which to make a significant contribution to the subject i.e. try to understand before sharing.
* Before pointing out errors in the science supporting the article consider that;
a) the reason the article doesn't make sense to you is because you don't understand it rather than the author being wrong.
b) the article is a rough summary rather than an in-depth analysis and therefore may be lacking the level of detail required to completely justify its conclusions.
c) the article does not provide enough evidence for you to bootstrap your own spur-of-the-moment theory, regardless of whether or not you believe it fills in the holes of the author's years of research.
Of course this will have no impact on trolls but there are some who may be unaware of the arrogance they demonstrate by trying to refute a well reasoned paper with their high school level science. Is it too much to ask for people to show a little humility?
But I will try not to put boot to groin every time I hear comments like, "dark energy is just a hoax perpetrated by elitist scientists who want to make money charging people for electricity when the lights are out. I know this because I saw it on fox news or read it on ihatescience.com."
Excellent constructive comment - thanks.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI will say it once again that the message will not be a radio signal but instead a message in the wave function drop in starlight.Our mere looking at the the stars would cause just this effect.In other words any other advanced civilization is already trying to contact us by this method,infact entanglement may allow us to have instantaneous communication with other species.As for the message being hard to decipher.Why would they do that?I would think that any message sent would most likely be quite simple to understand.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWho are you people who keep tring to sell your crap after every comment I make.Do I know you?Not and would you please nock it off.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI just want to reiterate my appreciation for the suggested blog posting guidelines, and pledge to do my best to follow them in the future. Thanks again!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisdavis, shmidt, dwyer--stop playing with words--Oh by the way, infer is wrong, should be imply.--basic English.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisdavis, shmidt, dwyer--stop playing with words and your emotions--Oh by the way, infer is wrong, should be imply.--basic English.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSETI is a program which only has to have one positive result to justify itself. In any case, an extra terrestrial civilization may decide that it is simply not worth contacting us since we are too far away to be of any use to them. It may be that they are not hung up about the "only planet to bear life" question. There may be hundreds of reasons why we are not detecting other advanced life forms. but I like the idea there being other advanced civilizations, and the idea of the search. So, go SETI!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt will be quite amusing when people recognize that the odd neighbor/colleague/public figure was ET and living all along among them as the focus of intrigue over their eccentricities. Shalom. May you live long and prosper!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is nothing so notable as the inherently delusional thinking of the 'specialist' who seeks to impose a model of 'reality' on all physical processes... and then to distort this model to test the viable limits of the proposition. There is nothing so paranoid as the specialist who asserts the 'right' of an opinion that is 'informed' by a preferred interpretation (dogma) in defense against the 'reasonable demands' of print media that exists to publish such reports as market consumables. There is nothing so absurd as the psychiatrist who asserts the selective definition of health and normalcy in such a way as to restrict the lives of individuals most suitable as sources of creativity. It is a paradox that any specialist should presume to produce a novel idea, much less something authentically 'original'.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThank you!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHuman communication transmission methods are only suitable to those who share similar thought processes and technologies. It is absurd to assume we are not awash NOW in forms of communication from Others seeking US with the same inveterate zeal and vigor...while missing the target in the fog for want of a clear picture of what is appropriate 'communication' and HOW it is accomplished... to discover and sustain results.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCan anyone out there decipher these sample messages and discribe the serial transmission code? No clues
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisxxx x x xxx
xxxxxxx xxx xxx xx xx x x xx xx
xxx xxx xxxxxxx
Please read my comments here:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://users.pandora.be/nicvroom/seti.htm
In comment # 8 Robert Schmidt writes:
"But clearly the fact that there is a crater on the moon implies that that asteroid didn't hit the earth, i.e. the moon shielded us!"
The radius of the Earth = 6378Km
The radius of the Moon = 1738km
Dividing those two numbers = 3,67
The square is 13,46
That means roughly 6% of the asteroids in the direction of the Earth will hit the Moon.
Scientific American eyes only:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI hope you can go back to my original message and revise my comment to correspond to the input I typed
into your comment form. You can't just drop zero's. The code requires an arbitrary quiet time between
information bursts. Please put the quiet times back.
The first message has bursts of 3, the second message bursts of 7. Do you want me to resend the messages
in plain English so we can avoid the software that is snatching my zero's away? Put in, say, 10 zeros between bursts.
DEC did this to me once in the '70s by pulling
"delete"(7 ones in ASCII code) from their PDP 10 timeshare computers . All our graphic vertical lines disappeared.
Drakes equation is some ways is kind of a joke for me. It has three out comes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1 infinite nubmer of alien civilizations.
2 one civilization us humanity
0 zero none were and our world is destroyed .
The out come in some ways is in our own hands.
Communicating with ET if they exist is daunting distance measured in light years and the rate of decay of radio waves. It could also means time as well when the radio or other message was sent to reach us here on earth. I would believe radio would be most likely because of window it opens up for long distance communication its simplicity . ET doesn't also have to use Radio however . Could be lasers gravity waves or any thing we couldn't believe to think about. ET in some ways has to aim their transmitters toward earth and we have to be listing at the right time. This requires transmitter operating for decades at high power levels to finally be detectable here. Yes the message would be sophisticated and would require enormous effort at decrypting akin to understating Mayan or Egyptian writing . assuming they communicate in this fashion .
As far ET coming here nothing travels faster than light at our present understanding of physics so ET would take centuries to get here. As far as resources go like our women our water well most of those things might be easier to get on route. The energy expended to reach would be almost infinite so way both our civilizations out here in the boonies. If however a encounter were to happen we (humanity) wouldn't stand a chance against their advanced technology akin to what happened to the Indians in America.
So if ET is out there I feel for now it will be a very long distance relationship if at all . IT might be none at all at the rate humanity is dealing with our own home world.
The distances in our universe are immense and it would be easy to either miss a signal or to have not yet received a signal because the origin is millions of light years distant. Yes, Frank Drake definitely has a doppelganger out there somewhere, and both are right. Will we ever make contact? Maybe not, but that does not prove no one is out there. Actually until we Earthlings improve our social behaviors and become less warrior-like, it is best that Contact be delayed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf "they" have interstelar travel, they know we're here, if they care. If not, then, like us, they are inventorying planets with enough "stuff" to support a civilization, in anticipation of of interstelar travel.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI believe we are hoping to catch forms of radio communication much like our own. If extraterrestrial life has developed faster/better communications there may well have been a period when they still used radio. After all, any signals we receive will be very old to us and possibly even to them. As to the translation, even catching a completely unintelligible but organized signal would be a world shaking triumph.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDr. Elizabeth Hawkins has already begun to decipher substantial amounts of dolphin language, so I wouldn't say Drake's ambitions are a stretch at all.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think Hawking is right. The earth has many rare life-created chemicals and resources which would be very rare beyond earth and easily extracted here. Oil, coal and other fossil fuels are non-existent anywhere but on a life bearing planet. Some minerals only exist here due to the abundance of life generated free oxygen over milennia. This is likely also rare elsewhere in the universe. I doubt aliens would be overtly nasty to us, but they would probably care about our welfare about as much as we do about ants residing at a coal mine. If they did covet Earthly resources, rare outside of the earth, they may quickly transform the earth into something unfit for human habitation. It could be that our attempts at contact only hasten our fate, by alerting alien miners of the wealth of life-created resources available here.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo you are saying that a civilization that can travel between stars isn't able to synthesize pretty much anything it wants? That postulate seems very far fetched.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDrake only uses radio waves for detection, stone age tools,but he is wrong, after 50 years he should realize this is not the answer. Thinking outside the box could solve the mystery of alien contact, using ORIE. ORIE is Optical Remote Imaging Enhancement process (10,000 dpi) with nearly unlimited enlargement in outerspace and has been used to imaged Gliese 581c and 581g, nearly 20 light years from earth. For example crop circles, we know scientist have found many to be very complex in design and math equations. The information in the crop circles travels at the speed of light and would be visible to high technology aliens in distance quadrants of the Galaxcy with equipment little better than our current technology. We should also realize if the aliens do not want us intercept their messages this is a perfect way to transmit and just as fast as radio waves. I have a question, do they really want find aliens, I rather doubt it. A example of how to find aliens would be to take the next 200 photos/video from around the world (two weeks worth) of alien crafts, use ORIE to examine them at nearly microscopic levels. This will not happen as mainstream science turns their back on any attempt to examine these images. We already know radar tracking stations can verify the crafts positions and the images can be determined to be real or fake, so what's keeping us from doing this? Exactly, the truth would be out in the open?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAgreed. It is probable that synthesis of all useful materials would be within the technological capacity of all space faring civilisations, but we don't know that for sure. There may be some materials that are not readily synthesised. What we do know is that life is at least rare and therefore materials naturally created by life are also rare. Do we really want to advertise the existence of rare material, when that rare material is on the only place we currently live. Also there might be paranoid aliens that believe we are not a threat now, but in an astronomical blink of an eye (a couple of million years) we might become one. So, from an aliens perspective, better to exterminate the parasites (i.e. us humans) early when we are defenceless. Mind you all of this is moot, because we are broadcasting our existence anyway. Lets hope the aliens have replicators and a collegial mindset.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat is an excellent observation and one I never would have thought of. Great post.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCouple of thoughts. "They" may already know we are here from intercepting one or more of our many radio signals. If "they" intercepted the "I Love Lucy" show as described, "they" may have already packed their bags and are on the way. If on the other hand "they" intercepted "The Jerry Springer Show", "they" may have decided the neighborhood isn't that great and have gone into hiding. Or, they may have picked up your email picture of Aunt Julia's birthday party and are trying to convert a jpg into a spoken language and decided we are too advanced and probably hostile.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think we have more to fear from each other than from any "others", as recent events prove.
Usually such birds as ravens have black painting, but there are copies with white color of feathers - space this space filled with a wide spectrum of electromagnetic waves and instead of concentrating efforts of scientists and enthusiasts, to find a kind of energy which has speed in the environment of electromagnetic waves on many orders more and where it is really possible to hear speech of other civilizations, the present civilization is engaged in absurdity, in fact up to the nearest planet in world space the signal goes about four years, and further in general extinguish light
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRegarding, "Is it too much to ask for people to show a little humility?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMaybe what we consider to be intelligent is not considered intelligence by another "alien" being. I assume, humbly, and do correct me, that SETI is trying to send radio waves looking for what we "assume" where "beings" that where here before and left visual cues pyramids, etc. data? Some animals, even humans and other considered alien in thought (sorry Mr. Hawkin), are not mathematical beings necessarily but more visual, if what "they" left "behind" is purely hieroglyphic art probably painted by Sumerian human animal cultures would require a more visual motivational reply system if you will, to "communicate" back, if there is something there. A simple happy face or psychological evolution mirror of a peaceful civilization gesture some other life form might want to reply to?... What if "they" don't have the same senses we do...if we're talking light travel to get here,...I'm thinking you don't need to understand math to understand blackholes suck things in. Why are we being asked to donate time and energy and our offline computers to search for other beings when we can't even find Bin Laden in our planet?
Nearly fifteen years after NASA's launch of STS 75 Space Shuttle Columbia mission TSS-1R, USMP-3 on February 22, 1996 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida answers are emerging as to what happened in space during the failed Tether science mission. The missions duration was to be 15 days, 17 hours with a Orbit Altitude of 160 nautical miles and a total distance to be traveled 6.5 million miles.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe crew of STS-75 consisted of Commander Andrew M. Allen, Pilot Scott J. Horowitz, Payload Commander Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, Mission Specialists Maurizio Cheli, Jeffery A. Hoffman, Claud Nicolier and Umberto Guidoni.
The Shuttle was conducting a science mission using a U.S./Italian Tethered Satellite system 12.1 miles long for measuring voltage generated across the tether reaching as high as 3,500 volts. The gas from the satellite's thrusters interacted with the ionosphere creating a glow similar to a florescent light bulb or a plasma wake, this was created by moving a body through the electrically charged ionosphere. After the Tether broke away from the Shuttle it created a phenomenon caught on tape by the Shuttles CCD camera showing hundreds of unidentified flying objects circling the Tether and then moving over lighting storms in the upper atmosphere. See you tube (sts75 ufo's) and all related STS Shuttle mission videos. These UFO's are not what you see filmed over cities each day in photos and videos, these are the Bulk cruisers measuring 2 1/2 miles in diameter, the measurements were taken as these Crafts flew behind the Tether which acts like a ruler giving precise measurements.
On December 14, 2009 Nasa's Fermi satellite was flying over Egypt, the spacecraft intercepted a particle beam from a terrestrial gamma-ray flash which occurred over it's horizon. Fermi's Gamma-ray burst monitor detected the signal of positrons annihilating on the spacecraft, twice, some of the particles reflected off a magnetic mirror point and returned. Studies of lighting storms using high-speed cameras reveal a whole world of activity in the upper atmosphere that no one expected, anti-matter particles created high above ordinary storm clouds by bolts of lightings. These Terrestrial Gamma-ray flashes send beams of anti-matter arcing through the Earth's atmosphere in thunderstorms as high as 100 kilometers and are sometimes referred to as Blue Jets. It is now believed that as many as 500 or more Gamma-ray flashes happen everyday with thunderstorms coughing Positrons (anti-electrons) up the Earth's magnetic field.
Over the last Ten years I have studied NASA video's of STS missions and the Bulk Cruisers seen in them showing them stationary over thunderstorms producing Bolts of lighting, this has lead me to postulate why we have so many UFO sightings, is our planet something special? Is our planet one of only a handful in this section of the Milky way Galaxy that has large amounts of liquid water which produces mass quantities of thunderstorms and huge amounts of anti-matter fuel from them? Earth with 2/3 of the planet being water and NASA knowing most planets are waterless at least in and around our solar system means traveling Aliens need Earth for fuel. Earth produces mass quantities of water vapor that forms high altitude thunderstorms that are needed for production of anti-matter. Many great minds have also postulated that Aliens would need anti-matter or a similar fuel to travel the Universe, the question was how do they get it, now we know? Collecting anti-matter is already being done by scientist today, for a group of advanced life forms this would be like humans going to our local gas station and filling up!
Frank Drake assumes the average life span of a technological civilization is 10,000 years. This sounds to me like 20th century pessimism in the extreme, reminiscent of the theory that intelligence self distructs. Any technological civilization that seriously addresses sustainability has the potential to endure very, very much longer. And I'd argue that most species that have endured long enough to develop technology are adapable enough to survive the mistakes of their pre-sustainablility eras. So if technological civilizations last as long as I'm suggesting, why haven't we encountered them? I take that as evidence that they are very rare indeed--again contrary to 20th century thinking that humans are in no way special. I'd love to see an article on the implications of NOT finding evidence of extraterrestrial civilization.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's hard for me to believe that with so much proof Drake can not find the Aliens. Read this, part 1
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNearly fifteen years after NASA's launch of STS 75 Space Shuttle Columbia mission TSS-1R, USMP-3 on February 22, 1996 from Kennedy Space Center, Florida answers are emerging as to what happened in space during the failed Tether science mission. The missions duration was to be 15 days, 17 hours with a Orbit Altitude of 160 nautical miles and a total distance to be traveled 6.5 .miles.
The crew of STS-75 consisted of Commander Andrew M. Allen, Pilot Scott J. Horowitz, Payload Commander Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, Mission Specialists Maurizio Cheli, Jeffery A. Hoffman, Claud Nicolier and Umberto Guidoni.
The Shuttle was conducting a science mission using a U.S./Italian Tethered Satellite system 12.1 miles long for measuring voltage generated across the tether reaching as high as 3,500 volts. The gas from the satellite's thrusters interacted with the ionosphere creating a glow similar to a florescent light bulb or a plasma wake, this was created by moving a body through the electrically charged ionosphere. After the Tether broke away from the Shuttle it created a phenomenon caught on tape by the Shuttles CCD camera showing hundreds of unidentified flying objects circling the Tether and then moving over lighting storms in the upper atmosphere. See you tube (sts75 ufo's) and all related STS Shuttle mission videos. These UFO's are not what you see filmed over cities each day in photos and videos, these are the Bulk cruisers measuring 2 1/2 miles in diameter, the measurements were taken as these Crafts flew behind the Tether which acts like a ruler giving precise measurements.
part 2.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOn December 14, 2009 Nasa's Fermi satellite was flying over Egypt, the spacecraft intercepted a particle beam from a terrestrial gamma-ray flash which occurred over it's horizon. Fermi's Gamma-ray burst monitor detected the signal of positrons annihilating on the spacecraft, twice, some of the particles reflected off a magnetic mirror point and returned. Studies of lighting storms using high-speed cameras reveal a whole world of activity in the upper atmosphere that no one expected, anti-matter particles created high above ordinary storm clouds by bolts of lightings. These Terrestrial Gamma-ray flashes send beams of anti-matter arcing through the Earth's atmosphere in thunderstorms as high as 100 kilometers and are sometimes referred to as Blue Jets. It is now believed that as many as 500 or more Gamma-ray flashes happen everyday with thunderstorms coughing Positrons (anti-electrons) up the Earth's magnetic field.
Over the last Ten years I have studied NASA video's of STS missions and the Bulk Cruisers seen in them showing them stationary over thunderstorms producing Bolts of lighting, this has lead me to postulate why we have so many UFO sightings, is our planet something special? Is our planet one of only a handful in this section of the Milky way Galaxy that has large amounts of liquid water which produces mass quantities of thunderstorms and huge amounts of anti-matter fuel from them? Earth with 2/3 of the planet being water and NASA knowing most planets are waterless at least in and around our solar system means traveling Aliens need Earth for fuel. Earth produces mass quantities of water vapor that forms high altitude thunderstorms that are needed for production of anti-matter. Many great minds have also postulated that Aliens would need anti-matter or a similar fuel to travel the Universe, the question was how do they get it, now we know? Collecting anti-matter is already being done by scientist today, for a group of advanced life forms this would be like humans going to our local gas station and filling up!
Why is it we can not have a debate about Aliens who may be visiting Earth now? There are photos taken everyday and eye witnesses such as pilots, doctors, military, even Presidents. Let us debate in a civilized way that shows respect for all opinions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSignals from other planets. I submit that any advanced society
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWould long ago have changed its dependence on radio wave photon for its communications in favour of neutrino as the carrier wave.
Photon get disrupted and stopped on their journey through space by the intervening gas and bodies (stars planets moons)but neutrino travel straight through, to a neutrino all matter is like a glass window pane.
Rahul and all,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am the foremost authority of UFO photographic processes using an advanced microscopic imaging process called ORIE, Optical Remote Imaging Enhancement, it has enabled me to take NASA video and images of UFO's and produce close photos with up to 6000 dpi of these craft. I have sent Dr. Drake images in the past with no response and offer him $10,000.00 if anyone on the planet could prove they were fake. The real problem as or scientists know who study this field it is TABOO, no matter the proof, physical or otherwise there can be no open debate in America like there can be in India and many other country's. You see, our government keeps all scientists here quite under threat of losing grants or being ridiculed if they speak of this subject. Rahul, there is no open debate.
I will post my abstract in the next comment below.
Analysis of distant planetary bodies, Cosmic events, chemical compounds
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisfound across Universe for the purpose of determining what is the cause
of atom
construction is recognized as one of the most challenging technical
aspects of Astrophysics for the next 100 years but now may have been
solved using
ORIE. New scientific diagnostic tools have been developed by the
Respondent. The technology uses all known imaging technologies, e.g.,
X-Ray, Infrared, Radar, Thermo and all Optical devices but advances
instant imaging capabilities to the next-generation of investigative and
analytical capability. It is here that the respondents and of this
scientific paper show that a new scientific investigative direct
imaging diagnostic tool is now available, that may be able to create
images on a much deeper from microscopic to unlimited enlargement
capabilities levels than has ever been attained or seen before. That
will give scientists and Planetary researchers a much better look at
the Universe. The name of this new microscopic imaging technology is
named:"ORIE". Which is the acronym meaning;" OPTICAL- REMOTE - IMAGING
- ENHANCEMENT "
Now the science of Astrophotography using ORIE has enabled enhanced
visual image of Planetary bodies, Cosmic events and Gamma ray bursts
using a Color Algorithm, capability photo- study ªORIEº real-radar
electron-resolve color. This is chiefly due to the finite capability of
the Photo Imaging
instruments which enable unlimited magnification of study subjects in
space. A recently
developed analytical method and process called, ORIE (Optical Remote
Image Enhancement), enables visual observation and real time analysis
of distance Cosmic Events, using recorded or raw
data (regardless of the source), e.g., photographs, micrographs,
radiographs, aperture radar signals, sonograms and electron
micrographs, but not limited to only these, better and deeper visual
analytical capability along with heretofore absent ability to re solve
minute cellular and molecular components and structures while revealing
true color, cell component macro/micro structure, spatial
relationships, fractal enhancement amplification and pixel recognition.
The ORIE system identifies structure, elements and compounds contained
in the subject of study. Study subjects contained in any photograph,
radiograph, aperture radar / Optical processes, - etc. Study subject
exploits
involving other means of imaging including a image of a Gamma Event and
imaging involving e.g.,- x-ray, imaging from microscopes to micrographs
from cellular atomic electron imaging levels the ORIE technologies may
have in hypothetical, theoretical, experimental exploratory Space
Imaging, and in real time applications have an infinite range of
applications in many and varied areas of Astrophysics imaginable
research.
That would not only produce the next several generations of
Planetary/Cosmic Event Analysis enabling to help what is known about
the birth of the Universe.
Nicolaas Vroom, thank you so much for those calculations.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI expect that is the maximum shielding possible, since it assumes that all the rocks that could be intercepted by the Earth come from the direction of the Moon and are shielded. Since there are an infinity of other directions as well, I suspect that the actual shielding will be of the order of 3.9 parts per million, at best.
I base this on this calculation: the apparent diameter of the Moon from the surface of the Earth is about half a degree. Turn it around--at any time, given that a rock can hit you from any point in space, you are shielded by the Moon only from those rocks that come from the direction of the Moon, which is about half a degree of sky. In terms of area, that comes to a spot 0.0000077 of the surface of the Earth facing the Moon, or 0.00077%. Or, the same percentage of the rock-throwing sky when the Moon is above your horizon. The other side of the Earth gets no shielding. Or, no protection when the Moon is not visible in your sky. So, a total shielding effect of 0.0000039 of the total surface area/sky, or 3.9 parts per million, since percentages make no sense at this level.
It's about like the average adult wearing a circular Kevlar vest with a diameter of 2.9 cm. I guess it's better than nothing, but don't call it a 'shield'.
i like Robert Schmidts comment aobut what kind of info would be transmitted. History,culture,Music could be sent with no expectation of a reply.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would suggest one reason that we have not picked up any messages is because they are not there. Seems like we are not too far away from having TEC tangled electron communication. That would be undetectable and for use only within the subject species.
This may have already been suggested.
To read about extraterrestrial life in the universe go to
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.educatinghumanity.com
Ummm..... language of rats and dolphins? Seriuosly?!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisyou are hillarious! It may come as surprise to you but none of those are intelligent, therefore they do not have language. Ways of communication, sure but that's a whole another story.
Anyway, there are ways to decipher a language of another intelligent being.
COMMENTS
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDear Tim Folger, I think it is a matter of assumptions or principles.
Science has learned that we can perceive or see less than 5% of the Material Universe (known matter and energy) with all our resources of science. All our scientific instruments and apparatus are made from this matter that we can perceive. SOON, WE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE OTHER 95% OF THE UNIVERSE, INCLUDING THAT MAY BE AT OUR SIDE. From a practical standpoint, it is as if science devises sophisticated instruments for those with vision, hearing, speech or touch absolutely partial and imperfect. The glasses are no substitute for vision, they JUST can improve it.
Life on Earth, much unlike the evolutionists pray, is not the CHANCE OF NATURE, BUT AN INTELLIGENT PLANNING. The "life design" that was developed for the Earth, is not necessarily the project that may have happened elsewhere in the Universe, even just at our side. The matter is of principles on the one hand, and assumptions of another side. In the vastness of INFINITE UNIVERSE IS POSSIBLE THAT THERE IS LIFE AS OR SIMILAR TO OUR ultimately is a material design that was "tuned" to this "little point of the Universe, and it may well happen at any other point of it. The fact of finding it is just like finding a particular grain of sand on the beaches of the oceans.
I THINK THE BIG QUESTION IS NOT WHETHER THERE IS NOT LIFE IN OTHER PARTS, BUT WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF IT, EVEN IN THE EARTH! We do not have the consensus of what is the life utility on Earth, we do not yet know all life on Earth itself, and so on. What moves me is not the scientist who won for "inventing" theories and instruments, BUT THE MANAGER THAT PAID HIM FOR IT, MANY TIMES WITHOUT HAVING ABSOLUTELY ANY DIRECT RETURN OR UTILITY.
What in fact represented the tremendous economic effort to put two people on the Moon? DIRECTLY NOTHING, BUT INDIRECTLY, IT REPRESENTED TREMENDOUS PROGRESS IN MANY SCIENTIFIC AREAS! This is the wisdom of the entrepreneur that extends far beyond the wisdom of the scientist.
Ariovaldo Batista - engineer
São Paulo - Brazil.
very nice!!!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisinsightful!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've been donating computer time for SETI.... It's possible that some repeatable sequence will occur to tap us on our shoulder. I do wonder if an signal of this kind wouldn't be hijacked/diffused by all those other Radio signals?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDo we really want to learn to talk the the animals/plants? We are omnivores!
Nano ...nano!