Comments on: ET phone earth?

ET phone earth?

tranquileye — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 07:58:05 -0800

Between Pisces and Aries, a strange signal from space. Communication from an extraterrestrial civilization? Probably not, and an article in Nature suggests it would make more sense to use FedEx.

By: zeoslap

zeoslap — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 08:39:44 -0800

The second story seems a little odd if what they say in the first story is true. Sounds like he's downplaying it but that there is indeed something there (I don't think it's aliens)

By: weston

weston — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 08:54:12 -0800

The FedEx method travels slower and covers a smaller region of space, and is more vulnerable to pulverization.

By: cardboard

cardboard — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 09:11:52 -0800

Until they confirm this with another telescope, my hunch would be that it's instrument noise generated when the Arecibo telescope is pointed in that specific direction. Is there another radio telescope sensitive enough to pick up this signal that has the time to go look?

By: trondant

trondant — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 09:29:44 -0800

It's good to know that E.T. is also lying in wait, ready to kick the FedEx guy in the nuts.

By: mr.marx

mr.marx — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 09:44:00 -0800

----C----------- Bb-------------- -------Ab------- --------------Eb ----------Ab----

By: keswick

keswick — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 09:52:51 -0800

Ladies and gentlemen, er, we've just lost the picture, but, uh, what we've seen speaks for itself. The Corvair spacecraft has been taken over -- "conquered", if you will -- by a master race of giant space ants. It's difficult to tell from this vantage point whether they will consume the captive earth men or merely enslave them. One thing is for certain, there is no stopping them; the ants will soon be here. And I, for one, welcome our------ NO CARRIER

By: straight

straight — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 10:11:31 -0800

And with modern nanotechnology, the authors point out, that letter can contain quite a lot. Some 1022 bits of information - much more than the sum of all the written and electronic information on Earth - can be encoded into a cube weighing about 2.2 pounds, Dr. Rose and Dr. Wright say. Modern nanotech, but super-advanced futuristic data compression algorithms.

By: twine42

twine42 — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 11:07:04 -0800

Can someone with more knowledge than me tell me if the fact that 1420 MHz is the molecular hydrogen line frequency makes this more or less likely to be a foreign data transmission (natural or no) as opposed to a local one?

By: grateful

grateful — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 12:38:25 -0800

We are not alone.

By: zia

zia — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 22:02:38 -0800

The fact that its at or near the 1420 MHz line makes this really intriguing. ET can broadcast at any frequency but its always been thought that the Hydrogen line is a good, "special" frequency both because its an otherwise quiet part of the spectrum except for this major narrow-band spike at Hydrogen which is the most common thing in our universe. Its a Hydrogen gas universe. So, its one of the few frequencies that just makes sense. There are no earth-bound sources of this, our atmosphere is transparent to this frequency and this frequency is also reserved for astronomers (i.e. no man-made emissions are allowed around there) I too would like to see confirmation from another telescope. There are plenty of telescoped out there that can see fine in 21-cms but the challenge is usually getting time on them.

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Thu, 02 Sep 2004 22:04:32 -0800

oh, oops! I was on zia's computer. That was me posting the above, though.