Signals from space...?

Question

How could alien civilzation be able to understand our messages, if they recieve them?SETI,that have been sent use a barrage of radio telescopes and other equipment to scour the universe in the hope of picking up any kind of message that would suggest intelligent life.

Answer 1

you have some good information above, and I will toss my 2 cents in as well and hope it provides a bit of a help.

SETI operates in a very narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum. So far as I know, we don't have much of anything that transmits in that band. Radar and Telemetry would be useful at that frequency using phased modulation. (would look like little pyramids or triangles on an oscilloscope or undulating tape.

the ability of a radio to detect a signal is its antenna for the wave length, the transmission line (noise supressed) the amplification and dectection module of the radio, and the translator stage. This last stage makes the signal viewable on your Oscope or drops the frequence to something man can hear.

Within that, you have white noise, (natural radiation) pink noise, (noise caused by electrons flowing in the circuit) and antennuation caused by the actual resistance of the lines that are carrying the signal.

The signal recieved, is measured using the formula I=C/(d xd) or D squared. 100 candlepower of light, at 1 foot from a target is 40 candlepower.

So a strong signal, say 100,000 watts, would almost be invisible as it would be so faint. There are ways around that, but I am not sure if the technology is cleared for open domain so I will just say it can be done.

there are two types of signal, natural and modulated. Natural signals would appear as a burst or steady electrical signal that usually repeats its frequency range and intensity without much change over a period of time, thought the signal may seem unique.

an artificial signal will have distinct characteristics, such as bandwidth, the type of modulation, the amplitude or frequency shift of the modulation itself. Also the signal at any distance would have a wide range of bias (or stretching) that would be adduced and corrected. The signal should not repeat unless it was of a beacon type signal.

that is how we do it.

now as for the alien, assuming he has a way to get our signals, he would be able to learn a great deal about how hollywood views life on this planet and might actually believe it is how we live. In which case I think they would pull the plug.

also, I have been trying to keep up with the announcement on finding excinct life on mars, and with so much bad information it is hard to know what is real and what is not. If what I have seen is real, and I don't know, the little rovers are photographing skulls and bones as well as small buildings on mars. Supposedly there are huge trees in a fossilized form there, and the photographs show what are lakes.

One photo analyst says there is a turtle shaped thing in the photos that moves around, but having looked at the photos, I can not make heads or tails of it.

is there life out there? It would be exciting to find it.

Answer 2

Hello Kris,

It is believed that the 'Universal' language is mathematics, algorithms and pictures.

This is how the attempts to communicate with beings not of this world are being attempted. If another intelligent alien world were to pick up the signals we send out, it is believed that these signals could be deciphered by them.

Presumably these signals are in some way letting the recipients know where we are in the universe and what we look like.

In 1972 & 73 two probes, Pioneer 10 & 11 were launched from earth to fly past Jupiter and gather data. They also carried a gold plaque and a phonograph with pictures of the way we look and our position, together with sounds of our voices and other sounds. When these probes had finished their work they were sent off into deep space. It is hoped that these probes will somehow one day be captured by an alien nation and deciphered. Goodness know where these probes are now as the earth would have lost contact with them ages ago, or whether they are still winging their way in space or if they have been destroyed.

For more information about the attempts to communicate with other lifeforms please visit:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_with_Extraterrestrial_Intelligence

SETI have been running a program for several years which allow all Internet connected PC owners to download and analyse radio data received from outer space.

If you would like to know more about this please visit:

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/

Poseidon

Answer 3

If the signal is sent at a certain wavelength not given off by other cosmic phenomenon (like pulsars), one can tell if it is the result of an artificial process. The artificial signal would be a sign of intelligence with access to radio astronomy.

As for decoding the signal, I have no idea. It's pure speculation.

Keep in mind that S.E.T.I is purely speculative at the moment. The research group assumes that a civilization would send us a constant signal and make calculations to correct for their own orbit -- in other words, they want to find us.

There are billions of galaxies out there, so I think life exists, but whether or not it uses radio astronomy or wishes to send a signal in our measly direction for a period of a million years, I doubt it.

There is also a lot of chance involved. Look at the time it took for humans to evolve. We've had access to radio for what, about a century now? That's a small part of a billion years, and it took about 4.5 billion for the planet to evolve a species capable of such technology and questioning.

The universe doesn't revolve around us, and I think S.E.T.I. needs to broaden the type of signals they are looking for, and their assumptions about what is considered acceptable.

Answer 4

I believe that the aliens on planet Zircon, which is located in the right hand corner of the Milky Way Bar, ooops, I mean Galaxy, are actually so advanced that they just laugh at the primitive messages we send them on radio telescopes. They could come and visit us any time in their Time Traveler 4000 teleporters, but it would be like a human traveling to a deep cave to visit a bat.
By the way, your picture, kris1234, is very cute. My friend Brian, says that it might be nice to put your actual photo on instead, but he says he would only know the same steps you went through, and if it didn't work for you, it would not work for him either.

Answer 5

Most of the messages are sent in some form of mathematical code. An intelligent civilsation should be able to identify and decode the patterns. That's the theory, anyway.

Of course, the theory looks a bit weak when the so-called intelligent civilisation sending the patterns has enough food on the planet but millions of people are starving, and is busy bombing and maiming the ones who aren't starving to death.

Answer 6

A lot of the messages are hidden in picture form, like that of man etc. They are on the sides of the probes and other things we send out.

I think it's under the impression that should they cross intelligent life, then they would be able to understand what the messages mean. but like anything they may not understand anything ;). Or it may attract a hostile race..

Answer 7

an alien would not need to understand just the regularity of the message would alert them also signals are sent that contain universall truths such as binery numbers which will remain true and comprehensible to any being capable of recieving a signal

Answer 8

They don't have to decode it and neither do we. It is the radio signal itself which is the significant message. Is there anyone there? And If you get a signal back you know there is.

So if you send, " The President is a moron!" They don't have to know what it means but they can reply, "ZZZrrtre" And you instantly know they received it, and they are brainy enough to reply.

Answer 9

If Aliens do exist, then they would be able to communicate with us by there own choosing.humans would not need probes or radio signals.Aliens could make contact whenever they wanted too.

Answer 10

When you're ready to hear the signals from space, fold a new tinfoil hat with the shiny side IN, this will concentrate the mind-beams and allow you to listen in...

Failing that, you're stuck watching the Outer Limits, like
everybody else...