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Thread: Skies to be swept for alien life

  1. #1

    Skies to be swept for alien life

    See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7041183.stm

    The switch has been thrown on a telescope specifically designed to seek out alien life.

    Funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen the finished array will have 350 6m antennas and will be one of the world's largest.
    The Allen Telescope Array (ATA) will be able to sweep more than one million star systems for radio signals generated by intelligent beings.


    The ATA is being run by the SETI Institute and the Radio Astronomy Laboratory from the University of California, Berkeley.
    It looks like a 21st century update of the SETI project.

    I would think that the most likely 'first contact' with another intelligence would most likely come from a project such as this one. Either picking up electromagnetic signals they're using or even a 'beacon' that is intentionally transmitting to signal that intelligent life is present.

    I don't know what the chances of contact are estimated at but I presume the odds are very low.
    .

  2. #2

    Re: Skies to be swept for alien life

    I bet they'll pick up a repeat of an alien celebrity chat show.

  3. #3

    Re: Skies to be swept for alien life

    .....or the alien Jeremy Kyle show
    Mousse from a bowl is very nice, but to put it on a person is demented!

  4. #4

    Re: Skies to be swept for alien life

    Quote Originally Posted by John Jackson View Post
    I don't know what the chances of contact are estimated at but I presume the odds are very low.
    I'd say about as low as the chances of finding a genuine psychic.
    The speed of light, expressed in FFF Units, is 1.8 mega-furlongs per micro-fortnight, or approximately 1.8 terafurlongs per fortnight.

    Gravity makes the heart grow heavier.

    A
    ny use of this product, in any manner whatsoever, will increase the amount of disorder in the universe. Although no liability is implied herein, the consumer is warned that this process will lead to the heat death of the universe.

  5. #5

    Re: Skies to be swept for alien life

    It would be amazing if they ever did find a signal. I've always wondered what and alien TV show would be like, it's pretty impossible to imagine. I doubt that's what we'd pick up anyway, but you never know.

  6. #6

    Re: Skies to be swept for alien life

    Quote Originally Posted by The_Corinthian View Post
    It would be amazing if they ever did find a signal. I've always wondered what and alien TV show would be like, it's pretty impossible to imagine. I doubt that's what we'd pick up anyway, but you never know.
    Although if we did, I really hope it's in PAL format, just to annoy the Americans...
    The speed of light, expressed in FFF Units, is 1.8 mega-furlongs per micro-fortnight, or approximately 1.8 terafurlongs per fortnight.

    Gravity makes the heart grow heavier.

    A
    ny use of this product, in any manner whatsoever, will increase the amount of disorder in the universe. Although no liability is implied herein, the consumer is warned that this process will lead to the heat death of the universe.

  7. #7
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    Re: Skies to be swept for alien life

    I wonder if they'd let me use it to track down my ex-girlfriend!!! She took me for all I had and then left with the milkman...
    "If it happened to me and I had no witnesses, evidence or proof...what chance would I have of anyone believing me"

  8. #8

    Re: Skies to be swept for alien life

    Quote Originally Posted by vbloke View Post
    Although if we did, I really hope it's in PAL format, just to annoy the Americans...
    They'll probably use SECAM just cus no useful country uses it.
    "The Universe is full of enough wonder already, without the need to believe in the paranormal." - Paraquote of Richard Dawkins

  9. #9
    Senior Member InForAPennyInForApound's Avatar
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    Talking Re: Skies to be swept for alien life

    http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedi...cfm?videoID=81


    Finally, contact from outer space! ???
    The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.

  10. #10
    frosty jack
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    Re: Skies to be swept for alien life

    The wow signal SETI recived was interesting.


  11. #11
    Senior Member dee's Avatar
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    Re: Skies to be swept for alien life

    Quote Originally Posted by FarSideOfTheMoon View Post
    .....or the alien Jeremy Kyle show
    I'd prefer an alien Jerry Springer - my wife, the alien and the rent boy - I can see it now...
    I have not failed... I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work!

  12. #12

    Re: Skies to be swept for alien life

    The problem I have with SETI is that they don't say how long they are going to keep looking. Eventually the money runs out, but you've barely passed the 'zero' chance mark even after 100 years.

    I guess I'm saying I think it's a bit pointless.

  13. #13

    Re: Skies to be swept for alien life

    If SETI finds intelligent life out there, how are we supposed to react? Is it good news that we're not alone? Is it bad news that they might notice us and invade?

  14. #14

    Re: Skies to be swept for alien life

    Quote Originally Posted by MRT View Post
    If SETI finds intelligent life out there, how are we supposed to react? Is it good news that we're not alone? Is it bad news that they might notice us and invade?
    I for one welcome our new Martian overlords.

    Although...

    ...the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, they say.

  15. #15

    Re: Skies to be swept for alien life

    jeff wayne ftw
    De omnibus dubitandum

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