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“Our sun is one of 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy is one of billions of galaxies populating the universe. It would be the height of presumption to think that we are the only living things in that enormous immensity.”
-Dr. Werner Von Braun-
There are countless civilizations beyond our Solar system. We lack the technical capabilities to locate and interact with them. Sentient or intelligent life communities is believed to have certain exterior traits; two hands five digits per hand, bipedal abilities and conscious of their existence and environment. Skin color, physical appearance, language, sociological patterns, religions and governments are secondary and tertiary traits. They’re out there but do we have the communicative technologies to make contact? There are some within the science community, prominent among them physicist Stephen Hawking who argue that it may not be advantageous to establish contact. See what happened to Earth’s indigenous communities with the European conquests?
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence or SETI in an Internet based public project hosted by the University of California, Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory to enable amateur astronomers to scan the heavens for sentient life on exoplanets. They analyze radio signals to assist their search. SETI’S goals are:
* To conduct scientific work by supporting an observational analysis to detect intelligent life outside Earth; Reader given the seemingly lack of intelligent life on this planet I’m tempted to opine that maybe scientists should search for intelligent life on earth first; watch the News?.
* To prove to the scientific world that utilizing ‘civilians’ on a voluntary basis is viable, practical and cost efficient.
Of the two the second has succeeded admirably; the jury is still out regarding on the first goal; results have yet to yield any conclusive evidence for ETI or Extra Terrestrial Intelligence signals; it’s still early in the experiment. 98% of the sky has yet to be surveyed; of that portion that has undergone a ‘sky scan’ every section surveyed has to be examined a multiplicity of times to exclude even a subset of possibilities. Reader, the science community doesn’t want to fail; treading carefully is a must. The search for ET is like toe tapping through a scientific minefield; one misstep all credibility risk being forever lost.
The SETI@home searches for evidence of radio transmissions from possible ET’s via Arecibo radio telescopes. The desired data is taken as the machine is used for priority programs. The data is digitized, stored then sent to the SETI facility. The information is parsed or broken down into tiny chunks in frequency, time, analyzed though special software to search for any variation that can’t be ascribed to noise but contain needed information. Reader the primary work of SETI volunteers is to scan each chunk of space data previously analyzed by larger telescopes on home computers to search for signals that may be attributed to persons from other planets. Special software is employed to filter out possible noise factors. Once done you the volunteer run a search for the following five signals:
* Spikes in the power spectra or radio frequencies that contain signal’s power
* Gaussian rises/falls in power transmissions in the telescope beams main lobe over radio source
* Triplets or three power spikes in a row
* Pulsing signals that represent a narrowband digital style transmission
* Autocorrelation a property displayed by nearby objects though not being independent of each other used to detect signal waveforms out of the ordinary
It’s like tuning a radio to various channels while looking at the signal strength meter. If the signal strength goes up BINGO! In ‘Sciencespeak’ you process the signals or discrete Fourier transformations at various chirp rates and durations; that’s channel surfing for the right wave lengths that let you know that something out of the ordinary is happening; why do they need you? Telescopes no matter how massive and overreaching can’t cover everything. The folks in the lab coats need your help. Stuff they can’t cover, miss or misread is where you come in.
Sorry to say the SETI project hasn’t received a single confirmation regarding ETI signals. They’ve came so close that several targets where the spike in intensity couldn’t be explained away as noise spots. Astronomer Seth Shostak stated he expects to get a conclusive signal proof that ET is out there between 2020 and 2025. He bases his theories on the Drake equation a unit of measurement used to estimate the number of communicating civilizations in the cosmos implying the odds of finding sentient life in the multiverse (multi-dimensional or parallel universes); is anybody’s guess.
If you want to find ET all by your lonesome let’s get started. Use your search engine and type in one or some of the following websites listed. I don’t have word space to do proper justice to this article; type in the following;
* Softonic-SETI@home-Download
* DOINC
* SETI@home/The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence at…
* Participate in SETI@home
* BOINC-Free download and software reviews-CNET Download com
The only prerequisite is you must have a computer with internet capabilities.
My take on the SETI@home project is two fold; first being a science aficionado I think a through search for ET is a grand idea. We have a very long way to go by way of actual first contact and in the development of the technology to achieve such a lofty feat. Case in point: how come every time I switch on cable to watch a ball game and it rains I lose audio and visual satellite signals? If this wonderful entertainment technology shuts down with a few raindrops what’s up with bothering folks on other planets if our own ‘game’s’ shaky? Reader, as space technology develops you may not be able to talk, argue and flirt with ET but eventually you’ll see what’s for dinner.
I sleep with a notepad and pen next to my bed to record dreams. About 90% of the time I wake up, grab my pad, pen and outline my dream before going back to sleep. A few years ago before I developed an interest in science I had this dream of inner galactic travel. My ‘starship’ was traveling through a dark ‘membrane’ as it whizzed through the blackness of space. My personal mystery was solved when I read www.Science.Com article ‘How to Hunt Intelligent Aliens.’ The article said that advanced civilizations may resort to fabricating or designing mini black holes; that “these tiny black holes can measure an atom’s width yet carry the mass of a million tons. By plopping this black hole into some kind of hypothetical black hole drive, the engine could generate a vast quantity of gamma-rays that, in turn, would be converted into energy to power the spacecraft. According to researchers, this could be an inexhaustible power source. What’s more, if we know the signature of the radiation emitted from these artificial black hole drives, we may be able to detect these whizzy aliens;” Reader my dream explained a method for future star travel!
Dreams can be revelations; this dream may contain the key to intergalactic travel if you want to meet ‘ET’ in person (Source: Ian O’ Neill’s ‘Discovery News-Black Hole Starships Engines’); next edition ‘Crusin’ the Multiverse-The Warp Drive Explained-Part two;’ Godspeed.