With Help From Jodie Foster, SETI Resumes Search for Alien Life
1–10 of 22 posts
Re: With Help From Jodie Foster, SETI Resumes Search for Alien Life
#2We have all those radio telescopes built already. Seems silly for humans to let them sit idle. Even if we don't find aliens I'm sure there is something interesting to see with all that gear.
Re: With Help From Jodie Foster, SETI Resumes Search for Alien Life
#3Jodie was already one of my most beloved actresses. Now with this, she climbed to the top of the list.
Re: With Help From Jodie Foster, SETI Resumes Search for Alien Life
#4Someone posted the following on the article:
"This's never made sense to me. When you consider the inverse square law for electromagnetic transmission in light of the distances we're talking about, any signal big enough for us to receive would have completely cooked anything at the point of origin."
A quick Wikipedia search says that the inverse square law does apply to radio waves. Can someone that understands this better than I explain why this may or may not apply?
It seems like a total deal killer for the project.
Re: With Help From Jodie Foster, SETI Resumes Search for Alien Life
#5We have all those radio telescopes built already. Seems silly for humans to let them sit idle. Even if we don't find aliens I'm sure there is something interesting to see with all that gear.
True. 'Looking' at otherwise empty space can sometimes yield some incredible results: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Deep_Field
Re: With Help From Jodie Foster, SETI Resumes Search for Alien Life
#6Someone posted the following on the article: "This's never made sense to me. When you consider the inverse square law for electromagnetic transmission in light of the distances we're talking about, any signal big enough for us to receive would have completely cooked anything at the point of origin." A quick Wikipedia search says that the inverse square law does apply to radio waves. Can someone that understands this…
Here: http://www.seti.org/page.aspx?pid=225
They address this under "No More TV for Aliens". CTRL-F for it.
Also: yes the inverse square law does apply to radio waves.
Re: With Help From Jodie Foster, SETI Resumes Search for Alien Life
#7I think Jodie Foster's character in Contact (who is based on Jill Tarter, the real-life director of SETI research) says it best.
"Look, all I'm asking, is for you to just have the tiniest bit of vision. You know, to just sit back for one minute and look at the big picture. To take a chance on something that just might end up being the most profoundly impactful moment for humanity, for the history... of history."
Re: With Help From Jodie Foster, SETI Resumes Search for Alien Life
#8Someone posted the following on the article: "This's never made sense to me. When you consider the inverse square law for electromagnetic transmission in light of the distances we're talking about, any signal big enough for us to receive would have completely cooked anything at the point of origin." A quick Wikipedia search says that the inverse square law does apply to radio waves. Can someone that understands this…
Considering we can detect radio sources more than 10 billion light years away, I suspect ours can probably be spotted a few tens of thousands away.
Re: With Help From Jodie Foster, SETI Resumes Search for Alien Life
#9We have all those radio telescopes built already. Seems silly for humans to let them sit idle. Even if we don't find aliens I'm sure there is something interesting to see with all that gear.
[deleted]
Re: With Help From Jodie Foster, SETI Resumes Search for Alien Life
#10Someone posted the following on the article: "This's never made sense to me. When you consider the inverse square law for electromagnetic transmission in light of the distances we're talking about, any signal big enough for us to receive would have completely cooked anything at the point of origin." A quick Wikipedia search says that the inverse square law does apply to radio waves. Can someone that understands this…
Here: http://www.seti.org/page.aspx?pid=225 They address this under "No More TV for Aliens". CTRL-F for it. Also: yes the inverse square law does apply to radio waves.
Direct link, courtesy of Firebug: http://www.seti.org/page.aspx?pid=225#PC754_dgStories_ctl18_...