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The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

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Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#261

Post by pyman »

34679 wrote: post #210
lelanthran wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The signal itself looks like a parabola when graphed, gaining in intensity and then falling off at the same rate. Exactly what you'd expect from someone walking across the field in front of it. Also exactly what you'd expect if aliens were beaming a search signal into their sky, no?

Yes, but one is far more likely.

Statistically speaking, everything points to human interference.

My theory is that the government was planning to cut funding, and to stop that from happening someone deliberately created the interference. That's more likely than aliens going extinct after sending one single message.

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#262

Post by pyman »

yongjik wrote: post #125
cm2187 wrote: post #97

My money is still on the janitor plugging a faulty vaccum cleaner in the wrong electrical socket!

There is a theory that if we could find the same janitor and get them to plug the same broken vacuum cleaner to the same socket in exactly the same way, mankind's energy problem will be forever solved, one way or the other. There is another theory that this has already happened.

Excellent. Men in black :D

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#263

Post by lelanthran »

34679 wrote: post #210
lelanthran wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The signal itself looks like a parabola when graphed, gaining in intensity and then falling off at the same rate. Exactly what you'd expect from someone walking across the field in front of it. Also exactly what you'd expect if aliens were beaming a search signal into their sky, no?

Yes, but one is far more likely.

> Yes, but one is far more likely.

Well, yeah, but I wasn't addressing that. My point is that any signal from an intelligent species is going to look exactly like the signal from someone walking past with an emitter.

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#264

Post by verzali »

sentinelsignal wrote: post #171
verzali wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no information in it, it looks like a continuous wave of radio energy coming from space. It is on a frequency that might be a natural one for any intelligent civilization to consider broadcasting on, and it is a narrowband signal, meaning it only covers a small range of frequencies.

2 questions. Are we capable of generating something like that particularly when that happened? and was there ever an attempt to respond in some sort?

It's a pretty easy signal to generate, even back then. I believe they've made efforts to scan the stars in that direction, but given the distance to them it would be decades or centuries until they'd see a response from us.

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#265

Post by lillecarl »

yencabulator wrote: post #227
metalliqaz wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

even when my microwave is closed, the interference it generates while running blocks my bluetooth headphones

I bought a new microwave to stop wrecking my wife's videoconferencing over 2.4 GHz wifi.

I would recommend upgrading to 5ghz Wi-Fi, it's a lot better.

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#266

Post by 34679 »

venusenvy47 wrote: post #249
34679 wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was after watching a documentary called "WOW Signal". The receiver they built was along the edge of a field, and it's designed to pick up extremely weak variations in electrical signals/radio waves. They go into great detail about how sensitive it is. The signal itself looks like a parabola when graphed, gaining in intensity and then falling off at the same rate. Exactly what you'd expect from someone walking acro…

I'd like to watch this documentary. Do you know the year and/or channel where you saw it? The antenna is focused with a tremendous amount of gain towards a spot in the sky, and provides a very significant amount of rejection to signals in all other directions. I can't see how you would get a signal at 1.42 GHz from a watch or flashlight. Harmonics from something like a walkie talkie only occur when the radio is trans…

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt7928816/

I don't remember where I watched it, but the 2nd and 3rd links from a kagi search were for Prime and Apple TV.

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#267

Post by ashleyn »

ProllyInfamous wrote: post #211
floatrock wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a story of a famous observatory that, iirc, kept on seeing really powerful intermittent signals that they couldn't quite hone in on. It seemed everytime they tried to zoom in on the source they couldn't find it again. Signal was quite elusive. They finally traced it to people using the microwave in the break room in a very specific way. Some people liked to open the microwave door before the timer went off. T…

Note: Good enough reason to never just open the microwave to stop heating. Press `STOP` first, got it.

It's not ionising radiation, so probably not all that dangerous at the dose and time.

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#268

Post by peddling-brink »

throwway120385 wrote: post #230
griffzhowl wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course if there's a pattern like that it would change things. This signal seems to have been a single pulse though

On our timescale, sure. But then we wouldn't want to communicate with intelligences that experience time so differently that a pulsed signal from their perspective would be a single pulse from our perspective.

Random aside, but relevant to the discussion. If you haven’t read The Dragon’s Egg, you’re in for a treat.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s_Egg

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#269

Post by staticman2 »

dghlsakjg wrote: post #246
munchler wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The claim is that humans would have to monitor for six millennia to detect a signal like this as a result of random interference/noise. The implication is that the signal is probably real, since humans have been monitoring for much less than 6000 years.

A random distribution means that you have the same chance of hearing it in year 1 as you do in year 6k, right? Until there is a second one, there is nothing to statistically distinguish this from random noise.

This is something philosophers debate, right? Similar to the Doomsday Argument asking whether it's reasonable to assume our lives are in the middle of the human species timeline rather than at the end:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_argument

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#270

Post by ProllyInfamous »

merelysounds wrote: post #253
entropicdrifter wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meh, it's less dangerous than granite countertops

Interesting, I didn’t know. > The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says most granite countertops are safe, adding little to a house's radon level. It depends on the rock that is used, the agency says, recommending that homeowners concerned about radon get their countertops tested." https://www.naturalstoneinstitute.org/designprofessionals/ra...

>Radon

I live in a high-radon part of the world (Appalachia), and there are so many more benefits to having an ERV[0] than just getting rid of toxic gasses (handles farts, too!). Worth every penny — one will remove stink from the entire 1000sqft house (including indoor cat litterbox), with partial heat/humidity recovery.

[0] Energy recovery vent, e.g. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Panasonic-WhisperComfort-60-20-5...

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