Telescope bid to spot alien beams

[telfrow]

<i>A new optical telescope designed solely to detect light signals from alien civilisations has opened for work at an observatory in Harvard, US. <br />It will conduct a year-round survey, scanning all of the Milky Way galaxy visible in the Northern Hemisphere. <br /><br />Seti is an exploratory science to scour the cosmos for signatures of technology built by alien beings. <br /><br />Some experts believe alien societies are at least as likely to use light for communicating as radio transmissions. <br /><br />The new telescope, which has a 1.8m (72-inch) primary mirror, is the first dedicated optical Seti (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) telescope in the world. <br /><br />It has been installed at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics at Oak Ridge Observatory. <br /><br />"The opening of this telescope represents one of those rare moments in a field of scientific endeavour when a great leap forward is enabled," said Bruce Betts, director of projects at the Planetary Society, which funded the telescope. <br /><br />"Sending laser signals across the cosmos would be a very logical way for ET to reach out; but until now, we have been ill-equipped to receive any such signal." </i><br /><br />Full Story<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[qso1]

Good link, I recently mentioned something in response to a poster that wondered why we wern't going beyond radio comm. for SETI. I didn't have this link at the time but did mention the project. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>

 

[berna]

I think it is a real break-though in SETI. Just because we use radio to communicate ew should not assume everybody else does! <br />However, we should not forget other possibilities like gamma or X-ray photons that allow to use much more tight beam (due to the shorter wavelenght) and penetrate better powder clouds in space. We do not yet have the technology yet to make high intensity collimated gamma or X-ray beams but more advnced civilizations may have it.<br />However we have the technology to detect them.<br />Other possibilities like neutrino beams or gravity waves seem to be too advanced for us now.

 

[qso1]

The fact that this telescope was built and put into service demonstrates the SETI community is not assuming that ET would use radio waves alone for possible communications. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>