Telescopes can tune in to alien TV.

[exoscientist]

Telescopes can tune in to alien TV<br />Public release date: 25-Oct-2006<br />Contact: Claire Bowles<br />New Scientist<br />"Radio telescopes designed to study the primordial universe could also eavesdrop on extraterrestrial civilisations similar to our own. 'By a happy accident,' says abraham Loeb of Harvard University, 'the telescopes will be sensitive to just the kind of radio emission that our civilisation is leaking into space.'<br />"The next generation of radio telescopes are designed to pick up radio waves emitted by neutral hydrogen molecules in the early universe. These signals originally had a wavelength of 21 centimetres, but the universe has expanded since they were emitted, stretching the waves in the process. Today, these signals have a wavelength of several metres,<br />corresponding to a frequency of tens or hundreds of megahertz. 'This overlaps with our civilisation's radio emissions, which are in the range 50 to 400 megahertz,' says Loeb."<br />http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/ns-tct102506.php<br /><br /><br /> Bob Clark <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>