Is anybody out there?
Posted on 08/11/2009 11:47:39 PM PDT by myknowledge
Messages from Earth will be sent into space as part of National Science Week.
People can visit the Hello From Earth website to post text-like message that will be transmitted to Gliese 581d - the nearest earth-like planet outside our solar system.
Gliese 581d was discovered in April 2007. It is eight times the size of Earth and 20 light years away.
The project is already proving popular, with the website receiving 26,000 hits in the first five minutes - crashing the system for a short time.
The messages will be sent from the Canberra Deep Space Complex at Tidbinbilla.
Hello From Earth spokesman Wilson De Silva says it is like a message in a bottle cast out into the stars.
"Travelling at the speed of light - which is 300,000 kilometres a second - it's still gonna take 20 years," he said.
"Which means that they won't get the message until most people have paid off their mortgages, if they've taken out a mortgage this year, today, because it'll arrive in December 2029."
Mr De Silva says sending messages to Gliese 581d provides the best chance of a response.
"It has water. Everyone is very excited because it's the first planet - of the 358 so far discovered outside of our solar system - that has the potential for life," he said.
National Science Weeks kicks off on Saturday with more than 800 events being held across the country.
Is anybody out there?
When I started my ham radio activities back in the mid 50s,
there was activity to aim antennas (large scale VHF dishes)
to one star that is 11 light years from earth.
Ir being 22 years since high power VHF TV signals had gone on the air, the idea that a planet within this star would have had time to pick it up and return a signal.
Of course nothing was heard, but it was a good idea.
Normal radio signals, below the VHF range, are restricted from going into space by the ionosphere.
The SETI program was set up in 1995, using the huge antenna in Puerto Rico, but funding has dwindled, and the program continues with only volunteer radio astronomers.
“S-E-N-D-M-O-R-E-C-H-U-C-K-B-E-R-R-Y”
“I’d think the odds of someone 11 light years away saying ‘howdy neighbor’ would be pretty slim. It worth trying though.”
Yes, the thought is quite daunting, when you consider that
even at 11 light years, that is still 22 years for a round trip.
There are, however, many scanning receivers and big antennas
pointed into space, waiting for the magic moment of an ET signal, or sign of life.
Hopefully, this link works.
This is all kinds of stupid. Gliese 581 is a FLARE STAR! Does anyone on this stupid project know what that means? It means it does coronal mass ejections (CME's) all the time! Any planet of this tiny star will have to orbit closer than Mercury does to our own star to get Earth-like warmth. Well, what happens when a flare belches out? Any life is toast.
Again, stupid. Cosmic-sized stupid.
This is all kinds of stupid. Gliese 581 is a FLARE STAR! Does anyone on this stupid project know what that means? It means it does coronal mass ejections (CME's) all the time! Any planet of this tiny star will have to orbit closer than Mercury does to our own star to get Earth-like warmth. Well, what happens when a flare belches out? Any life is toast.
Again, stupid. Cosmic-sized stupid.
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