'No signal' from targeted ET hunt (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

The hunt for other intelligent civilisations has a new technique in its arsenal, but its first use has turned up no signs of alien broadcasts.

Australian astronomers used "very long baseline interferometry" to examine Gliese 581, a star known to host planets in its "habitable zone".

The hunt for aliens is fundamentally a vast numbers game, so the team's result should come as no surprise.

Their report, posted online, will be published in the Astronomical Journal.

In recent years, interest in such targeted searches has begun to surge as the hunt for planets outside the Solar System continues to find them at every turn.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18288926

[dimbear]

1. Here's a handy science experiment you can do at home.

Tune your old analog TV set to a modern digital station. It will just show noise.

The demodulator in your old TV can't see the modern signal.

Dratted ETs. So modern.

[Denninmi]

2. Well, the difference in technological levels would probably be a good thing.

Can you imagine what they would think of us if they could tune in to out TV broadcasts?

[laconicsax]

3. Unless I'm mistaken, a small percentage of that noise is the CMB.

Pretty neat.

But you do bring up one of the main problems with radiotelescope ET searches. Not only do we need to be looking in just the right place at the right time, but a civilization where we're looking has to have sent a strong enough signal of the right type.

Needle in a haystack is exaggerating the ease of the endeavor.

[Motown_Johnny]

4. They are looking for patterns across the EM spectrum.

Comparing it to one channel just isn't fair.


Nobody expects to be able to decipher the signal, nobody serious that is, but simply to find one.