SETI@Home Publishes Skymap

An anonymous reader writes "The skymap of where in the night sky to find the most promising SETI@Home signals is reported today, along with the research plan for the March Stellar Countdown project. The dedicated use of the Arecibo Telescope to revisit these spikes, pulses, and steady signals, focused on 166 star candidates. Those 166 were pruned from the five billion signals that have been found since 1999, depending on the signal's persistence, closeness to a known star, and frequency. The next step is particularly fascinating, if a signal appears to have increased since the first observation put that star on the checklist."

"Star candidates"?

[AntiOrganic]

Sounds more like it's involved with a new crap reality show than SETI@Home.

out of money

[X00M]

I thought that seti@home went bankrupt awhile back...? Maybe not x00m

Re:"Star candidates"?

[mbadolato]

Or combine them! Each week we get to vote a new race out of the universe, and at the end, the final two races get married.

And here's the surprise: the newlywed alien couple will have Disaster Area play at their wedding, and be given their own Heart of Gold Spaceship as a wedding present!!

Re:Proximity to a star?

[AntiOrganic]

It would have to be some form of heat source, capable of producing an immense form of heat. And since Richard Simmons in spandex would take years to get that far, stars will have to do.

I have contributed..

[Frank of Earth]

.. about 14000 hours for the past.. 6-7 years.

And to think my computer use to just fly toasters when it was idle.

If the signal has INCREASED?

[JessLeah]

OK... the article notes:

"The next step is particularly fascinating, if a signal appears to have increased since the first observation put that star on the checklist."

How could it have increased?

These signals are coming from light-years away.

Even if the aliens learned, somehow (say, a year ago) that we were listening for them, finding this out instantly via some sort of "subspace radio" or the like, the signals we have received since then were ALREADY IN TRANSIT when the SETI@home program began.

Besides, there'd be no way for them to know we're listening, let alone to find that out within the last year.

Or maybe I just grossly misread the poster's meaning?

in the end...

[Malor]

After vast effort and the expenditure of moderate sums of cash (SETI is really done on the cheap), scientists will be elated to finally discover an alien signal, and chagrined to find that it translates to the rough equivalent of a rude hand gesture and a raspberry. :-)

(or possibly "If all you can detect is this signal, you're too stupid to bother with. Stay home and evolve for a few million years.")

Re:SETI is a crock- here's why

[Tablizer]

You know what? These people are a disgrace....Here's why....Now chances of actually recognizing the signal as intelligent life are unknown.

I think you answered your own criticism here. Nobody fricken knows. It is a Columbus-like exploration: sail and see what you bump into.

Ok, so you send a reply.

Who says we would send a reply? Maybe we will just listen more in and watch their version of I Love Lucy.

Re:A little OT but

[AndroidCat]

Like any newsgroup/forum, it's probably best to lurk for a while before posting. I'm not sure I'd like to find out what an interstellar flamewar is like.

I can just picture it

[Omestes]

A universe full of life, all with seti programs, just listening to each other listening to each other.

A universe full of introverts, wouldn't it be ironic.

Re:If the signal has INCREASED?

[pizen]

Could you imagine if we managed to discover, decode and re-transmist some alien television or radio signal?

We could all watch Omicron Persei 8's version of Single Female Lawyer.

Re:A little OT but

[Dag Maggot]

Well, I for one welcome our new human overlords..
oh wait...

Re:A little OT but

[DeltaSigma]

Who doesn't want to go out and do a little probing? Don't go telling me that the first thing you did when you got a new puppy or kitty wasn't probing their anus. We're all adults here, let's be serious...

Re:SETI is a crock- here's why

[Nogami_Saeko]

Hmm...

Maybe we should work this from the opposite end... Use the highest power transmitters available to broadcast something for years and years!

How about Pr0n, for example? I'd love to see what aliens would think about "That blue Pr0nWorld orbiting the yellow star".

Perhaps they'd have anal-probe tours... Perhaps they ALREADY DO!

N.

Re:I have contributed..

[seinman]

Oh yeah? Well i've done 32,885 hours. Who's on top now?

Why is it that...

[Romanpoet]

the first thing I read said, "SETI@Home publishes SkyNet."

Holy shit, distributed processing program on all of our computers. The machines plotting against us is already happening!

Aliens

[TrollBridge]

Would interstellar aliens be treated the same as illegal aliens? Unless of course they had passports or green cards, the interstellar aliens I mean. And would illegal aliens be jealous of interstellar aliens? And if they (the interstellar aliens) became citizens, they'd no longer still be interstellar OR aliens, right? Would they (illegal aliens) still receive free healthcare and education? Would the interstellar aliens (who became citizens and are no longer interstellar or aliens) have to pay taxes? Wouldn't the until-recently-interstellar-aliens then be upset that illegal aliens don't?

These are some serious questions that need to be addressed before we invite more aliens into the country, I think.

can SETI break DRM?

[The Lynxpro]

I was just thinking about this based upon a comment posted arguing that if life evolved on another planet similar to Earth and they developed fire, the wheel, etc. millions of years before us then they'd most likely have the radio as well. But if that's the case, then they would have had a Bill Gates figure exploiting their own ancient tech boom. So they too would have progressed to digital radio transmission, and their own music distribution industry would have insisted on protecting the content and then their Mr. Gates would've pioneered the march to encrypting their radio transmissions. So in all likelihood, what are the chances that a lot of those radio signals we are picking up that do not make any sense are encrypted signals being distorted to protect content? Or, what if their computer systems evolved off their own native versions of the Atari ST and Commodore Amigas versus Windows? (we'd be screwed!) And, if there are multiple spacefaring species out there, they too probably have defense strategies and they would definitely encrypt their broadcast transmissions. Just some points to ponder duing the wee hours here in Pacific Standard Time today...

Re:Doppler Drift Rate "chirping" seems way redunda

[Demosthenes_Aus]

leaving the monitor running to display pretty graphics maybe..