interesting discussion... looks like we are going to find ETs without installing SETI@home... LOL
What difference will knowing how the universe has born or will end make to us?
we are doing it for the next generation. when scientists released probes into the far reaches of our solar system, they knew some of them wouldn't live long enough to see the results. people who are planning to go to Mars know that they won't come back alive but they may open up more possibilities for the next generation.
If even 1 of the UFO occurance is real, don't the seti guys look foolish scanning the skies when you have actual aliens in their backyard?
a lot of theories and findings suggest ET's presence on our planet. i've read a lot on how US govt took extreme measures to keep certain occurrences under wraps. now, that could be the US army testing their stealth technology. but certain instances aren't just possible with the technology currently present on earth, e.g., light orbs zooming away at an astounding speed. in fact, a lot of UFO sightings happened during the cold war period, which made it all the more convenient for the US govt to hush up the matters - they could've easily said that they were testing their new ultrasonic-laser-guided-black-bird
anyways, if you find it interesting then you may read controversial theories about "tunguska event", "moon as an alien landing zone", "is our moon really gray?", "depiction of vector/chevron in ancient relics and how the same symbol appears in logos of almost all the space agencies of the world", etc. once i got an earful from my parents when i told them that our gods are none else but aliens. i had very good explanation in my support and they had none... even the holy gita and ramayana talks about stuff that can't be explained without possible alien intervention... well, i don't mean to offend gods and scriptures as all i have is a theory and no proof.
this discussion can go on and on but that'll ruin terry's thread on SETI
Incidently, @
namrata, how about you participating in SETI
- which today gone way beyond it's initial objectives (see links/projects going on).
well, i'll see what's the current state of this project. i installed SETI@home during my college days and joined some forums to discuss the data... and that's about it. i guess, i replaced it with some other project on ET but don't remember it now.
Oh dear, it does matter a lot. When one is analyzing millions of radiowaves coming form an equal number of sources that are millions of light years away - the relational shift in speed of some waves correspond to different calculations about their nature vis-a-vis other objects in their vicinity, that may emit waves of different speeds.
Radio waves travel close to the speed of light. In rare instances do they travel slower - especially when they enter the earth's atmosphere
tch tch... never expected this on a technology forum. sounds like principles such as "light aberration", "doppler effect", "theory of relativity" and "special theory of relativity" all mixed up.
i didn't explain explicitly earlier, so here it is: if you know that speed of radio waves decreases by certain amount after entering earth's atmosphere then simply adjust your final results accordingly. plain and simple. that's what all the scientists do, otherwise all this SETI project and your contribution is a waste. what you are processing is a faulty data because the waves traveled slower during their final journey... right?
the whole applied mathematics works on approximation... we use calculus for complex geometries, which is nothing but approximation. the distant stars that you see from large telescopes are in fact not there! they have moved from their places and what you see is the light/radio waves reaching you from a past time. we just have to "shift" or "offset" the results to arrive at their actual location. and there's a reason why the telescopes are tilted and not looking straight up.
it takes 119ms for light to reach earth from geostationary orbit. just take out couple of ms and you have your correct figure. that jet running at 299.999 mi/hr was analogous to this situation. you know how much speed is degraded and you can offset the outcome by that amount. we have numerous "coefficients" devised to take care of such calculations.
SETIs receivers are on earth, so they would have taken care of the speed issue. take your data from the telescopes floating in space and you've got your pure vacuum values.
i didn't want to post such a long text but i noticed how everyone's got an opinion on the speed of radio waves. is it really worthwhile to indulge in SETI when we don't know the underlying theory? we know how fast EM waves travel in vacuum and in earth's atmosphere - that's why i said it doesn't matter if it slows down because we know how to re-factor the change. we can have several opinions on aliens but not on the speed of EM waves, as the latter is a verifiable fact.
i rest my case. i guess i'll have a better sleep now
I gave that link not to give history of ufo's. If even 1 of the UFO occurance is real, don't the seti guys look foolish scanning the skies when you have actual aliens in their backyard? Imagine looking always at top whereas target is down near your shoes.
"
... release it ASAP to the public and expect a handsome raise in the next cycle."
... They'll be landing in my backyard soon."