
Breakthrough Listen publishes first analysis of 692 stars in ET search - acro
https://www.universetoday.com/135281/breakthrough-listen-publishes-first-analysis-692-stars-et-searchi/
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madengr
From what I have read, most of this SETI data processing involves very long
FFT to channelize down to 1 Hz BW. However, assuming any alien signals would
be like our digital comms, those signals are pseudo noise like, so using very
narrow bandwidths just reduces the signal too. These narrow bandwidths would
only be good for CW signals?

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technics256
If I recall my EE schooling correctly, the 1Hz resolution bandwidth
significantly reduces the noise floor of the receiver, and this allows you to
resolve smaller signals from the noise. Also, assuming it is sweeping, having
a digital signal with greater bandwidth is no problem to find.

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madengr
Yes, EE here too, but if the signal you're trying to detect is also noise like
(pseudo random), it is averaged out with the noise. That's why I'm thinking
that any moderately complex signal won't be detectable. We'd have to detect a
signal that aliens purposely sent out at a very narrow bandwidth; essentially
seconds per bit, or even narrower.

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jacquesm
And that they didn't bother to compress to save on bandwidth.

To me that's the kicker. There's only a 100 year or so window during which you
can catch a civilization's transmissions un-encrypted and un-compressed. After
that it might as well be noise.

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tzs
Even after they have switched to encrypting and compressing their
transmissions, they might still have have unencrypted, uncompressed station
identification messages transmitted periodically.

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dude01
I hope we find some ETs. Otherwise I'm worried we're either:

\- in a simulation, and they didn't bother to simulate other parts of the
universe in high fidelity.

\- in a zoo, and somehow we're blocked from seeing other civilizations.

I don't buy, for an instant, that in a universe of this size, we'd be the only
life forms.

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nebulus
I've always thought that this was the most likely reason for our simulation,
and the most telling evidence for it:

In a universe where intelligent life is common throughout the galaxy, there'd
be no way to tell what our species would have become left to its own devices.
What discoveries we would have made, what cultures we would have created, what
our destiny might have been.

The only way to discover it would be to simulate human life on a planetary
scale in a universe where other intelligent life is mysteriously absent. Which
is exactly the situation we find ourselves in.

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pmoriarty
_" The Green Bank Telescope searched for these signals using its “L-band”
receiver, which gathers data in frequencies ranging from 1.1 to 1.9 GHz ...
they conducting three five-minutes observation periods, while also conducting
five-minute observations on a set of secondary targets"_

Does this seem like a really short timescale to anyone else?

Of course, anything on human timescales is but the blink of an eye on
geological, never mind astronomical timescales, but it still fells like you'd
have to get awful lucky to catch something in just the 5 to 15 minutes you
happened to be listening on a narrow range of radio frequencies.

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madengr
Yeah, I have read to detect a transmission from several light years, it would
take a transmitter like Aeroceibo. Also must assume the alien politicians
would fund it long enough.

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dghughes
I thought this may have been NIROSETI but it isn't I wonder how NIROSETI is
doing they search by looking at near infrared signals.

Here is what they do: >Near-infrared Optical SETI (NIROSETI) has the advantage
that light at infrared wavelengths is less affected by interstellar gas and
dust; an infrared signal can be seen at greater distances than an optical
signal at shorter wavelengths. Also, it takes less energy to send the same
amount of information with an infrared signal than at shorter, optical
wavelengths.

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joshuaheard
The data is analyzed on a distributed network. You can download the app and
have it run in the background or as a screensaver. If ET is found, they
promise to credit the computer owner that actually finds it. Just think, you
might be the one!

[https://seti.berkeley.edu/participate/](https://seti.berkeley.edu/participate/)

I have been doing this since 2005, have processed over 5 million units, and am
in the 98th percentile worldwide.

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kirykl
Sounds a little like taking a few sniffs and hoping to smell campfire smoke
100 km away. Eventually I hope we'll find more effective methods for SETI

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mikiem
But these "few sniffs" amount to 8 Petabytes of data, according to the
article.

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kirykl
But what? If anything that 8 petabytes is 1/1000000 of a sniff in Universe
scale

