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TOPIC: SETI


L

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BOINC
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A Planetary Society article on their new multibeam receiver and data recorder is now available as an MP3 file, thanks to the efforts of BOINC UK.

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L

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Allen Telescope Array
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Following a recent demonstration of a 10-dish element of the Allen Telescope Array, the U.S. Navy has signed off on a $1.5 million agreement to use the array along with another 10-dish installation to be developed in the near future.

The observatory is located the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in the mountains northeast of San Francisco. Investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen has committed $13.5 million to the construction of the first and second phases of the array.
When complete, the ATA will consist of 350 6.1-metre dishes. Twenty dishes are currently online at the observatory with a 42-dish array total to be completed near the end of the year. Though the project is slightly behind schedule due to the recent heavy northern California winter and the usual challenges of engineering a radical new technology, one of the project’s leaders is particularly pleased by recent progress.
One of the ATA's strengths is its unique ability to filter through the signatures of orbiting objects while searching the skies for extraterrestrial signals and astrophysical phenomena.

"For example, if a laptop computer was started up in geosynchronous orbit, the ATA could detect it. It can also do radar studies to locate and detect echoes from a wide variety of things such as orbiting satellites" - Jack Welch, of the Radio Astronomy Lab at the University of California at Berkeley.

While the Navy’s interest in the project and its investment give the project a much-needed boost, astronomy and SETI research remain the telescope’s primary purpose.

"Our overall goal is not to do this, but rather as a demonstration of technology that the Department of Defence can take and use for its own scientific research purposes" - Jack Welch.

Source

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L

Posts: 131433
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BOINC
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Do you want to join my team?

http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/team_display.php?teamid=33303

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L

Posts: 131433
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SETI@home
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The old SETI@home Classic project will stop issuing work on December 15, 2005. Anyone still running SETI@home Classic should deactivate it and install SETI@home/BOINC


Download, install and run the BOINC software used by SETI@home.
When prompted, enter the URL http://setiathome.berkeley.edu.

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L

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RE: SETI
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Galactic Gradients, Postbiological Evolution and the Apparent Failure of SETI
Authors: Milan M. Cirkovic, Robert J. Bradbury
Astrophysics, abstract:
Motivated by recent developments impacting our view of Fermi's paradox (absence of extraterrestrials and their manifestations from our past light cone), we suggest a reassessment of the problem itself, as well as of strategies employed by SETI projects so far.
The need for such re-evaluation is fuelled not only by the failure of searches thus far, but also by great advances recently made in astrophysics, astrobiology, computer science and future studies, which have remained largely ignored in SETI practice.
As an example of the new approach, we consider the effects of the observed metallicity and temperature gradients in the Milky Way on the spatial distribution of hypothetical advanced extraterrestrial intelligent communities. While, obviously, properties of such communities and their sociological and technological preferences are entirely unknown, we assume that
(1) they operate in agreement with the known laws of physics, and
(2) that at some point they typically become motivated by a meta-principle embodying the central role of information-processing; a prototype of the latter is the recently suggested Intelligence Principle of Steven J. Dick.
There are specific conclusions of practical interest to be drawn from coupling of these reasonable assumptions with the astrophysical and astrochemical structure of the Galaxy. In particular, we suggest that the outer regions of the Galactic disk are most likely locations for advanced SETI targets, and that intelligent communities will tend to migrate outward through the Galaxy as their capacities of information-processing increase, for both thermodynamical and astrochemical reasons. This can also be regarded as a possible generalization of the Galactic Habitable Zone, concept currently much investigated in astrobiology.

Read More (PDF)

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Using cellphones on aeroplanes could drown out faint radio signals from space, astronomers are warning.
They told a US agency considering lifting in-flight restrictions on cellphones that special devices should be installed on planes to limit damage to research if the regulations change.
If the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does allow wireless access on airplanes, it could effectively mean the end of the search for ET.
Radio interference from airborne cellphones could drown out faint radio signals from space. Among other concerns astronomers have is that the second harmonic of many cell phones falls in a frequency band that reveals the molecular signature of newborn and dying stars, which is among the 2% of frequencies in this part of the electromagnetic spectrum reserved for use by radio astronomers.

Michael Davis, director of projects at California's SETI Institute, stated that a single cellphone on an airplane 100 miles from a radio telescope could exceed recommended radio noise levels by 10 times.
A potential solution that astronomers have suggested is to install a miniature cell transceiver on each airplane, called a picocell, which would act as a relay using a frequency that wouldn't interfere with their work.


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