Telescopes can tune in to alien TV

New Scientist ^ | 10/25/06 | Claire Bowles

[KevinDavis]

Telescopes can tune in to alien TV

Radio telescopes designed to study the primordial universe could also eavesdrop on extraterrestrial civilisations similar to our own. "By a happy accident," says abraham Loeb of Harvard University, "the telescopes will be sensitive to justthe kind of radio emission that our civilisation is leaking into space."

The next generation of radio telescopes are designed to pick up radio waves emitted by neutral hydrogen molecules in the early universe. These signals originally had a wavelength of 21 centimetres, but the universe has expanded since they were emitted, stretching the waves in the process. Today, these signals have a wavelength of several metres, corresponding to a frequency of tens or hundreds of megahertz. "This overlaps with our civilisation's radio emissions, which are in the range 50 to 400 megahertz," says Loeb.

[MikeyGo]

That is really funny!

Was that the way he looked when he was telling our troops how "uneducated" they were? It matches what I was seeing in my brain at the time.

[Billthedrill]

Great. Now I got 5.27 x 10²³ channels and it's still all crap.

[KevinDavis]

Well what happend to the last season of B5 is that season 4 was suppose to be the last season, well TNT picked up the show, so they kinda rushed into production..

As for Galactica they are going away from who is the cylon (at least for now), you are right even a bad BSG episode is better than a bad episode of TNG.

One thing I enjoyed about Firefly is that it was a neat combination of Western and space.. That is why I liked it..

You have to see Farscape, it is not your typical plastic alien mask show.. They went all out...

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The race appears to be threatening but not really dangerous to anyone but themselves.

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

Entry for:

Earth

Mostly Harmless.

Located in ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha.

[HitmanLV]

Yea, I know the difficulties with B5 Season 5. We are lucky there even was a season 5, though the show clearly lost a bit of shine between 4 and 5.

BSG is good and one of the few shows I look forward to. I am a huge Baltar fan - the actor knocks it out of the park every episode. He isn't with the fleet anymore so I will miss his shenanigans interacting with our crew.

Those 2 BSG episodes I mentioned were as bad as it's been. A bad TNG is worse, and more common, I have to say! :-)

I'll try and sample Firefly again and Farscape! Thanks!

[KevinDavis]

I agree with those two being bad, and you are right about the bad TNG being even worst. Season 5 or 6 it started to get bad...

[FierceDraka]

Compared to shows like BSG, Firefly, Farscape, and B5 it is mind-blowningly bad now.

LOL How true! Hell, even compared to ST:TOS it's mind-blowingly bad.

Kirk would have biatch-slapped Picard, punched Riker in the nose, and made sweet love to Troi - all in the first episode.

Starbuck would have gotten drunk off her ass and decked Picard for being a whiny little biatch, and then she'd wreck Ten Forward just for the hell of it.

Mal Reynolds would have rigged Serenity to look damaged to get their sympathy, then Jayne Cobb would have stolen every hand weapon and piece of gold on the Enterprise D, while River and Simon ripped off Sickbay for drugs and gear, and Anarra would have made Riker cry like a baby while Troi sits in the corner and pouts because no one is paying attention to her.

I could rant on and on about this, but it's not worth the bandwidth.

[KevinDavis]

I agree...

[monkapotamus]

"By a happy accident," says abraham Loeb of Harvard University, "the telescopes will be sensitive to justthe kind of radio emission that our civilisation is leaking into space."