[meteorite-list] seti

From: Sterling K. Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Nov 14 02:07:18 2005
Message-ID: <43783782.8D46AC86_at_bhil.com>

Hi,


    There is a huge difference between
detecting and discriminating an INDIVIDUAL
radio signal from the Earth at interstellar
distances on the one hand and merely
detecting the totality of the Earth's
radio signals at interstellar distances,
on the other.

    Surrounding the Earth is a shell of
EM transmissions out to a radius of 94
light years. At the outer edge of that
shell is Marconi's transmission of the
letter "S" in 1901. Faint. But at radii
of 84 light years and again at 57 light
years, quantum leaps in intensity occur.
(That's the onset of commercial radio
and commercial television respectively.)

    The TOTAL radio emissions of the Earth
are TWICE AS BRIGHT AS THE SUN. Every radio
astronomer within that inner 100 light year
sphere (if there ARE any radio astronomers
"out there") is confronted with the paradox
of a normal type G star which has an optically
invisible companion which has twice the
luminosity in the radio spectrum as the
visible star! Studies of the motion of the
"invisible companion" would show it to be
in orbit around the normal star.

    There is only one possible explanation
of an optico-radio binary star. That is, that
the normal star has a planet which is SCREAMING
its head off in the radio spectrum! And it's
only getting noisier with every passing year,
louder and louder! As for directed transmissions,
we already have interplanetary radar signals
that are 10,000,000,000 times brighter than
the Sun!

    As an interstellar neighbor, the Earth is
kind of like that guy on the subway toting
the 300 pound ghetto blaster! If you have any
hope that the aliens haven't noticed us yet,
you can forget all about them.

    Which is why I find the beautiful dream of
SETI to be just that: a beautiful dream. A Kardashev
Level Two civilization (one which utlizes the full
energy resources of an entire solar system) should
be roughly the radio luminosity of a QUASAR! It
would be "visible" in the EM spectrum at 100,000
light years distant (if the civilization survived
for that long).

    In 300 to 500 years, WE will (I hope) be a
fledging Kardashev Level Two civilization. There
will be millions of powerful comet-hunting radars
in the Kuiper Belt and the Inner Oort Cloud, billions
of radar beacons on every rock in the system,
trillions of TV channels (how many re-runs of the
ancient classics like The Brady Bunch?), and an
inconceivable number of interplanetary cell phones
(most of them on hold and playing space elevator
music). Our solar system will probably be the
brightest radio source in the Milky Way Galaxy.

    If there are any aliens out there, you know,
great wise space-traveling advanced aliens, WHERE
are their home systems and WHY are there no bright
artificial radio sources? If there is an interstellar
civilization or many such, you shouldn't be able
to point a radio detector to the heavens without
having your ears blown off. We should be awash in
a cacophony of re-runs of the Arcturian "I Love
Lucy" or the Tau Ceti "Milton Berle."

    I say this as a person who, for many years,
DONATED more money to SETI than I spent on, say,
buying meteorites, or even books, so I was not
without hope in that dream. But I have concluded
that it was just that... a dream.


Sterling K. Webb
-----------------------------------------------
Neil Caliva wrote:

> Hi List,
>
> How far could our EM signals generated by humans be detected?
>
> Sorry if this is off topic!!!
>
> -NC
Received on Mon 14 Nov 2005 02:06:42 AM PST