• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Not a Drill: SETI Is Investigating a Possible Extraterrestrial Signal From Deep Space

@Crazy Eddie might be interested. Otherwise, feel free to ignore me. My point is that the signal flux density is a lot greater than expected for a typical solar/stellar flare.
 
Last edited:
Who is this addressed to? It seems you are having an one-sided conversation.
I would guess Crazy Eddie since they were talking about this stuff a little ways back.
@Crazy Eddie might be interested. Otherwise, feel free to ignore me. My point is that the signal flux density is a lot greater than expected for a typical solar/stellar flare.
Yup, hey looks like the topic of the thread. That's just crazy talk.
 
Yes, I can see that now.... tho series of posts without crazy eddie being quoted/addressed and no responses from him.

:shrug:
 
Yes, I can see that now.... tho series of posts without crazy eddie being quoted/addressed and no responses from him.

:shrug:

I've been having problems with using the editor in Chrome over the past couple of days. Somehow the quote got dropped. I've reinstated it.
 
I've been having problems with using the editor in Chrome over the past couple of days. Somehow the quote got dropped. I've reinstated it.

I thought I was the only one having problems with chrome. It's gotten so annoying that I've switched back to explorer.
 
I'm very sceptical about this. Microwave signal of artificial origin emanating from Earth? The Vulcan Science Directorate has determined that there are no signs of intelligent life on that planet.
 
The flux density of solar radiation at 10 GHz received at the Earth = 1.24 x 10^-20 Wm^-2Hz^-1 = 1.24 x 10^6 Jy (Janskys)
http://www.cv.nrao.edu/course/astr534/Brightness.html

The peak flux density at 17 GHz from the great flare of July 7, 1966 measured at Earth = 10^-18 Wm^-2Hz^-1 = 10^8 Jy
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1969SoPh....8..119H

Not quite the same frequency but it seems tenable that a flare can outshine a star by a factor of about 100 at a microwave frequency of between 10 and 20 GHz.

That's just a distance of 1 AU though. There are 63241 AU in a light year so at one light year distant, the flux density from the flare would drop to 1/(63241^2) of the value or 2.5 x 10^-10 * 10^8 Jy = 2.5 x 10^-2 Jy.
At the distance of HD164595 (95 ly), the flux density would drop by a further 1/(95^2) or 1.1 x 10^-4 to 2.75 x 10^-6 Jy.

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/wp-content/images/ratan_3.jpeg

ETA: The signal flux was 750 mJy or 0.75 Jy, which is much larger than my estimate. So I guess it's not a flare?

For comparison, the Wow! signal was a comparatively huge 60 Jy in a single 10 KHz wide channel at about 1.42 GHz.

http://www.astrobio.net/news-exclusive/mysteries-of-wow/
If I'm following your numbers correctly, that WOULD almost rule out a solar flare or CME. I don't know enough about variable starts or flare stars to guess that some other "behavior" of unstable stars might be the culprit.

OTOH, I don't know that the inverse square law would actually apply to a flare or especially a CME. Those tend to be much more directional, and their interactions with the stellar magnetic field are more complicated still. The same thing supposedly happens with gamma ray bursts, which according to theory we can only see because they occur along the magnetic poles of black holes or neutron stars that are pointed DIRECTLY AT US.

I'm suddenly thinking of the Lorentz force and wondering if the star's magnetic field isn't simply focussing the emissions of a CME in our direction as the plasma cloud moves across the system. That would make the signal flux much higher than it would be if it was emitted omnidirectionally.
 
Yeah, completely different from Harlan Ellison having allegedly inspired Terminator. He really stole the royalties on that one, because when you look at his story The Glass Hand, it has very very little to do with the much more successful Terminator.
FYI - It wasn't 'Demon With A Glass hand' that Ellison claimed was used as a template to 'Terminator' - but another Outer Limits episode he wrote called: 'Soldier'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_(The_Outer_Limits)
;)
 
FYI - It wasn't 'Demon With A Glass hand' that Ellison claimed was used as a template to 'Terminator' - but another Outer Limits episode he wrote called: 'Soldier'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldier_(The_Outer_Limits)
;)

Funny thing is that I saw that episode only a few months ago. I remember noticing that the actor playing the soldier was the same one who played Kang, on TOS and DS9.

Still, aside from involving soldiers from the future this show has very little to do with terminator, no war with the machines, no cyborg, no killing of the mother of the hero before he was born. No causality loop.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top