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Do These Seti Images Seem Odd?
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#17
mvtaylor 
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Posted 19 March 2004 - 06:20 PM
| QUOTE |
QUOTE Sorry cspace but can you do SETI images for dummies as i have no idea what this is about and it just looks like squiggly lines. This is a screensaver that, instead of showing images, calculates data units sent to your computer from a telescope array. It sorts out the information, finds spikes, and sends the processed data unit back to them to do further work on it. This is the largest supercomputer in the world (consisting of many thousands of PCs). You can download it for free at http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/, but I wouldn't recommend running it in the background on XP systems (will slow them down for some reason). Running it as a screensaver should run cleanly though (don't know what's wrong with Phieta's, maybe there's a newer version available now). As for displaying the patch of sky, you need a plugin for the Starry Night program, which I will highly recommend to anyone interested in astronomy. Not free though. |
No sorry cspace what i mean is what do those squiggles represent i don't know what this means but by the sounds of it it's odd so i'd like to know.
The question i actually want answering is what do those lines (power) things mean and why this is odd. ty
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#18
Cspace
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Posted 19 March 2004 - 08:16 PM
| QUOTE |
| No sorry cspace what i mean is what do those squiggles represent i don't know what this means but by the sounds of it it's odd so i'd like to know. The question i actually want answering is what do those lines (power) things mean and why this is odd. ty |
These are displayed in the three-dimensional graph at the bottom of the screenshots, and this is what they are:
Frequency: This basically represents the "color" of the light being emitted by the section of the sky which is being scanned (it is considered a constant in the graph, and is the x-axis). In order from low (red) to high (cyan), the frequencies are radio, microwave, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, x-ray, and gamma ray. Radio waves consist of extremely low frequencies, and gamma rays consist of very high frequencies (can kill you because your skin cannot block the radiation from burning you up from the inside... luckily the atmosphere blocks them
). I'm assuming that you know how light appears as a wave, and basically the higher the frequency is, the lower the distances between waves are.Power: The power is the 'y' axis of the graph (the height), and shows the intensity (I believe amplitude, or the height of the waves, but I could be wrong) of the waves emitted of the given wavelengths. For example, if a wave is abnormally tall somewhere on the graph, the corresponding wavelength had a spike at that time. This is what scientists are looking for when searching for extraterrestrial intelligence at the moment (however I personally don't think aliens would have the same mindset and could devise another method of communication).
Time: This is the 'z' axis of the graph (the depth), 'nuff said.
In the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, scientists look for any regularity in the waves emitted by various stars. Most stars just give off random static, but if a star like the sun were scanned from another star, you would see a mess of patterns. These patterns consist of everything broadcasted like TV shows, radio, and pizza orders via cell phones. Assuming that an alien civilization used the same methods of communication, we would be able to detect regular (repetative) patterns coming from their section of the sky.
Having a dip in the waves at a certain frequency (like we originally had) suggests that something is just absorbing a wavelength (maybe a nebula). However, we now have diagonal lines of low power, and there is nothing I (or anyone I ask) knows of that can explain this. Basically this is similar to a star regularly changing colors (not that extreme though), which is impossible on a regular basis to our knowledge...
This is odd because I believe that the waves are measured from photographs taken on time intervals. If the current pattern continues (and this is true about the photographs), what we have are two sinusoidal, equally spaced, curves in the frequencies emitted by the given section of sky. There is no explanation to my knowledge of what may cause this, except possibly a pulsar that is orbiting another object that is blueshifting and redshifting on regular intervals (which would happen in an orbit since it is traveling toward and away from us, though is extremely unlikely). As for why we have the bands (redshifts and blueshifts would not cause them), it could be an effect similar to that of a computer monitor displayed on a TV (by a camera shooting the monitor). Basically the scan lines (or in this case, pulses) would not synchronize with the device used to view them.
I think this is extremely unlikely (and a 'gamma ray burst' waiting to happen, which would be bad to life here on Earth), but if that is not the case, I do not know what is... I'll keep posting images as the data unit progresses.
#19
mvtaylor
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Posted 19 March 2004 - 08:47 PM
Ok i think i understand it - the graph should be all low and normal but isn't and this could mean aliens or gamma rays burst which would kill people - am i right? (this is really taking it down to the absolute basics but GCSE science is usually even easier than this )
)
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#21
Cspace
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Posted 20 March 2004 - 02:37 AM
| QUOTE (lprince @ Mar 19 2004, 09:42 PM) |
| god, how long does it take u to do a data unit? takes me 30mins when my system is idal |
How fast is your system?
I have a 2.8 GHz machine with 512 MB of ram, Rylkan has a new custom-built machine of about the same speed (not sure exactly, but I think he may have also overclocked it), and it takes both of us a few hours to complete one while idle (it takes the same amount of time for me when idle as when seriously multitasking like I do, hehe). To complete one in 30 minutes, you must have either a severely overclocked system or at least a 3.7GHz machine (or you're running an older OS on a new machine, which may make a difference with an application like that)...
Also, I'm not letting it run while I'm not at my desk with this data unit, want to be able to take screenshots when it changes.
| QUOTE |
| Ok i think i understand it - the graph should be all low and normal but isn't and this could mean aliens or gamma rays burst which would kill people - am i right? (this is really taking it down to the absolute basics but GCSE science is usually even easier than this) |
The graph should be anything that is random (normally there are scattered peaks and spikes everywhere, but no pattern). I doubt this is an alien signal, hehe, and I also doubt that the object has the potential for a gamma ray burst. Actually, no one really knows what causes gamma ray bursts (sudden emissions of tremendous amounts of gamma rays with many times more energy than a supernova), but one idea is when neutron stars (A.K.A. pulsars, which are about as dense as an object can be unless it is a black hole) collide. If this signal is indeed a neutron star orbiting another object, we'd better hope that it's both very far away (on a cosmic scale) and is in a stable orbit, 'cause anything that can do that to the neutron star is probably either a black hole or another neutron star.
#22
mvtaylor
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Posted 20 March 2004 - 08:46 AM
well from the limited understanding i have of this sort of thing it sounds bad.
Science at our school is like this;
if you put magnesium in water what will happen (ohh this is hard).
Now what do you think would happen if we had some francium (please that would be fun - i like explosions).
well we don't have any because it's dangerous (dam).
Science at our school is like this;
if you put magnesium in water what will happen (ohh this is hard).
Now what do you think would happen if we had some francium (please that would be fun - i like explosions).
well we don't have any because it's dangerous (dam).
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#25
Cspace
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Posted 21 March 2004 - 03:35 AM
Lol, that would be cool, but if relating to this application it would be dead (because nothing really happens except for a few exceptions like this). Perhaps a SETI forum can be added as a study group forum though
#26
mvtaylor
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Posted 21 March 2004 - 07:15 AM
any odea on what that thing means yet?
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#27
Cspace
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Posted 21 March 2004 - 04:51 PM
Not yet, I'm collecting screenshots that I'll submit to SETI. Right now it's similar to the previous pics I posted, however the line is a bit longer (angled). It seems that the angle is now increasing, which is a bit weird if you'd ask me.
#28
mvtaylor
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Posted 21 March 2004 - 05:06 PM
Now that last graph looks wierd! all up and down points!
since it just seems to be you and me replying (well there are some others but..)any idea when QS wil be back up?
since it just seems to be you and me replying (well there are some others but..)any idea when QS wil be back up?
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#29
wibble
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Posted 21 March 2004 - 05:55 PM
| QUOTE (Cspace @ Mar 21 2004, 03:34 AM) |
| Lol, that would be cool, but if relating to this application it would be dead (because nothing really happens except for a few exceptions like this). Perhaps a SETI forum can be added as a study group forum though |
I meant as a group / team / whatever on the seti website, not an extra forum here
#30
Cspace
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Posted 21 March 2004 - 06:24 PM
| QUOTE (mvtaylor @ Mar 21 2004, 05:06 PM) |
| Now that last graph looks wierd! all up and down points! since it just seems to be you and me replying (well there are some others but..)any idea when QS wil be back up? |
(Off Topic)
QS should be back up relatively soon. I'm not going to promise anything, but there is a chance that it could be back up (and improved) by the end of the week...
| QUOTE |
| I meant as a group / team / whatever on the seti website, not an extra forum here |
Oh! That would be cool, maybe we could set one up