{"id":96899,"date":"2016-08-29T17:17:07","date_gmt":"2016-08-30T00:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=96899"},"modified":"2016-08-29T17:17:07","modified_gmt":"2016-08-30T00:17:07","slug":"seti-is-excited-about-a-possible-signal-from-an-extraterrestrial-civilization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2016\/08\/seti-is-excited-about-a-possible-signal-from-an-extraterrestrial-civilization.html","title":{"rendered":"SETI is excited about a possible signal from an extraterrestrial civilization"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"http:\/\/observer.com\/2016\/08\/not-a-drill-seti-is-investigating-a-possible-extraterrestrial-signal-from-deep-space\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">It is, of course, tempting to hope we might have gotten such a signal.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Who wouldn\u2019t want to be alive on the day we actually verify the existence of an entire extraterrestrial civilization? \u00a0How cool would that be? \u00a0But this sort of thing makes me go, \u201cNaaaaaah.\u201d:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The signal\u2019s strength indicates that if it in fact came from a isotropic beacon, the power source would have to be built by a Kardashev Type II civilization. (The Kardashev scale is used to determine the progress of a civilization\u2019s technological development by measuring how much energy was used to transmit an interstellar message.) An \u2018Isotropic\u2019 beacon means a communication source emitting a signal with equal power in all directions while promoting signal strength throughout travel.<\/p>\n<p>In his acclaimed work \u201cTransmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations,\u201d Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev explained that a Type II civilization would be able to harness the energy of their entire host star. The most common hypothetical example of this would be a Dyson Sphere\u2014which is a massive artificial structure that could completely encapsulate a star and transfer the energy to a nearby planet.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_835025\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<div class=\"media-credit-container aligncenter\" data-credit=\"(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-835025\" title=\"Not a Drill: SETI Is Investigating a Possible Extraterrestrial Signal From Deep Space\" src=\"https:\/\/nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/08\/et3.png?w=635\" alt=\"A cut-away diagram of an idealized Dyson shell, a variant on Dyson's original concept\" data-lazy-loaded=\"true\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A cut-away diagram of an idealized Dyson shell, a variant on Dyson\u2019s original concept.<span class=\"media-credit\">(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Basically, if the signal was beamed out into the galaxy without aim or direction, that would require an enormous amount of power to actually be detected. But what if the signal was beamed specifically at our solar system? Well, that would require less energy and could indicate the presence of a Kardashev Type I civilization\u2014meaning that it could be a highly technological, contemporary society that harnesses the solar energy emitted by its local star, much like our planet does with solar panels. This particular civilization\u2019s social structure is theorized to be completely globalized and interconnected.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yeah. \u00a0Or we are just picking up a pulse from some kind of very powerful star sending out regular radio emissions, but somebody at SETI is trying to gin up interest because they need funding.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll believe it when we have something more than this breathless article to go on.<\/p>\n<p>Sorry, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncregister.com\/blog\/mark-shea\/i-am-a-cosmic-killjoy\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">but I remain largely a cosmic killjoy.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is, of course, tempting to hope we might have gotten such a signal. Who wouldn\u2019t want to be alive on the day we actually verify the existence of an entire extraterrestrial civilization? \u00a0How cool would that be? \u00a0But this sort of thing makes me go, \u201cNaaaaaah.\u201d: The signal\u2019s strength indicates that if it in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[290],"class_list":["post-96899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-i-am-a-cosmic-killjoy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>SETI is excited about a possible signal from an extraterrestrial civilization<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is, of course, tempting to hope we might have gotten such a signal. 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