Question about communications in space.

[Duster]

I signed up for this forums because I am missing a bit of information about how simple radio/microwave communications work.

 

I have been under the impression that sound needs air, or other molecules in order to travel. I am under the impression that all radio waves are is super high frequancy sound, and all micro-waves are is, is super high frequancy radio waves.

 

If this is true, then how do these move through the vacume of space?

 

I am problebly missing something in my undertanding in the second paragraph. I hope someone can shed a little light on this for me.

[JaKiri]

Radio waves are electromagnetic waves; they're the same things as visable light, just at a much lower frequency.

[Duster]

Ah, now that you said it, I guess I knew that. I was confused.

 

I still then, have an issue with this. Since we use radio, and I believe also microwave telescopes to 'listen' to objects in space, would this background noise not simply drown out any intentional creation of these signals over great distances in space? I understand the creation of carrier waves, and containing signals within them and that these do not degrade over distances in space. Is it simply a matter of filtering out all exept what is expected to be found?

 

Thanks

[JaKiri]

Mainly it's a power issue.

 

The Cosmic Microwave Background is pretty weak compared to communications.

[Duster]

WOW!

 

That makes complete sence, but to think that man is capable of producing a big enough 'noise' to drown out cosmic forces still bogles the mind.

 

Now that I think about how they prove signals from space, I know that one of the first things they do is to try to verify it was not man made. However, I thought they did this by plotting known satalite positions. They must also be able to do this by comparing amplitudes, correct?

[JaKiri]

Hey, aliens might use the same kind of communications

 

Satellite positions is the most reliable way, presuming you don't get spy sats sending information your way.

 

ps.

 

Sound is man made too, but we can hear that

[Kettle]

How likely is it, do you suppose, that ETs/aliens will have radio communication - could it not be possible that there are 1000s of other potential forms of communication that we could employ at our current stage of technological development but we just stumbled across radio first and stuck with that?

 

Could radio also occupy a relatively small "niche" in our evolution so in 100 years it could be completely obsolete - a small amount of time if you're hunting for messages from aliens. By the same token, what are the chances that our radio communications reach an inhabited world at the same time that the aliens are using radio and vice versa? Pretty slim I would imagine....

[Dave]

The problem is one of the vastness of both time and space. The chances of aliens being intelligent enough to transmit radio waves or try to listen in on them from space in our timeframe and from somewhere close enough that we can hear them are fairly minimal.

[Sayonara]

It's unfathomably unlikely that we would ever establish radio communication with an alien race, but it's still difficult to have a technologically advanced civilisation without putting out patterned radio signals. If they are / were ever out there, we'll detect them eventually. It's just a matter of looking in the right places.

[blike]

radio communication with an alien race

 

Talk about lag!

[Sayonara]

Originally posted by blike

Talk about lag!

Indeed.

 

Unless it was via a wormhole, but that inherits the unlikeliness factor

[Duster]

Concider this:

 

With reguard to the timing in which radio, radar, and the microwaves were all discovered. Then compare that to when we discovered Nuclear power. It may be unlikely that many alien worlds would survive what we managed to, so far. Self annihalation. This, coupled with what was mentioned in earlier posts, does make for a quiet sky it seems.

 

It could be possible that even though they discovered radio, thier scientists were not so bold as to just allow the signals to contaminate space, like throwing so much trash out the window, so instead, skipped it for a wired planet.

 

If they never invent currancy, but instead live in some social utopia, technology would not be driven by the need to get a device to the marketplace, or fight a futile war.

 

I feel there are so many variables to concider when looking for stray communications in space, I seriously doubt we will ever hear a peep out of them, cause I doubt we know where to look.

 

Just in case, I run Seti@home on all my computers at home.

[aman]

Since we have documented evidence of experiments in telepathic communication that defy the statistics of chance, maybe the first flag of sentience would be telepathic rather than radio. If an advanced civilization wnted to zero in on sentience it might start with early mammals and bursts of grief from the loss of young being broadcast in an unidentified spectrum from our Earth. Radio and technology come a great deal later but a search for sentience might better be persued by a better understanding of our minds. The bottom of the sea exists, the edge of the universe exists, and smaller than a quark exists. The range of our thoughts is infinite and maybe we can actually reach there. Somebody might have started listening as soon as a first mammal grieved. Just for thought.

Just aman

[Sayonara]

\o/ Welcome back aman \o/

[Dudde]

yes...welcome back aman...

 

humans invented sound too, but we hear that:p

 

O_o....