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posted by martyb on Thursday November 08 2018, @06:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the =**.*=*.**.=*.=*=.=*==.===.**=.*=*.===.***=.*=.*=**.=.**.=*.* dept.

E.T., we're home: Existing laser technology could be fashioned into Earth's "porch light" to attract alien astronomers, study finds.

If extraterrestrial intelligence exists somewhere in our galaxy, a new MIT study proposes that laser technology on Earth could, in principle, be fashioned into something of a planetary porch light — a beacon strong enough to attract attention from as far as 20,000 light years away.

The research, which author James Clark calls a "feasibility study," appears today in The Astrophysical Journal. The findings suggest that if a high-powered 1- to 2-megawatt laser were focused through a massive 30- to 45-meter telescope and aimed out into space, the combination would produce a beam of infrared radiation strong enough to stand out from the sun's energy.

Such a signal could be detectable by alien astronomers performing a cursory survey of our section of the Milky Way — especially if those astronomers live in nearby systems, such as around Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to Earth, or TRAPPIST-1, a star about 40 light-years away that hosts seven exoplanets, three of which are potentially habitable. If the signal is spotted from either of these nearby systems, the study finds, the same megawatt laser could be used to send a brief message in the form of pulses similar to Morse code.

Also at EarthSky.

Optical Detection of Lasers with Near-term Technology at Interstellar Distances (DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aae380) (DX)


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  • (Score: 2) by martyb on Thursday November 08 2018, @09:44PM (3 children)

    by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Thursday November 08 2018, @09:44PM (#759550) Journal

    Thankfully, my years of Spy vs Spy fandom enabled me to read the department line, which was appropriately hilarious.

    I was starting to wonder if ANYBODY would notice the Dept line -- so glad you liked it!

    And I just noticed your comments subject... Touche'!!

    --
    Wit is intellect, dancing.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Thursday November 08 2018, @10:18PM (1 child)

    by Thexalon (636) on Thursday November 08 2018, @10:18PM (#759571)

    I was starting to wonder if ANYBODY would notice the Dept line

    It would perhaps have been a little more clear had you used "—" and "•" with " " in between letters rather than "=" and "*" and "." in between letters.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 2) by martyb on Friday November 09 2018, @02:09PM

      by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Friday November 09 2018, @02:09PM (#759849) Journal

      It would perhaps have been a little more clear had you used "—" and "•" with " " in between letters rather than "=" and "*" and "." in between letters.

      Agreed that the symbols chosen were not optimal. I was faced with the complication that the system automagically replaces sequences of spaces with a single hyphen when generating the dept line. Further, there is a strict limit on how many characters are permitted in that field. Lastly,   could be used once; as soon as the story was saved an editor went in to update anything, all the spaces would be replaced with hyphens again. Never mind that it would greatly increase the length of the data put into the field and, thus, restrict the length of the encoded message that could be provided.

      So, I took the expedient route of:

      1. Replace each DAH ('-") with an equals sign ('=')
      2. Replace each DIT (".") with asterisk ("*")
      3. Replace each GAP (" ") with a period (".")

      Upon further reflection, I could probably have used lookalike Unicode chars for DIT and DAH, instead. Your suggestion of • and — are excellent.

      --
      Wit is intellect, dancing.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 09 2018, @02:05AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 09 2018, @02:05AM (#759651)

    Meh. I prefer *=.=*=.=.*=.***=.**.=*.* or ==.**.*=**.===. ===.***=.*=.*=**.=.**.=*.* always tasted a bit off to me.