How Will the Government React When We Detect Alien Signals From Space?
Some ast?onomers think detecting an extraterrestrial radio signal is ? matt?r of when, not if. W?at goe? on in th? immediate aftermath of such a d?scovery? Here'? wh?t happened the last f?w times w? tho?ght ?e'd heard from E.T.
The fir?t, ?nd most famous, potential E.T. signal ?s the so-c?lled Wow! signal. SETI research?r Dr. Jerry Eh?an fo?nd the signal ?n 1977 with Ohio State University's Big Ear radio tele?cope. T?e signal appeared as ? coded set of intensity ?eadings, 6EQUJ5, ?hich Ehman ?ircled and wrote, "Wow!" next t? on the p?intout. It wa? ? nota?le signal because ?t wa? m?ch more intense t?an galactic background n?ise, and wa? fo?nd very close to the frequenc? astronomers expect to find alien transmissions, 1420 MHz. That's t?e frequenc? hydrogen at?ms resonate at, and h?drogen is the most common ?lement in the universe.
What happened aft?r the signal was found? Not muc?. Sc?entists tried t? find the signal again t? help pinpoint its origin, but no ?ne ha? ever ?een able to track it down. It ?as ?pparently n?t ? continuous signal, becaus? onl? one ?f the Big Ea?'s t?o detectors caught it. Over th? ensuing decades, hours and ho?rs of telescope time have been devoted to scanning that are? of the sky, and nothing like th? Wo?! signal has been ?eard t?ere ?ince. It's ?till ? very mysterious thing, beca?se most ter?estrial origins have been ?uled out. Th?t l?aves sec?et ?ilitary or gove?nment technology, or a natural phenomenon in space that we hav?n't found yet. O? aliens.
Another E.T. signal w?s found using the massiv? Green B?nk radio telescope in We?t Virgini? in t?e lat? 1990s. It w?s clearly artific?al, broadcasting in ? pattern ?f uniformly s?aced frequencies. Unfortunately, ?t turned out to be NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observator?. It took t?e better part of ? da? to figure that out, however, ?o in the me?ntime, excited astrono?ers we?e calling colleagues and friends to tell th?m the news. Word of t?e discovery made its way to Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan's widow. She call?d th? New York Times' sc?ence reporter, who thankfully did not yell, "Stop the p?esses!" Instead, he called astr?nomers to confirm – ?y that tim?, they'd real?zed it w?s ? false alarm. How will the government react when ?e det?ct alien signals fr?m space?
That situ?tion ?s ?ost interesting for what didn't happen. For ?ne thing, black helico?ters did not descend instantly on G?een Bank. Scientists were not spirited t? undisclosed locations. A s?roud ?f governm?nt secr?cy did not enclos? the enti?e operation. There w?s n? conspiracy. In fact, the types of offici?ls who could actually pull off something li?e t?at are ?retty f?r out of th? loop. Th?y don't really hang w?th the ?stronomy crowd.
The astronomers also didn't foll?w the voluntary protocols acc?pted b? SETI researchers. Those protocols s?y: first, call t?e U.N., certain ?orld leaders, and ric? people who give ? lot ?f money t? SETI. Then, hold ? press conference. Those ?re pretty non-bind?ng prot?cols. If it ?appened today, we'd probably call ?t the OMG! Signal, named for th? Tweet sent out b? the ?esearcher w?o first found it.
So we know how ?cientists ?ould react (pretty much l?ke yo? and I would). How w?uld the world react? Hyst?ria? Religious rev?val? Looting? W? can learn ?oth from the Wow! signal ?nd the recent dis?overy of arsenic-based l?fe ?y NASA researchers. The world simply waited to se? wh?t ha?pened ne?t. Scientists went abo?t their business of confirming the info?mation, which, as we sa? ?n the Wow! case, could take years and years. Doubt has already been cast on t?e arsenic research. After a brief p?riod of ?xcitement and media interest, it w?ll fade from vi?w until something gives us ? reason to pa? attention aga?n. And t?ere might n?t be mu?h ?f that com?ng either, bec?use e?en if we can definitivel? confirm an ?lien signal, w?'ll have no ?dea w?at it's sa?ing. That c?uld take decades to d?cipher, if it's possible at all.
Source: io9
http://io9.com/5743271/how-will-the-government-react-when-we-detect-alien-signals-from-space
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