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Every Signal We've Ever Sent Into Space (www.thescientificdrop.com)

submitted 1 week ago by Innerworld@lemmy.world to c/physics@mander.xyz

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[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I wonder how extraterrestrials would react to the moon landing. Could it be possible that a species on another planet happened to develop the radio technology required to pick up the relatively weak signals and watched the moon landing as well? Probably not, but it's fun to think about.

Vega deserves a special mention. Carl Sagan chose it deliberately in his novel Contact as the source of the first alien signal because at 25 light-years away, Vega would have received our first powerful broadcasts in the 1920s and could theoretically be sending a reply that arrives around now. It is a beautiful piece of narrative physics, even if the probability of anyone actually being there to receive us remains unknown.

Dang, I did not know that. That's very interesting!

[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I wonder how extraterrestrials would react to the moon landing.

If they're technologically advanced enough to build radio telescope of sufficient size to detect such weak signals, they'd probably think we were cute. Like how we feel when we observe a crow or a squirrel solve a puzzle or navigate an obstacle course.

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Maybe the extraterrestrials don't want to disturb the silly little humans figuring out space travel? But to be fair, some of us humans don't really care for other animals, so what's to say the extraterrestrials care about us? Or maybe, to achieve technological feats such as building a dish to pick up faint signals many times larger than us humans, the extraterrestrials had to cooperate and not fight amongst each other (and just be kinder and more caring in general). The ISS, our species' greatest engineering marvel, was only possible due to the cooperation of people from all over the world! Something to think about.

[–] tristynalxander@mander.xyz 1 points 1 week ago

I'm biased as a biologist, but I don't think extraterrestrials will reach out to humanity until we've solved both global peace and biological immortality (the second being much easier and closer than scifi makes it seem and likely a prerequisite for the first). Until we have a population that's basically capable of responsibly managing themselves, I think humanity looks like infants or maybe teens throwing tantrums. Unstable, unreliable, and in need of the time to work itself out.

That's assuming of-course that they're near by in the first place, which is unknown.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

Or they might see it as the infection is spreading and it might be safest to eliminate it now.

[–] tristynalxander@mander.xyz 1 points 1 week ago

That's way smaller than I thought -- or perhaps space is just way bigger than I thought.