Technology - SETI: Search for alien intelligence.

 Technology              
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SETI. Search for alien intelligence.    
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 I. Kapral               
 (reprinted from popular science  
 edition "Discoveries and Hypotheses",     
 Issue 5 (May/2003)          
                                        
 Vague awareness that in addition to people in
There is still someone or something in the Universe
much has been inherent in man since ancient times
times Purposeful searches that had
has a scientific basis - and most importantly
The latest scientific "weapons" have begun
only in the middle of the last century. Prog-
SETI framework is the most famous of its kind
event.  And large scale. And the length
telny - actually started in 1959
Yes, it continues to this day.       
                                        
 Allstarted in 1959 when two
physicists at Cornell University, J.
Zeppi Kokkohu and Philip Moppucoh published
forged an article in the journal Nature in which
swarm indicated the possibility of using
of microwave radio emission in
as a means of interstellar communication. Not-
depending on them, the then young radio
Frank Drake came to the same conclusion
du. In 1960, he first produced the first
search for signals from possible brothers
according to reason. For two whole months
Drake sat next to the 85-foot radio
telescope in West Virginia, aimed at
to two nearby sun-like stars
yes.  The receiver was tuned to the frequency
1420 MHz in spectrum line neutral
hydrogen. This frequency is mentioned with a warm word
minals Kokkohu and Mappucoh.              
                                        
 Drake's project "Ozma" caused considerable
interest, including from our compatriots
tbehhukob. As reported on the official
website of the SETI Institute, in the 1960s named
but the USSR dominated this program.
Moreover, Soviet telescopes were opuehtu-
are not aimed at any specific stars.
bcehanpab- were used instead
antennas in order to view
tear up large areas of the sky in hopes
detect signs of existence as
at least several highly developed civilizations
lizations capable of sending the most powerfulmicrowave signals.                  
                                        
 In the early 1970s, a researcher
NASA Ames Research Center
Center) began studying technologies,
necessary for effective search. Co-
team of specialists under the leadership of Ber-
backgammon Oliver before leaving the room
Hewlett-Packard company, conducted a special
but for NASA research work,
known under the code name Project
Cyclops. It examined scientific and
technological problems associated with
SETI, and it is the report on the studies carried out
investigations became the basis for the entire
the latest work within the initiative. Pos-
gradually increased in the scientific community
pehhoctb is that the SETI initiative is early
or it will be successful later - so what?
Is it still necessary in this case?  Naturally, in
America began a new wave of interest in
"to the aliens."  Some of the programs
started in the seventies, are still in effect
to this day.  Fortunately, technology is now
somewhat different.                       
                                        
 Among these veterans is the META project
Planetary Soci-
ety's Project META), project SERENDIP
University of California
California'sSERENDIP project) and long-standing
starry sky observation program
at Ohio State University
University).  By the end of the 1970s, programs
SETI is closely involved in Ames research
Promotional Center and Peaktu Laboratory
NASA's Jet Propulsion La-
boratory).   The following was proposed
strategy: the Ames Center produces
address search, examining for weak-
there were about a thousand sun-like signals
stars  JPL is committed to systematic
overview of the entire sky.                 
                                        
 In 1988, NASA headquarters, built
After a whole decade of study, the proposal
wife strategy, officially approved
plan and started financing the program
we.  Four years later, at the 500th anniversary
anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the New World,
research has finally begun.  And also
a year later, Congress blocked the program
oxygen. But that was not the case. As is known
but personnel decides everything, and these same personnel
ry - scientists and simply interested
people came together and organized
SETI Institute, which is funded by
public persons.  Headed by uctutyta SETI
stands the same Frank Drake, creator
perhaps the main ideological pro-
dykta, spurring interest in the search
extraterrestrial life. He calculated its probable
ness.  B 1961he brought out the same one
the famous “Drake formula”, which describes
the likelihood of discovering intelligent life.
The formula looks like this:                  
                                        
 N = R*f n f f f L           
 n e l i c             
                                        
 Where:                               
 N - number of civilizations in our
        Galaxy, whose electromagnetic
        signals can be detected;       
                                        
 R* - number of stars near which
        intelligent life may arise;
                                        
 f - fraction of stars with planetary systems
 n mami;                           
                                        
 n - proportion of planets per planetary
e system where they canbe present
        suitable for the origin of life
        conditions;                        
                                        
 f - proportion of planets suitable for life
 l nor where it really
        arose;                       
                                        
 f - fraction of habitable planets on which
i early intelligent life arises; 
                                        
 f - proportion of civilizations with
 with technologies that allow
        send signals into space, various
        respected by other civilizations;    
                                        
 L - time period in which
        civilization sends one like this
        signal into space.                
                                        
 In our galaxy there are about 400 billion
Dov of the stars.  So the optimism of the Soviets
there were quite a few researchersunderstandable. One-
However, it should be taken into account that all these f and
n - coefficients less than one. This is up-
whether. And the coefficient L is especially important. After all
you need to take exactly that interval bpeme-
nor to which civilization sends
exactly the signal that corresponds
appreciates our technical capabilities
ema.  Who knows what others (except radio)
waves) in principle, there are methods for re-
providing information over such distances.    
                                        
 Surely there are many people for
which program to search for extraterrestrial life
seems like a waste of tax money
Telshchikov - with their own, earthly problems -
We would like to figure it out. Yes, momentary practice
application of program results
we SETI, if there is one at all, will pre-
It’s hard to imagine - although, for example,
the creators of "Men in Black" explicitly
were able to do this.                     
                                        
 There is another problem. Interval
time for which a single qi-
villization can arise, achieve
level of technological development, sufficient
precise for sending a signal beyond the limit -
mi ocboehhoro im outer space
property, and self-destruct or die in
the force of natural causes -so much
small, by cosmic standards, that she pro-
hundred does not have time to establish contact with
their brothers in mind. Costs the same
remember the distances between the stars,
near which habitats may be located
existing planets, and about constant expansion
Universe. In this regard, the most nepcne-
It seems that the address one is active
search - and y of the closest stars,
related to the share that is described
coefficient f .                       
 n                       
                                        
 This is exactly what it will do
Phoenix project.                         
                                        
 Phoenix project.             
 -----------------           
                                        
 The Phoenix project is in the program
SETI apart. This is the only initiative
tiva for address search - using
equipment that we managed to chop off
NASA after Congress decided that
You can’t cook porridge with aliens, and ba-
stoppedfinancing
SETI program at NASA. So develop
the target system established by that time
search (Targeted Search System - TSS)
turned out to be out of work. Not for long, however.
Already in 1995, the SETI Institute appeared,
and with the help of private capital it was not possible
only to resume the search, but also to double
increase the power and coverage of the TSS system,
put into the hands of SETI Institu-
te.  This is how a project of purposeful
search "Phoenix" (Project Phoenix). Sobc-
Basically, the goal of the Phoenix project is
and his intended heirs - co-
just trying to catch signals
from the stars closest to us, similar to Co-
sun.                                   
                                        
 Scientists already know quite a lot
stars near which there are planets -
but these are more giants. And then, sometimes
it turns out that they were all phantoms: they thought
The planet turned out to be a spot on a star.
There are no planets the size of Earth yet.
found, although there are already guesses how it is
do. But how long will it take?
before it becomes reality, no one
doesn't know.                               
                                        
 When receiving an interesting signal
Arecibo telescope, raising the alarm
there are workersObservatory at Jodrell
Bank (Jodrell Bank) in the UK.
Signal received by Arecibo after 20
minutes can be caught in Jodrell. This
very important to check this signal -
because hot interstellar gas
may distort signals coming from
star systems.                        
                                        
 So what?  How to find out the nature of that
or another signal?  How to recognize signals
from extraterrestrial civilizations and distinguish them
from signals of all kinds of pulsars and so on
similar natural sources?  Workers
SETI programs are based on very
simple assumption: a sign of pre-
the intentionally sent signal will be
extremely narrow range - on the order of several
kih Hertz. Pulsars, quasars and interstellar
new gas is “broadcast” to all conceivable channels at once
and unimaginable frequencies, so it has
whether alien intelligence will try to
make it as narrow-band as possible
signal.  And if he can be caught,
all work will immediately focus on it
diotelescopes of the world. But what of this semi-
It turns out, no one knows.                 
                                        
 By the way, at the very end of November 2002
Phoenix got new computers
new technologies that replaced hopeless
but outdatedby then TSS. New
the system has, to put it mildly, heopuruha-
real name - New Search System (no-
search system). Built on mo-
muzzle architecture, NSS at the first stage
has approximately the same computational
same power as TSS, but lower
physically takes up five times less space.
The core of NSS computing power is
FPGA (Field Programmable Gate) chips
Array - gateway array with the ability
reprogramming during operation).
Generally speaking, they are quite expensive, however
Xilinx donated to SETI Institute
quite a large number of them free of charge
damn. I gave it, to put it simply.        
                                        
 FPGA chips “sit” on three mounting
boards, which, together with a pair of commercial
which processor boards operate in
The body is quite normal PC. However, that
Which computer bears the honorary name
"programmable detection module"
(Programmable Detection Module - PDM).
In total there will eventually be more than 80 - according to
more than a dozen on each of the two
observation sites, observatories
Arecibo and Jordell. Each such module
performs a complete processing cycle separately
but a taken fragment of the captured signal.
Moreover, he will spend only two
a third of the time that was needed
TSS to perform a similar task.
In view ofincreasing the number of PDMs, and, consequently,
consequently, and the volumes of data subject to
storage, Sun Microsystems donated SETI
Institute four latest UNIX servers,
which will serve as a counter-
role computers for the entire NSS.       
                                        
 By 2005, the Pro-
ject Phoenix will end. In the middle of it
same year, the technological base will move
from Arecibo and Jordell to an array of telesco-
pov Allen Telescope Array. To that bpeme-
nor will a third system nouc be added
ka, in addition to two NSS, so in
As a result, ATA will simultaneously study
three stars at a time. The search continues from
using more powerful equipment
nia.                                    
                                        
 SETI@home - 24 hours to search      
 -----------------------------     
                                        
 SETI@home is a logical extension
lying to SETI.                           
                                        
 The essence of the SETI@home program is
that the datareceived radiotele-
cop Arecibo, spread throughout
world - millions of computers perform
individual computational operations, after
why the results are “merged” back and
are subject to further analysis. Semi-
reading the results - the most pecypcoem -
a process that requires huge computations
solid capacities, therefore distributed
the calculations end up here simply
salvation.                              
                                        
 Saving search for the entire program
ska extraterrestrial intelligence SETI idea of ​​creation
distributed computing networks have come to
the smart heads of David Gidey and Craig Kas-
new  They developed a scientific plan and
presented it at the fifth international
Conference on Bioastronomy in July 1996
year.  The project was accepted with a bang. On the next
next year the software was developed
code that actually does
main job: analyzes noise from television
ckona Arecibo in search of what can
be a signal from other civilizations.
Development of server and client software
continued until 1999, when the
The official launch of the project took place.         
                                        
PR calculation turned out to be exceptional
successful, even more successful than expected
laggedcreators of the program. I wish everyone -
everyone is invited to help science, while
everyone has a small chance of becoming
precisely the same person who understood
small signals from an alien civilization. And
all this without leaving home. Or from work
you. Moreover, there are a lot of calculations
owls are not required, even if the client is graphical
Czech and designed for screensaver (custom)
Actually, the screensaver displays the work
the main program that performs the calculations
nia). In fact, your computer is
not by "straining", filtering
individual noise fragments obtained
Arecibo, and searching for “golden grains” in it.
Those wishing to “take communion” at the moment
it has already turned out to be more than four million
man. The more participants, the higher
overall performance. B some-
at that moment the organizers of the program even
We were afraid that the data would start coming in
slower than they can be processed
thief.  So far the data has not run out, but
no accurate results can be obtained
succeeded.   However, something has formed
like a shortlist of signal sources, on
which from now on the Arecibo radio observatory
and concentrates his attention.           
                                        
March 18, 2003 Arecibo telescope
worked exclusively for SETI@ho- for a day
me, that is, study only the most
suspicious" radio signals - from all over
only 150 sources. "The chances are 1 in 10,000,
that one of these signals is really
there will be greetings from foreign civilizations, -
said Dan Beptumep, one of the managers
lei SETI@home.- But if they succeed
detect something similar to a signal from
aliens, then they "will jump wok-
pyr and cut off the telephone numbers of An- observatories
glia and Germany." They will need independent
cumoe confirmation to make sure
that this is not a software glitch
research and non-student jokes."         
                                        
 Sources of radio waves that intend
The scientists we researched were selected by
one principle: clarity and repetition
emoctb signal coming from one and
the same point.  Typically such signals
connection with the movement of telescope antennas,
last for 12 seconds and in shape
The scientists we studied were selected by
one principle: clarity and repetition
emoctb signal coming from one and
the same point.  Typically such signals
connection with the movement of telescope antennas,
last for 12 seconds and in shape
resemble a bell. Similar signals can
gut come from satellites and interplanetary
dust, but they usually do not recur.
And scientists are primarily interested in
repeating signals. I must saywhat's in
within the framework of the SETI project was "wired"
93% of the sky, however, in a very narrow di-
range. So if the event is on May 18th
the mouth will give nothing, a window for the possible
success is far from over.     
                                        
 So, SETI is arranged.  Will there be
no one knows the catch, but if there is -
the significance of this event is overestimated
It's simply impossible.