Seth Shostak, un astronome travaillant pour le projet SETI, a répondu aux questions d'internautes sur Reddit :
http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comment ... earch_for/ Ci-dessous, quelques unes de ces réponses aux questions principales...
Au sujet du signal Wow! :
Citer:
Lots of questions about the Wow signal. But remember: it was nothing more than a drift plot on a computer's line printer that showed up ONCE. Not a second time, even though it was looked for only a minute later. There were LOTS of such "one-offs" in the old days of SETI, and there's no good evidence that any of them were extraterrestrial signals.
Citer:
Lots of response to this, Claire0, but until you find a signal that "checks out" as truly being extraterrestrial and artificially produced, you have NO "compelling candidates." It's like trying to discover Antarctica ... you see ice every day, but your results are zero until, maybe one day, you succeed. That's the way SETI is. Lack of success doesn't imply lack of opportunity to succeed. And very little search space has been reconnoitered so far.
Au sujet du paradoxe de Fermi :
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It's puzzling and paradoxical! But really, I wouldn't draw too many conclusions from a "local observation" about non-local truths.
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Lots of commentary on the Fermi Paradox -- an ever-popular idea. But it's a BIG extrapolation from a very LOCAL observation. We don't see any obvious evidence of galactic colonization around here. So they couldn't be out there! Really? I don't see any evidence of mega fauna in my back yard, so maybe there aren't any ...
You can find many ideas about why galactic colonization isn't much of a desideratum for advanced intelligence, and the fact that people can cook up plausible reasons should cause you to consider the Paradox as an interesting idea, but not a very meaningful observation.
Citer:
We could be the earliest intelligence to emerge ... but that's so self-centered, I figure it's got to be wrong!
Au sujet du protocole du SETI en cas de découverte d'un signal extraterrestre :
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OK, there is a document ... Briefly, it says: (1) check the signal to make sure it's truly extraterretrial, (2) announce it to the world, and (3) consult internationally before transmitting a reply. That's it.
But in reality, it will be a mad media scramble, and the scientists will be trying their best to learn as much as they could about the signal.
Citer:
No lock down. We KNOW this from false alarms. We do every test we can think of to determine if a signal's extraterrestrial ... including calling up someone at a different radio telescope, and asking THEM to confirm the detection.
Au sujet de leur faux positif le plus convaincant :
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In 1997 we picked up a signal that for about 16 hours looked like the real deal. But it turned out to be the SOHO solar research satellite's telemetry!
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I know this is disappointing ... but all the signals we find these days are checked out, and quickly discarded as terrestrial interference. In the old days of SETI, we'd record data ... and look at it later. That's when you would find things like the "Wow" signal -- which we couldn't check out very easily. But probably all those early "unexplained" signals were interference too.
Au sujet des critiques selon lesquelles c'est une mauvaise idée de rechercher des signaux radio, moyen de communication peut-être obsolète pour des extraterrestres très avancés :
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I still use the wheel every day. It's old, but it never ceases to be useful.
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On the basis of the physics we know, it's a very inexpensive way to send bits of info from one place to another.
Au sujet du danger inhérent au fait d'essayer de contacter des civilisations extraterrestres :
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No one knows if they'd be white hats or black hats. But whether we want to or not, evidence of our presence is now flying out into space. Not just our inadvertent transmissions like TV and radar, but things like the light from our cities. My advice? Don't lose sleep.
Au sujet des histoires concernant la planète Nibiru & compagnie :
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I wouldn't give this any credit. If Nibiru existed, we would both see it and know its orbit ... not to mention being aware of the disruption of orbits in our solar system. But those disruptions are not there.
Au sujet du manque de budget du SETI :
Citer:
There may not be enough money for me to finish this sen
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