Analyzing the data from the 20+ year Seti@Home project to search for alien life

JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
2,738
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http://lite.cnn.com/en/article/h_36759062baa6d236d764d95260f0fd1c

"Scientists at the University of California Berkeley's SETI@home project say they'll stop sending new work to the network of volunteers, who've been using their computers to search for aliens since 1999.

The project is going into hibernation on March 31, according to a post on its website, which said scientists have reached a point of diminishing returns.

"Basically, we've analyzed all the data we need for now," according to the post.

The scientists will now focus on studying the results they've brought in and writing a scientific journal paper on the findings.

Millions of volunteers around the world have downloaded the SETI@home screen saver over the years, to help analyze radio telescope data and search for extraterrestrial intelligence, according to the group. SETI stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

Scientists are looking for narrow-bandwidth radio signals from space that are not known to exist in nature.

It requires huge amounts of computing power, so the program broke the data that into chunks that an ordinary PC could handle. Since it was a screen saver, it runs when volunteers are not actively using their machines.

It created a huge, virtual supercomputer, the group said.

"We hope that other UC Berkeley astronomers will find uses for the huge computing capabilities of SETI@home for SETI or related areas like cosmology and pulsar research," the post said.

The group thanked volunteers for their 20 years of help and said the SETI@home website and message boards would continue to operate.

The post did not say if they have found any alien life."


There used to be a Seti@ Home thread here in ATOT.
any members still doing this?
 
Last edited:

OccamsToothbrush

Golden Member
Aug 21, 2005
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The scientists will now focus on studying the results they've brought in and writing a scientific journal paper on the findings.


The post did not say if they have found any alien life.

The fact that they're shutting down rather than shouting their findings from the rooftops proves that they didn't find bupkis.

I wonder how long it takes to write a scientific journal paper saying "We're idiots, sorry to have wasted your time."
 

Kaido

Elite Member & Kitchen Overlord
Feb 14, 2004
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Man I used to feel so cool running this on my computer. RIP AMD Athlon Thunderbird!
 
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BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
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Well...in their defense, they DID find Vulcans and Cling-ons...but Trump and previous presidents have locked the info away in Area 51 to prevent panic and the collapse of religions.
 

JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
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The Arecibo radio telescope, an icon of the quest to understand the universe beyond our planet, has suffered severe damage as a result of a cable snapping. The cause of the breakage, and how long the telescope will take to repair are currently unknown.

One of Arecibo's prime uses has been in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Data analyzed by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence SETI@home experiment is collected at Arecibo.


i guess we were getting too close thus the Aliens arranged for an accident.
/TinFoilHat
 
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Fritzo

Lifer
Jan 3, 2001
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The Arecibo radio telescope, an icon of the quest to understand the universe beyond our planet, has suffered severe damage as a result of a cable snapping. The cause of the breakage, and how long the telescope will take to repair are currently unknown.

One of Arecibo's prime uses has been in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Data analyzed by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence SETI@home experiment is collected at Arecibo.


i guess we were getting too close thus the Aliens arranged for an accident.
/TinFoilHat
Heartbreaking :( Hopefully repairs come quickly.
 

JEDI

Lifer
Sep 25, 2001
29,391
2,738
126

The Arecibo radio telescope, an icon of the quest to understand the universe beyond our planet, has suffered severe damage as a result of a cable snapping. The cause of the breakage, and how long the telescope will take to repair are currently unknown.

One of Arecibo's prime uses has been in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Data analyzed by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence SETI@home experiment is collected at Arecibo.


i guess we were getting too close thus the Aliens arranged for an accident.
/TinFoilHat


dish cant be repaired :(

will be demolished :( :( :(
 

repoman0

Diamond Member
Jun 17, 2010
5,126
4,448
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Yeah, that is a major bummer. Legendary facility laid to waste. I was fortunate enough to see and use it for some research during my undergrad years .. couple shitty pics from that trip. It's really pretty surreal sitting there buried in the hills in the middle of a vast jungle. Also, that catwalk is terrifying.

IMG_5856.jpg

IMG_5860.jpg
 

DigDog

Lifer
Jun 3, 2011
14,310
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i remember doing S@H back when it started and only ever managed to complete 1 chunk of data. I never had a decent PC and was on it most of the time anyway, so it hardly ever got to run.
Distributed computing was a great idea and i'm glad they did that, but i never was in a position to contribute, and .. you know, no rewards (not even "spiritual"), no drive to keep going. After the occasional system crash & subsequent format, i declined to reinstall it.
 

highland145

Lifer
Oct 12, 2009
43,973
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Well...in their defense, they DID find Vulcans and Cling-ons...but Trump and previous presidents have locked the info away in Area 51 to prevent panic and the collapse of religions.
Didn't find the dryer sock monster though. Seems like a more worthwhile effort.
 

BarkingGhostar

Diamond Member
Nov 20, 2009
8,410
1,617
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Well, information travels at the speed of light so they were only listening to stuff reaching us in the very local neighborhood of 20 lightyear radius sphere. Given the effing size og the galaxy alone is no different in my mind than being on a hundred acre ranch and not hearing the neighbor on his hundred acre ranch. Whoopdeedo.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
69,778
13,367
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www.anyf.ca
Woah I did not realize it was that huge.

It really is too bad it can't be fixed though, it sounds like a simple enough problem but I guess at that scale it's not all that simple, and is very expensive.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,570
10,203
126
If only they could have used Aracibo to mine BTC, then the dish could have paid for itself in 2.5 years...

Edit: They're really missing a ticket here... given that "space tourism" will likely explode (if the earth doesn't explode first) in the next 20-30 years, people taking planes to the edge of space and going around the globe, just for fun... some corporation should buy the aracibo "bowl" and paint it with logos... that can be seen from space. Viola, space tourism advertising...

Something like "When you get back to Earth, there's always Capitol One!"

A shame to bulldoze what is basically the 8th Wonder of the World.
 

Greenman

Lifer
Oct 15, 1999
21,745
6,173
136
Well, information travels at the speed of light so they were only listening to stuff reaching us in the very local neighborhood of 20 lightyear radius sphere. Given the effing size og the galaxy alone is no different in my mind than being on a hundred acre ranch and not hearing the neighbor on his hundred acre ranch. Whoopdeedo.
You're conflating distance and time incorrectly. The signals could have been sent out from a planet a thousand light years away, and we'd receive them if they were sent a thousand years ago. It's fossil radio we're interested in. We can't get real time radio from any planet right here in the solar system.
I assume there is a propagation limit, but I have no idea what it is.
 
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Spacehead

Lifer
Jun 2, 2002
13,067
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That's a bummer :(

rose.gif



SAH is the reason i ended up here.
 

Ken g6

Programming Moderator, Elite Member
Moderator
Dec 11, 1999
16,579
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Don't worry. When the aliens we sent a message to in 1974 don't get a reply from us, they'll just send a probe! ;)

EzWTB.jpg


OK, maybe worry. :eek: