back to article Computer modeling deepens scientists' understanding of solar cycle

Skywatchers this month feasted their eyes on ramping up of the aurora borealis, a light show caused by the interaction between the solar wind of charged particles and Earth's magnetic field. The auroras in May are believed to have possibly been the strongest for some 500 years, according to NASA. While observers have …

  1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    Boffin

    Excellent work

    Learning more about our Sun's life is going to be very helpful, teaching us about the possibilities everywhere else. Our Sun has evolved, our planet has been created, life of the planet has appeared and we are here today. When you look at the local galactic history we can hope that intelligent life has been created elsewhere too, but so far no evidence.

    How do we find other forms of intelligent life?

    I don't think that transmitting modern data into the universe would be as helpful to alert other forms of intelligent life as we would see if we only broadcast all of Ludwig van Beethoven's music, or Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations, into the Universe - proof of our intelligence and abilities at a much higher level than just saying "Hi, is anyone out there listening to us on Facebook?"

    1. Rich 2 Silver badge

      Re: Excellent work

      …and (unless I missed it) not a single bit of “AI” in sight.

      Mmmmm….

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Excellent work

        A single bit of Alien Intelligence?

    2. Christoph

      Re: Excellent work

      That assumes that entirely alien species have closely similar responses to music. Since we only have a single example there is no obvious evidence for that assumption.

      1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
        Alien

        Re: Excellent work

        No, a fair view but I assume that any other form of intelligent life would have completely evolved differently so detecting and investigating our "broadcast" would be a completely complex examination that might after a few years be heard as music to some alien's surprise, but very probably NOT IMMEDIATELY ... look at our search for other intelligent life in the universe, so far it's completely negative but maybe that's just the factor that every other life in the universe must be completely unique.

        1. ThatOne Silver badge
          Alien

          Re: Excellent work

          Nonsense! Aliens are totally human-like, except for a skin color in the greens/blues, and a tendency to have drop-dead gorgeous females.

          Aliens also speak perfect American English, and have all the same idioms, habits, likes and memes like us Earthlings down here, so communication with them should be easy--much easier than with some other human cultures...

    3. DS999 Silver badge

      Re: Excellent work

      Leaving aside whether it is even a good idea for us to tell the galaxy "here we are!" there's no need to get fancy. Just broadcast a series of prime numbers. There is no need to decode that, or wonder if aliens have anything like hearing. Maybe they "see" those broadcasts directly in wideband RF, where something with a dynamic range of 16KHz or so at hydrogen line radio frequencies would be like if someone played us "music" ranging from 511.001 to 511.002 Hz.

      They receive pulses of prime numbers, it is obviously not a natural phenomena so a technological species must have sent it. We can try to send other stuff (like we did with Voyager 1/2) with it and maybe they'll understand it and maybe not. Likely not - IMHO we shouldn't hold out much hope they would be able to understand it beyond knowing "life capable of utilizing basic radio technology is out there".

    4. ThatOne Silver badge

      Re: Excellent work

      > proof of our intelligence and abilities at a much higher level than just saying "Hi, is anyone out there listening to us on Facebook?"

      I fail to see the difference in "Hi, is anyone out there listening to us on Facebook Space?" In both cases it's just about getting confirmation and proof somebody likes us...

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