Why do people send signals out to space an expect answers back right away?

Question

i watched the discovery channel a while back an it said that if we got a signal from aliens it would have ben sent over 10,000 years ago so why r we sendin signals an expectin answers back right away

Answer 1

No one is expecting answers right away. And we are not really in the business of sending out purposeful signal to announce our presence - but for 100 years some of our radio transmissions have going out there in space.



The signals we are searching for are not signals that are in response to our signals, but more like the random leakage or purposeful beacons that will tell us of the existence of another technological society. But you are correct, detecting such signals is not likely to result in any interaction. If they are very old signals from very far away, we can only receive their long ago sent signals, and never be able to have meaningful 2-way communication. And if the signals at the speed of light take that long to reach us, there is no chance of direct contact without some unknown and unforeseen physics that would allow space and time to be transcended. You are not the first to figure this out. The scientists and researchers involved of course know this. But just because the archaeologist cannot ask questions of the ancient Egyptians, that is no reason not to study and come to understand what they left us. Ancient signals from space, should we ever encounter them are really another form of archeology - study of something lost to the past, rather than a dialog with another society.

Answer 2

Imagine you are stranded on a deserted island, hoping to find a way home. There are not enough resources for you to construct a boat or a raft, so you put a message in a bottle. Let's also say, that based on what you know about the tides, ocean currents, and your remote location, that it will take several days before that bottle reaches a shipping lane or reaches land.



Do you just "hang out" there until you expect an answer, or do you stand watch at the shore, hoping to spot a ship between you and your horizon, even if there is no possible way your bottle could have reached that ship by now?

Answer 3

If we picked up radio signals from another planet, they wouldn't have necessarily been sent 10,000 years ago. It depends on how far away the planet is in light years. Most of the stars you see in the sky aren't 10,000 light years away, they're only tens or hundreds of light years away, so the signal we got from them would be tens or hundreds of years old.



We aren't looking ti open a dialogue with another civilization, we just want to know if there are any. it's a natural curiosity. If we found another civilized planet it would be the discovery of the millennium and perhaps we could exchange information with them about technology, science, and culture. That kind of information would be worth the decades of waiting for our grandkids.

Answer 4

So far we are limited with the speed-of-light.



Current knowledge claims that sol is the absolute limit of everything.



Until the physics that existed at the instant of the Big Bang is figured out we gotta live with that sol limitation.



We American taxpayers are the most impatient people in the history of the universe and we have every right to be.



The American taxpayer has paid for and funded every project since Christopher Columbus discovered America back in 1492 and we have every right to expect things RIGHT NOW not 10,000 years from now.



We spend a million bucks a year calling ET, I wanna hear from ET.

Answer 5

Because they really think they'll catch a signal from other forms of life out there. I think that will never happen. I honestly think if a person was to set up a laboratory were he listens for aliens life everyone would think he is crazy but since it's established organizations who do so it's considered normal. Well, I think they are nuts. It makes sense to believe in aliens than in God for some people.

Answer 6

We don't expect signals back straight away!



Do you?



Seti is listening for radio or tv stations or radar pulses on other planets.



Why do people ask stupid questions based on an untrue premise???

Answer 7

Who does?