richardt@orstcs.UUCP (richardt) (08/14/85)
Somewhere back there, somebody at topaz (having now narrowed the domain to the known univers :-) ) mentioned how Earth is brighter than the Sun in certain frequencies. Note that Earth cannot be the brightest object in the system, as that would require coming up with more energy than the Sun produces -- continuously. In any case, consider the following line of logic: 1. certain microwave bands which are used to communicate more information farther are brighter than the Sun 2. The quest for open EM frequencies and more power (remember the 5 watt limit!) still goes on, with a very high rate of competition. 3. Eventually a noticeable percent of the frequencies used by man will outshine the Sun. The number and width of frequencies also continues to grow. Parallel line of logic: 1. People are predominantly diurnal. Thus, Terran EM emissions vary with time of day, season, and other purely arbitrary *LOCAL* factors. Therefore, the Sol Systems' EM radiation levels vary noticeably at (to an unsuspecting alien) apparently random intervals. Now, what are the Super-variable stars that are currently giving the astronomers and physicists headaches? Quasars and Pulsars! Why? Because Quasars and Pulsars *RADIATE EM PATTERNS WHICH ARE HIGHLY VARIABLE IN CONCENTRATION, CONTENT, AND DISTRIBUTION, AND APPARENTLY VARY RANDOMLY AT RANDOM INTERVALS!* Working from the likelyhood that Earth will continue to radiate more EM in more range and with more power, *ENENTUALLY EARTH WILL APPEAR TO BE A QUASAR OF SORTS!* Maybe we've already found some of the other intelligent races in the multiverse and just don't know it! BTW, does anyone remember how much EM Trantor put out??? orstcs!richardt "It's not a treatise on political thought, it's a *COOKBOOK*" <-- source it!
mwtilden@watmath.UUCP (K.L. Martin, Hardware) (08/19/85)
> orstcs!richardt >"It's not a treatise on political thought, it's a *COOKBOOK*" <-- source it! My all-time favorite twilight zone episode: "To Serve Man". Rather large Lurch-like aliens come down and solve all our problems for a price that is not apparent until ... it's to late. MWT
herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong - DCS) (08/19/85)
In article <7800040@orstcs.UUCP> richardt@orstcs.UUCP (richardt) writes: >... deleteed material ... > > Therefore, the Sol Systems' EM radiation levels vary noticeably > at (to an unsuspecting alien) apparently random intervals. > Now, what are the Super-variable stars that are currently giving > the astronomers and physicists headaches? Quasars and Pulsars! Why? > Because Quasars and Pulsars *RADIATE EM PATTERNS WHICH ARE HIGHLY > VARIABLE IN CONCENTRATION, CONTENT, AND DISTRIBUTION, AND APPARENTLY > VARY RANDOMLY AT RANDOM INTERVALS!* Working from the likelyhood that > Earth will continue to radiate more EM in more range and with more > power, *ENENTUALLY EARTH WILL APPEAR TO BE A QUASAR OF SORTS!* not likely. the existence of pulsars was noticed precisely for the opposite reasons. they are more accurate than the majority of timepieces that the average consumer can even get to see, let alone buy. only when measuring differences in period on the order of microseconds does one begin to find variations in the period of a typical pulsar. their spectrums are well defined and, correcting for any observable supernova remnant visible, very close to being the same. quasars are still giving astronomers problems, but not for any of the above reasons. some recent observations have confirmed that at least some of the quasars observed really are at the huge distances measured but their red shifts. at the typical distance of a quasar, huge amounts of energy need to be consumed to be visibly as bright as they are, several orders of magnitudes above that of our galaxy. even postulating that the observed quasars are really broad band transmissions from a transmitter a thousand times larger than Aricebo, energies on the order of several solar masses/year need to be used to produce a signal that is comparable to a quasar even if it is all aimed at our general direction. i wouldn't want to be near that. if they aren't aimed in our direction but are omnidirectional broadcasts, then the energy requirements grow to the order of 10^6 solar masses/year. this is much more likely, since there are hundreds of observed quasars. why people that far away and that far in the past would hae wanted to look in our direction for as long as they have is beyond me 8-). the thing that has astronomers most puzzled is where all this energy is coming from. remember that the numbers i'm quoting are for complete conversion of that amount of matter to energy. quasars are not particularly variable by galactic standards. Herb Chong... I'm user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble.... UUCP: {decvax|utzoo|ihnp4|allegra|clyde}!watmath!water!watdcsu!herbie CSNET: herbie%watdcsu@waterloo.csnet ARPA: herbie%watdcsu%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa NETNORTH, BITNET, EARN: herbie@watdcs, herbie@watdcsu