Whale songs to be beamed into space

Firefox · Post by **Firefox** » 2005-04-21 05:06pm

Space.com wrote:From the deep ocean into the depths of space, the first live whale songs are to be broadcast into the cosmos on April 22 - Earth Day.

Providing the service is the Deep Space Communications Network, a private organization located near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Making use of a large dish antenna, the group will blast the whale songs out to some 3.5 light years into deep space covering an estimated distance of 18 trillion miles.

The distance the whale songs signal could go into the universe beyond the 18 trillion miles -- and still be detectable by other non-terrestrial systems -- “is an ongoing matter of speculation,” said Jim Lewis of Deep Space Communications Network.

The Sirius Institute, located in Puna, Hawaii, contracted the Deep Space Communications Network to perform the duty.

Members of the whale chorus whose songs will be sent live into space are from pods of Humpback whales off the coast of Maui. Whalesong.com will provide the live feed of whale music making use of an underwater microphone in the Pacific Ocean near Maui, Hawai'i.

Michael Hyson, research director for the Sirius Institute, said that dolphins and whales are the oldest sentient race on the planet, and it’s about time they shared their songs with the universe.

Humpback whale songs are included in the gold records that are attached to the still-outbound Voyager spacecraft. But this is the first time that live whale songs will be transmitted into space.

-- Leonard David

Wonderful. Now we should prepare to receive a visit from a black-painted flying tampon in 300 years.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2005-04-21 05:13pm

Firefox wrote:
Space.com wrote:From the deep ocean into the depths of space, the first live whale songs are to be broadcast into the cosmos on April 22 - Earth Day.

Providing the service is the Deep Space Communications Network, a private organization located near the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Making use of a large dish antenna, the group will blast the whale songs out to some 3.5 light years into deep space covering an estimated distance of 18 trillion miles.

The distance the whale songs signal could go into the universe beyond the 18 trillion miles -- and still be detectable by other non-terrestrial systems -- “is an ongoing matter of speculation,” said Jim Lewis of Deep Space Communications Network.

The Sirius Institute, located in Puna, Hawaii, contracted the Deep Space Communications Network to perform the duty.

Members of the whale chorus whose songs will be sent live into space are from pods of Humpback whales off the coast of Maui. Whalesong.com will provide the live feed of whale music making use of an underwater microphone in the Pacific Ocean near Maui, Hawai'i.

Michael Hyson, research director for the Sirius Institute, said that dolphins and whales are the oldest sentient race on the planet, and it’s about time they shared their songs with the universe.

Humpback whale songs are included in the gold records that are attached to the still-outbound Voyager spacecraft. But this is the first time that live whale songs will be transmitted into space.

-- Leonard David
Wonderful. Now we should prepare to receive a visit from a black-painted flying tampon in 300 years.

lol ... or it turns out that whalesong is the Vogon equivalent of Easy Listening and they flatten us just for polluting their airwaves .....

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2005-04-21 05:33pm

What the hell is the use of this?!

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2005-04-21 05:36pm

they're obviously off the mark. it needs to be dolphin sounds being transmitted, dangit! not whales!

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-04-21 05:39pm

3.5 light years into space....I thought the closest star was 4 lightyears away, and that probably doesn't even have technologically advanced life on it (or they'd have visited by now).

Yeah, this is pretty much useless. Hell, it might even be threatening.

Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba · Post by **Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba** » 2005-04-21 05:52pm

This ranks among some of the stupidest uses of a satellite ever.

Lord Zentei · Post by **Lord Zentei** » 2005-04-21 05:59pm

unbeataBULL wrote:3.5 light years into space....I thought the closest star was 4 lightyears away, and that probably doesn't even have technologically advanced life on it (or they'd have visited by now).

Yeah, this is pretty much useless. Hell, it might even be threatening.

Not as threatening as all the trash radio and TV that leaks out regardless.

Sobering thought: the first signals an advanced civilization receive from Earth centuries hence might be Jerry Springer reruns.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-04-21 06:02pm

They could just send images of the Berlin Olympics out instead.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2005-04-21 06:32pm

Reminds me of the Futurama ep where they threaten to destroy the world because they don't have the end of the final episode because Fry dropped a beer on the control board... thirty thousand years ago

felineki · Post by **felineki** » 2005-04-21 07:11pm

Elheru Aran wrote:Reminds me of the Futurama ep where they threaten to destroy the world because they don't have the end of the final episode because Fry dropped a beer on the control board... thirty thousand years ago

Yeah, it was Ally McBeal, wasn't it? And then Fry and the gang did an impromptu final episode to please the aliens because they couldn't find the original one.

Bender (singing impromptu theme song): Single Female Lawyer... Havin' lotsa sex!

Prozac the Robert · Post by **Prozac the Robert** » 2005-04-21 07:13pm

I can't think of anything more annyoing that could happen to a whale-like spacefaring species than to recieve this stuff and then spend the next hundred years trying to decipher the language

Mayabird · Post by **Mayabird** » 2005-04-21 07:15pm

Elheru Aran wrote:Reminds me of the Futurama ep where they threaten to destroy the world because they don't have the end of the final episode because Fry dropped a beer on the control board... thirty thousand years ago

It was "only" a thousand years before.

Heh, heh, I wonder what the "whale songs" they're sending out actually mean: "Bucko, you keep away! This is MY krill!" "Hey baby, you're so sleek, so let's screw all day and night." "Dude, I triple-dolphin dare you to go piss off those orcas!"

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2005-04-21 07:27pm

felineki wrote:
Elheru Aran wrote:Reminds me of the Futurama ep where they threaten to destroy the world because they don't have the end of the final episode because Fry dropped a beer on the control board... thirty thousand years ago
Yeah, it was Ally McBeal, wasn't it? And then Fry and the gang did an impromptu final episode to please the aliens because they couldn't find the original one.

Bender (singing impromptu theme song): Single Female Lawyer... Havin' lotsa sex!

McNeil, silly.

Quadlok · Post by **Quadlok** » 2005-04-21 07:34pm

So were some astrophysicists sitting around, getting pissed, and watching Star Trek IV, and decided to send out a signal to warn off the probe, or what?

Seriously, whats the fucking point? Whale song may go damn far under water, but its no different from any other noise when its transmitted.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2005-04-21 08:47pm

Shroom Man 777 wrote: McNeil, silly.

Same thing; and the show was actually called Single Female Lawyer if you want to be picky.[/i]

Dillon · Post by **Dillon** » 2005-04-21 11:49pm

What the hell is the point of this?

Let's say some Alien space ship picks this up and listens to it, and spends years trying to decipher it on their way to Earth. When they get here they're informed that it's not the speech of the dominant species on the planet but wildlife.

I know if I was in their position, I'd be like "What kind of jackasses are these people?"

Shroom Man 777 · Post by **Shroom Man 777** » 2005-04-22 12:15am

Sea Skimmer wrote:
Shroom Man 777 wrote: McNeil, silly.
Same thing; and the show was actually called Single Female Lawyer if you want to be picky.[/i]

I knew that. I was just correcting her name.

Zor · Post by **Zor** » 2005-04-22 01:07am

I take it that many of you guys have "Nuke the Whales" posters in your bedrooms.

Zor

Dillon · Post by **Dillon** » 2005-04-22 01:10am

Zor wrote:I take it that many of you guys have "Nuke the Whales" posters in your bedrooms.

Zor

[nelson]

Gotta nuke something.

[/nelson]

Winston Blake · Post by **Winston Blake** » 2005-04-22 03:54am

Michael Hyson, research director for the Sirius Institute, said that dolphins and whales are the oldest sentient race on the planet, and it’s about time they shared their songs with the universe.

Since when are dolphins and whales considered sentient races?

They can share their songs with the universe when they build powerful radio dishes themselves. Lazy freeloaders. Of course, it's not as if dolphins don't have their own means of making their way offplanet if they want to... they probably think this is funny as hell.

The Spartan · Post by **The Spartan** » 2005-04-22 06:43am

Winston Blake wrote:Of course, it's not as if dolphins don't have their own means of making their way offplanet if they want to... they probably think this is funny as hell.

Yes but if they wanted to leave they already would have wouldn't they? And I don't see any bizarre fishbowls lying around yet.

BlkbrryTheGreat · Post by **BlkbrryTheGreat** » 2005-04-22 08:06am

It would hilarious if, in a few thousands years, this was the first thing that some alien SETI program piacked up and they spent a small fortune trying to translate it.

WyrdNyrd · Post by **WyrdNyrd** » 2005-04-22 09:21am

Making use of a large dish antenna, the group will blast the whale songs out to some 3.5 light years into deep space covering an estimated distance of 18 trillion miles.

WTF?????

So after travelling for 3.5 years, the radio waves get tired and just stop???

Did they run out of fuel? Or did they just get bored of this moronic exercise, turn around and go home?

A rather embarassing statement within a rather embarassing article that shouldn't have appeared on any remotely scientific site.

Unless it's an April Fool's day prank 3 weeks too late...

WyrdNyrd · Post by **WyrdNyrd** » 2005-04-22 09:32am

Oh, I guess I should have read the rest of the article.

Apparently, it's "an ongoing matter of speculation" as to whether the waves will reach any farther, and still be detectable by alien receivers.

Seeing as how we know that the aliens (who would all live at least 4 LY away) will be sophisticated enough to pick up the signal at 3.5 LY, but beyond that, we're not sure...

Meanwhile, mere, primitive Human instruments (like Hubble) can detect radio-waves from millions of LY away...

EarthFundies piss me off almost as much as religious Fundies, as they clearly have much in common.

Post by **Alyrium Denryle** » 2005-04-22 09:39am

Shroom Man 777 wrote:What the hell is the use of this?!

Let's say some Alien space ship picks this up and listens to it, and spends years trying to decipher it on their way to Earth. When they get here they're informed that it's not the speech of the dominant species on the planet but wildlife.

WHale songs have an unmistakable repeating pattern to the them. Sending them out as a radio transmission intentionally would signal to any intelligent creature listening that there is life on our little rock. An intelligent alien race would probably think it was clever of us.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Whale songs to be beamed into space

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