Depending on your level of paranoia and/or connection to reality, the new Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a system of 25,000 antennae being built in the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, France, and the U.K., will strike you as either a new tool in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence or a new tool in the Illuminati's quest to infiltrate your mind. Either way, LOFAR seems kind of exciting. It would be the first instrument specifically designed to look for low frequency signals (the kind used by terrestrial TV broadcasts) from the great beyond. But SETI astronomer Seth Shostak (who will appear on Inside the Amateur Scientist Studio this Saturday, you should know) thinks this is all a waste of time. He rightly points out that LOFAR would have to be less than a light year away from Earth's low frequency signals to pick them up, so unless there's a TV antenna on the moon, we probably won't be hearing anything extraterrestrial. Also, why the hell would aliens still be broadcasting? Haven't they ever heard of iTunes? More details here.
Friday, June 13, 2008
LOFAR is a Longshot
