'Galactic Internet' Could Broadcast Alien SignalsClick to viewIf
we received a message from an extraterrestrial civilization,
would we necessarily realize it? SETI has long scanned the skies
for evidence of alien transmissions, while others have proposed
a hunt for physical artifacts sent by our distant neighbors. But
neutrino physicists at the University of Hawaii have proposed
yet another possibility: that humans have already received an
extraterrestrial communication, and that we might find the
message in our existing observations of the stars.Professor John
Learned suggested that a civilization could attempt to initiate
communication with other advanced civilizations by making
unnatural alterations to Cepheids, relatively rare stars that
other civilizations are likely to study: Cepheids dim and
brighten regularly, in a pattern that depends on their
brightness. This lets astronomers measure the distance to the
stars, helping to resolve mysteries such as the Universe's age
and how fast it is expanding. As s