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A Call From Space
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00:00Our voices have ascended into space, announcing our presence to the universe.
00:11Other men on other worlds may be listening.
00:16We await an answer from afar, placed by an intelligence we do not know, we will not recognize, we may not even understand.
00:30Radio waves that might bear the conversations of distant beings are monitored, day and night, by astronomers throughout the world.
00:43Our understanding of life in outer space may begin with reaching out to another form of intelligence here on Earth.
00:51If we can communicate with one strange intelligence, we can hope to communicate with others.
01:00The stars and galaxies beckon us to ask,
01:28Are we alone?
01:30We listen for the answer.
01:40This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture.
01:44The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations,
01:48but not necessarily the only ones, to the mysteries we will examine.
01:52We have always dreamed of talking with celestial beings.
02:05Discoveries in deep space have revealed that the same chemistry that created earthly life operates elsewhere.
02:12Perhaps we are not accidents of creation.
02:15Perhaps we are not alone.
02:17Giant ultra-sensitive instruments tune in on the frequencies of other worlds
02:26as we begin a cosmic journey.
02:28Our search for intelligent life beyond the planet Earth has begun,
02:40and the job is as immense as the universe itself.
02:42Our galaxy alone contains an estimated 250 billion stars,
02:47and there are at least 100 billion other galaxies.
02:51How many of these stars have Earth-like planets harboring life?
02:54Until recently, we searched with our eyes, aided by telescopes.
02:59Then, with the advent of radio, a whole new noisy universe emerged,
03:04and man began to listen to the stars.
03:07In 1971, at NASA's Ames Research Center,
03:1224 scientists and engineers began the search for other life.
03:16Led by Dr. Bernard Oliver and Dr. John Billingham,
03:20the group concluded that radio is the most effective way of detecting other voices in space.
03:25The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, nicknamed SETI, became a reality.
03:32Dr. Oliver explains.
03:33The concept of doing this really has its origin in the belief that
03:38we will have to go to other stars rather than just other planets of our own system
03:43before we find intelligent life.
03:46And the belief that that is an extremely difficult thing to do physically.
03:51If we are not going to cross the gulf of interstellar space,
03:54how then are we going to ever detect other intelligent life?
03:58The answer seems to be by looking for evidence of it in the form of signals
04:03that it may either radiate on purpose to arouse our attention
04:07or simply in the course of its own activities.
04:11It's quite possible that signals have been falling on the Earth
04:14for millions or billions of years.
04:17In 1931, extraterrestrial radio signals were accidentally discovered
04:22by Bell Telephone Engineer Carl Jansky.
04:26Jansky detected a hiss that seemed to be coming from the very center of our galaxy.
04:32For the first time, dense star clouds, invisible to optical telescopes,
04:38revealed their presence through radio emissions.
04:40Grote Reber, an enthusiastic radio amateur, confirmed Jansky's observations.
04:49Using a homemade backyard antenna, Reber found that radio emissions of natural origin
04:55occur throughout our galaxy.
04:58Then, in 1961, the search for intentional signals began.
05:04At Green Bank, West Virginia, a radio telescope was used for the first time
05:08to listen for intelligent signals from space.
05:11Project OSMA, a whimsical reference to the land lying over the rainbow,
05:16was followed ten years later by the most far-reaching life search program ever devised.
05:24The Cyclops' plan was to start with a modest-sized antenna element,
05:28say something like 300 feet in diameter,
05:31and simply add additional ones as time went on
05:35to increase the total collecting area.
05:37This sort of a system is known as an antenna array,
05:40and it works by having all of the antennas feed their signals together
05:44into a common receiver, a common detector,
05:47so that they add in phase and act as if they had been picked up by a single antenna.
05:53So we believe we can take as many as a thousand antennas
05:56and connect them together in this fashion and get a huge collecting area.
06:05A listening post beyond Earth is an alternative explored by SETI astronomer Dr. Charles Seeger.
06:11A basic problem in a search for extraterrestrial signals
06:16has to do with the interference to receiving systems
06:20produced by all our transmissions in the same radio frequency spectrum.
06:25Space may offer some advantages and may not be all that more expensive
06:30for a large receiving system than on Earth.
06:33Space has the advantage of a more benign environment.
06:37You don't have winds and storms and rain and repainting to do all the time.
06:42It's very quiet.
06:43Also, you can put up a very light system in space.
06:45It floats there.
06:47The backside of the Moon is attractive
06:49since there you are beautifully shielded from all Earth activity.
06:52What we envision is to reproduce in the craters of the Moon
07:04a series of Arecibo-type antennas.
07:08And it's estimated by engineers
07:10that one could build a thousand or three thousand foot
07:13or even larger perhaps Arecibo-type structures
07:16relatively economically
07:17scattering them among a bunch of adjacent craters
07:21on the back of the Moon.
07:24An alternative to the Moon
07:26is to have an antenna floating in space
07:29in orbit around the Earth.
07:31The early antennas would be so arranged
07:34that they could be constructed in space
07:36carried out in pieces on a shuttle
07:39along with the work as necessary to construct it.
07:42It would then be set into orbit
07:43and the shuttle would return
07:45while we tried out the device.
07:46While we wait for a call from space
07:55we have not ruled out
07:56breaking the silence of the universe
07:58by sending our own signals to cosmic neighbors.
08:06Nestled in the tropical mountain jungle of Puerto Rico
08:09is the largest radio telescope on Earth.
08:16A thousand feet across and 300 feet deep
08:19the Arecibo telescope can listen to signals
08:22from the farthest reaches of the universe.
08:24It can also converse with other beings
08:28in the cosmos.
08:30On November 16th, 1974
08:33man prepared to beam his first
08:35and only intentional signal
08:37to intelligence beyond the Earth.
08:39our message
09:07traveling at the speed of light
09:09will take 24,000 years
09:11to reach star cluster M13
09:13in the constellation Hercules.
09:17In code
09:18the message describes our solar system
09:20the Earth
09:21and the life upon it.
09:24The chemical basis of life on Earth
09:26is represented by the famous double helix
09:28of DNA.
09:30The final depiction of a human being
09:33is like a cry in the night of space.
09:37Who or what?
09:39We'll answer our call.
09:40We'll answer our call.
09:40On March 2nd, 1972
09:59Pioneer 10 began its 21-month journey to Jupiter.
10:04Attached to the spacecraft is a plaque
10:07a kind of planetary Rosetta Stone
10:09designed by astronomer Dr. Carl Sagan.
10:12But in the remote contingency that there are interstellar spacefaring societies
10:17which might someday pick up this derelict no longer radioing.
10:22We thought we would put a message on it to indicate a little bit of where we are, when we are, and who we are.
10:30We think that the information on where we are and when we are indicated in this part of the message
10:36by the configuration of certain cosmic objects called pulsars
10:40will be completely obvious to any society capable of traveling between the stars.
10:45These two objects will be more mysterious because it is unlikely that there will be human beings anywhere else,
10:52even though there may be other creatures elsewhere.
10:54And the plaque has served a very useful purpose in making us think about what sort of impression
11:00we might wish to give to the cosmos.
11:06Pioneer 10 flew past Jupiter in December 1973.
11:10In 1984, it will leave the solar system forever.
11:15Who will pick up our message floating in interstellar space?
11:19Radio waves traveling much faster than Pioneer will provide our first clue.
11:26Any signal that we pick up will certainly not have originated from a civilization much less advanced technically than we,
11:33because it is only very recently that we have been able to radiate and detect such signals.
11:40If we look at the enormous time spans involved, then it seems very likely that what we will find is
11:46a civilization considerably more advanced than ourselves,
11:50and which might have reasons for attempting to contact us that we do not even comprehend.
11:56at the present time.
11:58At Ames Research Center, psychologist Dr. Mary Connors is working to determine
12:04what an extraterrestrial civilization might be like.
12:08Basically, on the non-technological issues, which is what I'm primarily concerned with,
12:16we're concerned with two basic questions.
12:20One is, what can we know about the nature of the intelligence that we are likely to contact?
12:28Well, what do we know about intelligence?
12:30We could ask, what is intelligence?
12:33What possible forms can it take?
12:36What can we learn from animal intelligence?
12:39The dolphin, although it shares our planet, exists in a world of its own.
12:44It speaks a language we do not comprehend.
12:47Its brain size is comparable to man's.
12:50Yet the dolphin is still an enigma, as alien to us as a creature from outer space.
12:56At San Diego's SeaWorld, trainers and scientists work behind the scenes in an intensive effort
13:04to unravel the mysteries of dolphin sonar and communication.
13:08I'll tell you what, we'll give you another munchie for that.
13:10The dolphin has always seemed akin to man, and some have wondered if this creature, even
13:16now, is attempting to communicate with us.
13:19But he doesn't know yet what the difference means.
13:23The greatest problem remains the limit of our own experience.
13:32Despite our theories and our hopes, man has yet to exchange one word with the dolphin.
13:40SeaWorld's curator of mammals, Dr. Lanny Cornell, and researcher Sherry Gish are interested
13:46in cracking the communication barrier.
13:49One of the projects that we have in an overall study of communications amongst dolphins is
13:55one between two animals and two pools separated by a soundproof gate, which allows us to determine
14:03specifically when the animals will be able to communicate with one another.
14:09Cornell and his assistant will monitor every sound emitted by the two dolphins.
14:14In the exchange, each signal and response will be carefully studied and patterns of sound
14:20production analyzed.
14:23Sound waves are converted into a form that can be measured electronically.
14:29An oscilloscope reveals the changes in frequencies, some inaudible to the human ear.
14:38At one-sixteenth normal speed, the intricacies of dolphin signals become apparent.
14:51The dolphin is one form of non-human intelligence.
14:55The form that extraterrestrial life may take is subject to scientific speculation.
15:00It does appear that at least at our present stage of evolution, there may be some advantages
15:09to being structured at least with some of the characteristics that we have.
15:15There are clear advantages, for example, to having two eyes with which you can see in color and
15:24with which you can achieve binocular vision.
15:27It's clear that there are advantages to having an upright posture, it's clear that there are
15:31advantages to having a brain located at one end of the body, and you can go on like this.
15:39If it is inevitable that another civilization will have had at one point some of the characteristics
15:44we have now, will contact with these alien beings from some unknown planet bring doomsday
15:51to our tiny world, or do the benefits to our future outweigh the dangers?
15:58The greatest miracle that we have before us is the fact that within a few billion years,
16:03the universe through the marvelous laws of chemistry and physics has converted part of itself into
16:08consciousness, and that part can now contemplate the universe that began it.
16:13A French scientist put it this way, astronomy is useful because it shows us how small is
16:21man's body, how great is mind.
16:26Dr. John Krauss is an electrical engineer and astronomer at Ohio State University.
16:32He is one of a few who are working intently to solve the riddle of the universe.
16:36To answer the question, are we alone, he is philosophical about his mission.
16:42I think one of the exciting things about all this work is that those of us who are involved
16:48are like pioneers, we are exploring the universe.
16:54It's a pioneering venture to find out what is out there and perhaps who is out there.
17:05Looking for extraterrestrial intelligence is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
17:14Assuming that we are not unique and that there are intelligent beings elsewhere, we have
17:18to try and second guess them, but you need some kind of road map.
17:28Dr. Krauss's road map is a giant radio telescope that he helped design and build.
17:34He affectionately calls it Big Ear.
17:37Larger than three football fields in area, Big Ear has detected signals from the most
17:42distant known objects in the universe.
17:45Could Big Ear now find intelligent signals in the vastness of space?
17:50Big Ear has detected signals from the world.
17:55Hi, Ed.
17:56Bob.
17:57Hi, Dr. Krauss.
17:58Anything interesting?
17:59Well, we have some unusual...
18:02We began our search on Friday the 7th of December, 1973.
18:08Bob Dixon and Ed Tega worked for weeks setting up and testing an eight-channel filter and getting
18:16it ready for the life search.
18:18Well, why not run it?
18:20Let's give it a go.
18:22All right.
18:25There was no fuss or fanfare.
18:28Switches were set, recorders started, and the data began to flow.
18:37Now our Big Ear was listening for other men on other planets circling other stars who might
18:44have built beacon stations to announce their presence.
18:49If Bob Dixon said, we got something that looks interesting, John, I'm sure it wouldn't be that
19:00he'd recorded a voice saying, this is planet MX3 calling Earth.
19:06It wouldn't be anything as direct and unequivocal as that.
19:11It would just be a little bump on a squiggly line record that went on for hundreds of feet
19:18that occurred in a way that set it off from others.
19:22We may have to wait a long time.
19:29The probability of life developing elsewhere is hard to determine definitely, but I don't
19:36think it is zero, and if it is not zero, then I think we have a chance.
19:43Someday this call from space may come.
19:47It's hard to say when it will.
19:49The signal that we're looking for might be found within a day, but it might be weeks, years,
19:58it will have profound significance to man.
20:04If we are not alone, what will we say to our neighbors?
20:12For centuries, man thought that the Earth was the center of the universe.
20:19The sun, moon, and stars were to light our days and nights.
20:23Then Galileo turned his telescope to the sky, and we learned that the moon and planets were
20:28worlds beyond dispute.
20:30That the stars weren't just ornaments in the sky, but represented a cosmos far beyond man's
20:35earthly imagination.
20:37We dreamt of life beyond the planet Earth, and set out to explore the universe.
20:42We began, humbly, with the moon.
20:49We found that there is no man in the moon, but there are nine other planets in our solar
20:56system.
20:57So we set our sights on Mars and sent our probe.
21:03Now we look beyond to the vastness of the universe, and search the stars for voices of other beings.
21:09If we were in fact to decipher messages from the other civilizations, over and above simply
21:16receiving a signal and knowing that they are there, then it is conceivable we might learn
21:22about the pathways that they took when they were at our present stage of development.
21:28I think in this way, one can easily visualize a network of intercommunicating societies growing
21:35up in our galaxy.
21:38Such a network could achieve results in science and in philosophy and in other fields that would
21:46be more painful if they were isolated.
21:51Past human history may be only the prelude to our future as members of a galactic society.
21:57Our future will begin with a call from space.
22:08Lost civilizations, extraterrestrials, myths and monsters, missing persons, magic and witchcraft,
22:17unexplained phenomena.
22:20In search of cameras are traveling the world seeking out these great mysteries.
22:25This program was the result of the work of scientists, researchers and a group of highly skilled technicians.
22:32bardzo bac syn spokesman.
22:33really special experiences from extraterrestrials with ditches DK, so I don't know.
22:35But as humans the
22:46required system to honestly find serious.
22:47We're ill at breaking JUSTICE Charles VIWA in Ahhh passou.
22:50We'll see you coming soon.
22:50A motion for actual Per View.
22:51We will hear you on this subject.
22:52Or besides� I will know.
22:53We'll hear you on this subject, stoneыт, stone We will see.
22:53Oh yes, we'll hear you on this subject.
22:55Okay that notwend- And then it's more interactive.
22:55A good idea, we'll see if nothing happens.
22:56We'll hear you on this subject, and we're about the space-start
22:58But the sea-land place is flying over, this subject-through-agtrip
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