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E. T. Phoned. Now What?
外星人来电
Suppose one day scientists pick up a transmission they think is generated by aliens. Now what? Do we build a landing strip and break out the welcome wagon?
假如有一天，科学家收到到外星人发来的信号该怎么办呢？我们有建造飞碟起落跑道来欢迎它们吗？
Well here’s the thing about picking up alien broadcasts. The receivers scientists are currently using to listen to space noise are designed to find constant signals, or signals that are pulsing at regular intervals. But any message carried by these signals would probably be lost because the receivers can’t pick up the modulation, or rapid variations, in the base signal. The SETI institute, which searches for extra terrestrial life, has compared picking up a signal’s modulation to picking up the sound of a flute when it’s masked by the noise of a waterfall.
关于接收到外来广播的事情是这样的。科学家接者收目前会听航天噪音，然后找出不变信号或者找出那些常规跳动的信号。但是任何携带信息的信号都可能丢失，因为接收者在信号基地不能收集到变调或快速变化的信号。对外星智能的探索研究院，专门寻找外星生物。它他们对接受到信号的变调和被瀑布声掩盖的笛声做了比较。
Luckily, scientists would still have enough data to pinpoint where in the sky the transmission is coming from. And any slow changes in the broadcast frequency would reveal information about the rotation and movement of the aliens’ planets.
幸运的是，科学家们有足够的数据来确定信号广播的位置。广播频率的细微变化都会揭露外星人星球的旋转和运动情况。
Okay, but how will we know if they are friendly? Well, If we ever do detect a transmission, this would be huge news. The government would definitely allocate funds to building larger instruments capable of picking up signal modulations. However, even once scientists are able to measure the modulation, it isn’t certain that we’ll be able to understand the message. I guess everyone’s hoping that if the aliens are anything like us, they’ll send simple pictures and easy-to-decode messages.
我们怎样才知道那些是友好的信号呢？如果我们发现了外来广播，那就是很大新闻了。政府一定会拨款建造更大的仪器，能够接受信号变调。不管怎样，即使科学家能够测量变调，也不能确定我们能明白这些信息。我想每个人都希望外星人与我们多少有点相似之处，会发简单的图画和容易解码的信息。
