[6]专家们对智能生命会以何种方式联系人类各持己见。但这一复苏的领域，亦被称作SETI （搜寻地外文明计划），很大程度上基于这一假设，即外星人（如果他们确实存在而且实际上在试图与我们聊天）可能会使用和我们用于彼此沟通同类型的技术——从无线电信号到闪光。

Look Who’s Talking

[7] Instruments like radio telescopes7radio telescope射电望远镜。—giant, ultra-sensitive dishes that receive faint signals from very far away—are used to search the cosmos light. Radio waves constitute a portion of the light spectrum—the band8band波段。that

瞧，谁在说话

[7]各种仪器，譬如射电望远镜（巨大、超灵敏的盘形物，可用来接收极远处传来的微弱信号）被用来搜索宇宙中的光。无线电波构成了光谱的一部分——许多科学家认为，外星科技最有可能用这一波段与我们联系。alien technology would most likely use to reach us, many astronomers believe.

[8] Alien hunters look for radio waves because humans are so fond of using them. Radio waves can travel miles, letting us hear our favorite talk show while we drive. They can also traverse lightyears and be crammed with information, which is why they carry our television broadcasts, our mobile calls and GPS locations. Because radio waves are so versatile, SETI scientists believe our galactic neighbors might use them to reach out and say, “Sup9Sup即What’s up的俚语表达，表示寒暄打招呼。?”

[9] Scientists classify radio waves by how often they crest10crest达到波峰，到达顶点。; that measurement is the wave’s frequency. The tighter the crests, the higher the it comes to radio waves from beyond Earth, scientists tune to frequencies between 1 and 10 gigahertz11gigahertz千兆赫。.Going below that window12此处指radio window，射电窗。catches too much noise from the rest of the galaxy,like radiation from planets or even the humming of a distant black hole. The atmosphere blocks frequencies higher than about 10 gigahertz. But nestled in that quiet window are 9 billion possible frequencies, or channels, that aliens could be using.

[10] When the modern search for extraterrestrial intelligence began in the 1960s, scientists could listen to just one

[8]外星人搜寻者们寻找无线电波是因为人类非常喜欢使用它们。无线电波可以传播到很远的距离，使我们在开车时也能收听到最爱的脱口秀。他们还可以穿越光年并且满载信息，这也是为何它们可以传送我们的电视广播、移动电话和GPS位置。由于无线电波如此万能，SETI 科学家们认为我们的银河系邻居可能也会用它们和我们打招呼说：“最近怎样？”

[9]科学家们通过达到波峰的频率对无线电波进行分类；该测量结果便是此电磁波的频率。波峰之间靠得越近，频率就越高。当无线电波来自地球以外时，科学家们会把频道调到1到10千兆赫之间。低于这个射电窗会捕捉到太多来自银河系其余部分的噪音，譬如行星的辐射甚至是远处某个黑洞的嗡嗡声。大气层会阻隔高于10千兆赫的频率。而在这个安静的射电窗内，有90亿个频率或频道可供外星人使用。

[10] 20世纪60年代外星智慧现代化搜索刚开始时，科学家们每次只能收听到一个频channel at a time. Today, they can tune in to tens or even hundreds of millions of channels at once, listening for a single note from faraway millions of times over. This vast capacity increases the odds of us catching an alien message when it arrives.道。如今，他们可以一次收听数以千万乃至亿计的频道，重复百万次地聆听某个远方传来的音符。这种巨大的容量增加了我们捕捉到外星人信息的机率。

Alien Emojis

[11] Though SETI scientists believe,that assumption aliens would likely use similar technology as we do on Earth poses a fundamental, possibly insurmountable13insurmountable无法克服的，无法超越的。, challenge to their search: Our own chatter makes it immensely difficult. Cellphones, Wi-Fi and GPS all rely on radio waves. Those waves occupy the same channels researchers use to listen to for E.T. And because our devices are so much closer to the telescopes, the signals are much stronger. Every time we text an emoji, we potentially make SETI research more difficult. Sorting the alien wheat from the human chaff is the hardest part of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, says Andrew Siemion, director of the University of California, Berkeley’s SETI Research Center. ■

外星人表情符号

[11]然而SETI科学家们认为，“外星人可能会使用和我们在地球使用的类似科技”这一假设会给他们的搜寻构成一个根本的、可能无法克服的挑战：我们人类的密集通信会使搜寻变得无比困难。手机、Wi-Fi和GPS都依赖无线电波。这些电磁波占据了研究人员用以收听外星人信号的相同频道。而且因为我们的设备与射电望远镜距离近得多，所以信号也要强很多。我们每发一次表情符号，都可能使SETI研究变得更加困难。加州大学伯克利分校SETI研究中心主任安德鲁·西米昂表示，从糠皮样繁乱的人类信号中分拣出小麦般有用的外星人信号是寻找外星智慧中最难的部分。 □

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