# Are aliens picking up my baby monitor? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 9, 2006, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aliens-picking-up-my-baby-monitor/379727 "2006-11-09T17:32:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Good\_Friday\_Spell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ad7895/32.png) [@The\_Good\_Friday\_Spell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Good_Friday_Spell)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aliens-picking-up-my-baby-monitor/379727/21 "2006-11-10T17:28:06Z")
[QUOTE=Bob55] We have a baby monitor running 24/7, as well as a baby camera most of the time on the crib. I don’t know what they use (radio waves?), and they only have about 100 yard range, but it still makes me wonder if some of those waves are escaping into space. I know that supposedly TV can be picked up now 75 light years away, so assuming aliens have the technology, would they also be able to pickup my baby monitor? Or could humans in the future possibly pickup these signals? [/QUOTE] Is this seriously an example of the questions asked around here? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aliens-picking-up-my-baby-monitor/379727/22 "2006-11-10T17:30:36Z")
[QUOTE=The\_Good\_Friday\_Spell] Is this seriously an example of the questions asked around here? [/QUOTE] It’s a valid question. What is your problem with it? ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aliens-picking-up-my-baby-monitor/379727/23 "2006-11-10T18:49:16Z")
I’m pretty sure pure crap was around before Thomas Edison was born. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aliens-picking-up-my-baby-monitor/379727/24 "2006-11-10T19:19:29Z")
[QUOTE=gazpacho] [http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20061109/sc\_space/listeningforetstelevision](http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20061109/sc_space/listeningforetstelevision) [/QUOTE] Interesting, but I think it ignores the fact that there are multiple stations on earth broadcasting at the same frequency, interfering with each other. Unless one is much stronger than all others combined (at the same frequency), it would be very difficult to separate the signals. I think you’d need a solar-system sized telescope array which has the _spatial_ resolution to pick one station. With baby monitors it’s even worse. There are probably thousands of devices on earth transmitting at the exact same frequency, with similar power. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2006, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aliens-picking-up-my-baby-monitor/379727/25 "2006-11-11T02:36:54Z")
Previously linked: [http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20061109/sc\_space/listeningforetstelevision](http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20061109/sc_space/listeningforetstelevision) If _I Love Lucy_ is unlikely to be viewable beyond 1 ly from here, it would seem that the entire concept of SETI is flawed: > [@](#): > > In our SETI experiments at Arecibo, we could find a signal if it were about 0.1 million million million millionths of a watt per square meter. That number, you will notice if you count up the words, is a million times bigger than the “I Love Lucy” carrier at 55 light-years. The aliens’ LOFAR would be inadequate to detect the broadcast by a factor of a million, a not entirely negligible amount. Simply stated: LOFAR couldn’t hear it. > > So here’s the bottom line: LOFAR would only be able to find TV signals comparable to ours from a distance of much less than one light-year! If they can’t hear us, how can we hear them unless they are deliberately beaming a super-powerful signal narrowly focused on just us? ---
**Author:** ![Dancing\_Fool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Dancing\_Fool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancing_Fool)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aliens-picking-up-my-baby-monitor/379727/26 "2006-11-13T04:45:44Z")
[QUOTE=Musicat] If _I Love Lucy_ is unlikely to be viewable beyond 1 ly from here, it would seem that the entire concept of SETI is flawed:If they can’t hear us, how can we hear them unless they are deliberately beaming a super-powerful signal narrowly focused on just us? [/QUOTE] But that’s pretty much what SETI is actually looking for. The popular misconception may be that they are looking for day to day radio or TV, but they are really looking for specially made very powerful beacons from aliens saying hello. Though more like a lighthouse than a directed beam at us in particular, which is why they look for repeated signals. This is why they look for signals in particular wavelengths - they have picked the ones that they think somebody trying to get a signal as far as possible against the background noise would use. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aliens-picking-up-my-baby-monitor/379727/27 "2006-11-13T13:46:32Z")
[QUOTE=Bob55] Similarly, I’ve always wondered if I could be detected here on earth by aliens with a super-powered telescope light years away. [/QUOTE] Not you personally, but a powerful telescope (we have the capability to build one) could detect oxygen in our atmosphere, and where there is free oxygen on a small rocky planet, there is almost certainly life. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aliens-picking-up-my-baby-monitor/379727/28 "2006-11-13T15:06:58Z")
[QUOTE=Struan] Not you personally, but a powerful telescope (we have the capability to build one) [/QUOTE] And such a telescope is indeed in the works – [ESA’s Darwin](http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=28) for starters. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-aliens-picking-up-my-baby-monitor/379727.md?page=1)