"Assuming we knew where to look, would we be able to detect incidental radio transmissions (Radio Television) from an alien planet."
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Question
Is it possible to view another nearby star, see a proper disk (not a fuzzy dot) and the equivalent of sunspots and solar flares?
Stars are generally too small to shown a disk directly, but a number of optical technologies have been used to increase the resolving power of telescopes, beginning a century ago with the first astronomical interferometer set up at Mt Wilson Observatory. The best example is the supergiant star Betelgeuse, which has one of the largest angular diameters as seen from Earth. For good examples of photos that show the disk and even the largest "star spots", see the Betelgeuse article in Wikipedia and the story "Surface imaging of Betelgeuse with COAST and the WHT" (http://www.mrao.cam.ac.uk/telescopes/coast/betel.html). David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
June 19, 2007
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