Here are some quizzes for assessing claims of discovery of
extraterrestrial life and intelligence.
These quizzes use combinations of the quality and the reliability
of the putative discovery.
The quality includes features like how much detail is available (the more the better)
and what is the distance to the observed effect (the closer the better).
The scores may be interpreted as follows:
- 10: Extraordinary
- 9: Outstanding
- 8: Far-reaching
- 7: High
- 6: Noteworthy
- 5: Intermediate
- 4: Moderate
- 3: Minor
- 2: Low
- 1: Insignificant
- 0: None
Links to the quizzes:
Some similar sorts of scales:
- Wikipedia - Beaufort wind force scale
- Wikipedia - Richter magnitude scale
of earthquake energy.
- Wikipedia - Mercalli intensity scale
of earthquake effects.
- Wikipedia - Volcanic explosivity index
- NOAA Space Weather Scales | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center:
Geomagnetic storms, solar-radiation storms, and radio blackouts.
- Wikipedia - Torino scale
of asteroid/comet impact threat,
a combination of probability and impact energy.
- Palermo Technical Impact Hazard Scale,
another impact-threat scale.
It is
log10( (probability) / (background probability) ) .
- IAA SETI Permanent Committee: San Marino Scale for evalulating METI
(active SETI) transmissions.
It is
log10( (signal flux) / (quiet solar flux) ) + (character) ,
where the character value is
- 5: Reply to an extraterrestrial signal or message (if they are not yet aware of us)
- 4: Continuous, broadband transmission of a message to ETI
- 3: Special signal targeting a specific star or stars, at a preselected time, in order to draw the attention of ETI astronomers
- 2: Sustained, untargeted message with the intention to reach ETI
- 1: A beacon without any message content (e.g., planetary radar)
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