anomalous signal of non-terrestrial origin!

[bluemonq]

people, this might just be the real thing! there have been odd signals from space before but (discounting those that led to the discovery of pulsars and others that were ruled out as some human, terrestrial, or natural phenomena) they never repeated. what makes this important is the frequency (see bolded text below).


http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/09/02/space.signals.reut/index.html
Space signal studied for alien contact

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- An unexplained radio signal from deep space could -- just might be -- contact from an alien civilization, New Scientist magazine reported on Thursday.

The signal, coming from a point between the Pisces and Aries constellations, has been picked up three times by a telescope in Puerto Rico.

There are other explanations besides extraterrestrial contact that may explain the signal. New Scientist said the signal could be generated by a previously unknown astronomical phenomenon or even be a by-product from the telescope itself.

But the mystery beam has excited astronomers across the world.

"If they can see it four, five or six times it really begins to get exciting," Jocelyn Bell Burnell of the University of Bath in western England told the magazine.

It was broadcast on the main frequency at which the universe's most common element, hydrogen, absorbs and emits energy, and which astronomers say is the most likely means by which aliens would advertise their presence.

The potentially extraterrestrial signals were picked up through the SETI+home project, which uses programs running as screensavers on millions of personal computers worldwide to sift through the huge amount of data picked up by the telescope.

[Faithless]

Any telling how old this signal is?

Or does it work like that?

Just as the light we see from stars is actually light emitted years ago, or something like that, could these signals be lost in space?

May have found my answer:

http://www.itv.com/news/world_697270.html
The signal, which astronomers have labelled SHGbo2+14a, is 31 million years old, and after two years of analysis, they think the radio waves could be a message from intelligent beings.

[Emperor_Mike]

Possible first contact! Wow. Let's hope they're friendly.

[SunWuKong]

that SETI@home program? isn't it possible that somebody faked the data?

[bluemonq]

damn, so much for that...

Astronomers deny ET signal report
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor

Astronomers have moved swiftly to quell speculation they may have received a deep-space radio signal from ET.
It was reported on the internet that the signal had been found using the Seti@home screensaver that uses computer downtime to analyse sky data from telescopes.

But researchers connected with the project told BBC News Online on Thursday that no contact with extraterrestrials had been made.

"It's all hype and noise," said its chief scientist, Dr Dan Wertheimer. "We have nothing that is unusual. It's all out of proportion."

And Dr Paul Horowitz, of Harvard University, who specialises in hunting for possible alien contacts added: "It's not much of anything at all. We're not investigating it further."

Not a signal

For six years, the Seti@home project has used a downloadable screensaver on millions of computers around the world to sift through data for anything unusual.

The data has been collected by radio telescopes scanning the sky for any unusual signals from space. It is believed that any extraterrestrial intelligence might want to send radio messages across the cosmos to make contact with other intelligences.

Over the years, Seti@home has detected many hundreds of thousands of spurious signals and has used statistical techniques to identify them as interference.

About 150 signals survived the process and were subjected to further scrutiny but none passed the final test to be classed as a potential signal from ET.

Large numbers


The "signal" that kicked off furious media excitement on Thursday is called SHGb02+14a and was first detected by computers running Seti@home software in Germany and the US.

It has a frequency of 1420 megahertz - one of the principal frequencies of the most abundant element hydrogen.

Speaking to BBC News Online from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, where he is preparing an observing run to follow up Seti@home analysis, Dr Wertheimer said: "It's all hype. We don't have anything we are excited about.

"At the moment, we have no candidates that we are particularly excited about and the new 'signal' is not a priority."

He continued: "With Seti@home having analysed some 50 trillion frequency bands, it is not surprising that a signal like this occurs purely due to chance."

Dr Horowitz, who looks for alien signals using optical telescopes, told BBC News Online that it was "not new and definitely not a signal".

::sigh:: well, it was a good story while it lasted.

[conspiracy theory] or maybe... this is a cover-up? hmm? maybe the government helped fund seti because they wanted to be able to use the computing power of millions of computers around the world to indeed find aliens? and then they used their influence to convince seti to quash the story, while in secret the us military prepares for first contact? [/consipracy theory]

[Faithless]

It could have been worse.

They could have decoded the signal, and realized it was old convention video of Bush (ALA Jodie Foster and Contact).

Anyway, I'm surprised you didn't report the recent story of another earthlike planet find -- this last one about 18 times Earth.

Race is on to find a new Earth (http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,10643577%255E912,00.html)
By JOSEPH VERRENGIA in Washington
02sep04
US astronomers say they have discovered the two smallest planets yet which are orbiting nearby stars, trumping a small-planet discovery by European scientists five days ago and capping the latest round in a frenzied hunt for other worlds like Earth.

All three of these smaller planets belong to a new class of "exoplanets" – those that orbit stars other than our sun, the scientists said yesterday.

They define this new class by the planets' smaller mass – roughly 14 to 18 times the size of Earth and equivalent to Neptune in our solar system. Evidence of the two planets, announced yesterday, was found by two separate teams of US researchers using telescopes in Hawaii and Texas.

Scientists not involved in the projects lauded both, saying the planets should be recognised as the first discoveries of planets in this class – rather than the Europeans' who announced their planet last week.

The duelling announcements reflect the intensity of the race to discover exoplanets. The big prize, of course, would be to find an Earth-sized planet capable of supporting life, but today's instruments cannot detect bodies that small.

"We can't quite see the Earth-like planets yet, but we are seeing their big brothers," said planet hunter Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California-Berkeley, a leader of one of the teams.

Over the past decade, astronomers have found as many as 135 planets orbiting various stars, but all of them are giant gas planets similar to Jupiter and Saturn.

[Banana]

Dude, nuts to peace loving aliens. Let's hope they're Predators.

I'm going to regret my words in about 10 years, aren't I?

[bluemonq]

well... planets or extraterrestrial lifeforms... which would you choose? didn't want to double-thread. that, and i expect a flood of closer-to-earth-sized planets to be found once nasa's terrestrial planet finder (?) to come on long in a few years. planets outside of our solar system isn't new (i know, it's closer to earth-sized, but still...)

[BigLew]

I hope they wanna blow us up.

[Faithless]

well... planets or extraterrestrial lifeforms... which would you choose? didn't want to double-thread. that, and i expect a flood of closer-to-earth-sized planets to be found once nasa's terrestrial planet finder (?) to come on long in a few years. planets outside of our solar system isn't new (i know, it's closer to earth-sized, but still...)
I'll take either.

I love this sort of news.

It would be nice if they could pinpoint a planet with roses growing on them.