Not a Drill: SETI Is Investigating a Possible Extraterrestrial Signal From Deep Space

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

If the signal is truly from an alien world, it’s one far more advanced than ours

An international team of scientists from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is investigating mysterious signal spikes emitting from a 6.3-billion-year-old star in the constellation Hercules—95 light years away from Earth. The implications are extraordinary and point to the possibility of a civilization far more advanced than our own.

The unusual signal was originally detected on May 15, 2015, by the Russian Academy of Science-operated RATAN-600 radio telescope in Zelenchukskaya, Russia, but was kept secret from the international community. Interstellar space reporter Paul Gilster broke the story after the researchers quietly circulated a paper announcing the detection of “a strong signal in the direction of HD164595.”

The mysterious star’s designation is HD164595, and it’s considered to be sun-like in nature with a nearly identical metallic composition to our own star. So far, a single Neptune-like (but warmer) planet has been discovered in its orbit—HD 164595 b. But as Gilster explained, “There could, of course, be other planets still undetected in this system.”

Decorated Italian SETI researcher and mathematician Claudio Maccone along with Russia’s Nikolai Bursov of the Special Astrophysical Observatory are the principal scientists working on the apparent discovery. They claim that “permanent monitoring of this target is needed.”


The RATAN-600 Radio Telescope in Russia. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

“The signal conceivably fits the profile for an intentional transmission from an extraterrestrial source,” said Alan Boyle, author of “The Case for Pluto” who reported the story for Geekwire. “In any case, the blip is interesting enough to merit discussion by those who specialize in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.”

The signal’s strength indicates that if it in fact came from a isotropic beacon, the power source would have to be built by a Kardashev Type II civilization. (The Kardashev scale is used to determine the progress of a civilization’s technological development by measuring how much energy was used to transmit an interstellar message.) An ‘Isotropic’ beacon means a communication source emitting a signal with equal power in all directions while promoting signal strength throughout travel.

In his acclaimed work “Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations,” Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev explained that a Type II civilization would be able to harness the energy of their entire host star. The most common hypothetical example of this would be a Dyson Sphere—which is a massive artificial structure that could completely encapsulate a star and transfer the energy to a nearby planet.


A cut-away diagram of an idealized Dyson shell, a variant on Dyson’s original concept. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Basically, if the signal was beamed out into the galaxy without aim or direction, that would require an enormous amount of power to actually be detected. But what if the signal was beamed specifically at our solar system? Well, that would require less energy and could indicate the presence of a Kardashev Type I civilization—meaning that it could be a highly technological, contemporary society that harnesses the solar energy emitted by its local star, much like our planet does with solar panels. This particular civilization’s social structure is theorized to be completely globalized and interconnected.

“The signal is provocative enough that the RATAN-600 researchers are calling for permanent monitoring of this target,” said Gilster. And that’s exactly what is transpiring. As of last night, the SETI institute is diverting its Allen Telescope Array in northern California to investigate while their counterparts at METI International (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) will use Panama’s Boquete Optical Observatory.

The detection of the mysterious signal and the ensuing investigations will be discussed at the IAA SETI Permanent Committee during the 67th International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, on September 27—the same day and location where Elon Musk will reveal his plans to colonize Mars. The Observer will be following up on both these stories from the Congress.

http://observer.com/2016/08/not-a-drill ... eep-space/

[Mr. Tony Stark]

I think they should just stop investigating it and we should ask our allied forces to ready their nuclear weapons, because I think if they coming here, trust and believe, they are coming to kill us!, If you all think they coming from soo far to say "we come in peace" .... Yuh lie

[SR]

Ahh boy........ contact was on cable the other day

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

^ they cannot reach us, too far away. So we safe

[pugboy]

you afraid of them ?

[sMASH]

Unless they are able to warp space/time.
But, at the time the signal left that system, they would not have been able to know that we could send radio signals from here. They would have only gotten them about 20 or 30 years ago, according to go when the first em signals were generated and sent out from here.

Unless, they have missions ongoing, closer to our system, intercepted the signals then warped back to their system.

In that case, I would have sent a report party back and a scout party forward. Hence alien and ufo sightings.
All in all, we have Amy Adams, so we can know what they want when they arrive.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

I think they should just stop investigating it and we should ask our allied forces to ready their nuclear weapons, because I think if they coming here, trust and believe, they are coming to kill us!, If you all think they coming from soo far to say "we come in peace" .... Yuh lie

probably very true. When Columbus found the new world, the Amerindians were wiped out. If a more advanced race reaches earth, we will be the Amerindians.

Perhaps even if they do come in peace, diseases they carry (that could be a simple flu for them) could wipe out our entire human population.

^ they cannot reach us, too far away. So we safe

they might be 95 light years away, but who's to say what hyper/warp drive they would have and how long their average lifespan would be that 95 years may be nothing for them.

If they detected that we picked up their signal in 2015 and set off for earth right away, at warp 9.x they could be here by the year 2110.

If they had a wormhole, they could be here tomorrow, or already.

[Daran]

I think they should just stop investigating it and we should ask our allied forces to ready their nuclear weapons, because I think if they coming here, trust and believe, they are coming to kill us!, If you all think they coming from soo far to say "we come in peace" .... Yuh lie

probably very true. When Columbus found the new world, the Amerindians were wiped out. If a more advanced race reaches earth, we will be the Amerindians.

Perhaps even if they do come in peace, diseases they carry (that could be a simple flu for them) could wipe out our entire human population.

^ they cannot reach us, too far away. So we safe

they might be 95 light years away, but who's to say what hyper/warp drive they would have and how long their average lifespan would be that 95 years may be nothing for them.

If they detected that we picked up their signal in 2015 and set off for earth right away, at warp 9.x they could be here by the year 2110.

If they had a wormhole, they could be here tomorrow, or already.

This is the first news since 9/11 that is making my heart race.

If indeed this an intelligent alien civilization that's 95 light years away, they may not have picked up any radio signals from earth yet. However, I'm guessing they're well away of our human civilization (assuming they have big ass telescopes pointing at us).

[sMASH]

Unread Message 1813506 - Posted: 29 Aug 2016, 17:50:30 UTC
Last modified: 29 Aug 2016, 17:52:24 UTC

I'm sure that many of you have seen the news reports of a "SETI signal" detected from the star HD 164595

I was one of the many people who received the the email with the subject "Candidate SETI SIGNAL DETECTED by Russians from star HD 164595 by virtue of RATAN-600 radio telescope." Since the email did come from known SETI researchers, I looked over the presentation. I was unimpressed. In one out of 39 scans that passed over star showed a signal at about 4.5 times the mean noise power with a profile somewhat like the beam profile. Of course SETI@home has seen millions of potential signals with similar characteristics, but it takes more than that to make a good candidate. Multiple detections are a minimum criterion.

Because the receivers used were making broad band measurements, there's really nothing about this "signal" that would distinguish it from a natural radio transient (stellar flare, active galactic nucleus, microlensing of a background source, etc.) There's also nothing that could distinguish it from a satellite passing through the telescope field of view. All in all, it's relatively uninteresting from a SETI standpoint.

But, of course, it's been announced to the media. Reporters won't have the background to know it's not interesting. Because the media has it, and since this business runs on media, everyone will look at it. ATA is looking at it. I assume Breakthrough will look at it. Someone will look at it with Arecibo, and we'll be along for the ride. And I'll check the SETI@home database around that position. And we'll all find nothing. It's not our first time at this rodeo, so we know how it works.

Unread Message 1813608 - Posted: 29 Aug 2016, 21:34:47 UTC - in response to Message 1813586.

We believe a signal when


It is persistent. It appears at the same spot in the sky in multiple observations.
It only comes from one spot in the sky.
If we reobserve the target, the signal is still there.



Things that add to believability


Its frequency/period/delay does not correspond to known interference.
Its Doppler Drift rate indicates that it is exactly frequency stable in the frame of the center of mass of the solar system
Its properties (bandwidth, chirp rate, encoding) indicate intelligent origin.



Unfortunately the observing method used by the Russian team does not permit many of these things to be determine. 1. The signal was not persistent. 2. The signal was gone when the target was reobserved. 3. The signal frequency/period/delay cannot be determined. 4. The signal Doppler drift rate is unknown. 5. Many sources of interference, including satellites, are present in the observing band.

sry Darran

[meccalli]

The real Claude Lacombe from close encounters of the third kind.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

Unread Message 1813608 - Posted: 29 Aug 2016, 21:34:47 UTC - in response to Message 1813586.

We believe a signal when
It is persistent. It appears at the same spot in the sky in multiple observations.
It only comes from one spot in the sky.
If we reobserve the target, the signal is still there.

sry Darran

well then the real news here is this part

“The signal is provocative enough that the RATAN-600 researchers are calling for permanent monitoring of this target,” said Gilster. And that’s exactly what is transpiring. As of last night, the SETI institute is diverting its Allen Telescope Array in northern California to investigate while their counterparts at METI International (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) will use Panama’s Boquete Optical Observatory.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

So neighbor who does drink rum whole day made a fairly good point, how come all the time they didn't pick up anything like this but all of a sudden they did? This could just be to create hype.

[TheOwnerPO]

^Could be this "made this up" to justify the billions spent and funded behind their research. idk...I would like to believe it's real though, would make things a bit more exciting and interesting.

[sMASH]

the 'wow' signal all over again. i not vex, just that i have my doubts about this one. but, by all means, it should be ruled out if a false positive.

what i would like are giant arrays in space, above our atmosphere. the amount of correction that goes on to compensate for the atmosphere, its really only great for strong signals. the minute signals could very well be compensated out.

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

^Could be this "made this up" to justify the billions spent and funded behind their research. idk...I would like to believe it's real though, would make things a bit more exciting and interesting.

Yup, they need an excuse to continue to spend billions and create employment for the space industry.

You mean to say these planets are millions and billions of light years away, and we only developed technology in communication within the last century and since then we never had a real alien signal but suddenly we have?

The man drinking rum and gramoxone can make a reasonable point after all.

[boxy]

^Could be this "made this up" to justify the billions spent and funded behind their research. idk...I would like to believe it's real though, would make things a bit more exciting and interesting.

Im not for this at all this could breed a spanking new batch of radicals who would make up an excuse to blow stuff up and hot up people head.

[sMASH]

they collect data from the satellites all the time, for a long time now. they have trouble processing the data. some of the data sent to my pc to process was collect in 2005. so, even if they do pick up something, it might be too late, cause the signal stopped, the source got blocked by something transiting, or it moved in orbit and no longer transmitting in our direction.
the best hope is to make sure it is as good as can be, then hope more comes from that region.

they dont like to make false reports just to avoid crying wolf.
if governments need to waste money, this is the best way to waste it.

[Cantmis]

[The Paleontologist]

Interesting...

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

So neighbor who does drink rum whole day made a fairly good point, how come all the time they didn't pick up anything like this but all of a sudden they did? This could just be to create hype.

they found it in 2015 cause they looked there in 2015.

that's like saying "why is only today they find that fossil?", erm cause today they decided to dig there.

[cherrypopper]

Next thing ed neighbor is an alien. .

Rum soaked gramoxone version. .

Hmmm

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

ED and his neighbour is the same person

[K74T]

ED bout dat bipolar life.

[sMASH]

ED and his neighbour is the same person

big man ting, no lie

[sMASH]

[MaxPower]

Rattan's making telescope now?

[Ronaldo95163]

Now I know how they made the alien fleshlight.
Wonder how it would be to beatout a sweet alien ting tho

[meccalli]

Wonder how it would be to beatout a sweet alien ting tho

[abbow]

Rattan's making telescope now?

lol...almost fall of mih chair dey....

[VexXx Dogg]

Did they rule out measurement error? Hope it's not another one of those cases like the "breaking einstein" neutrino anomaly, which was rubbish