Space signal studied for alien contact.....

by Elsewhere 16 Replies latest jw friends

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  Elsewhere

  Has ET phoned home???

  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.
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  Country Girl

  Just heard a radio broadcast about this this morning. Pretty fascinating stuff!

  http://www.seti.org/

  Country Girl
• 

  Nosferatu

  Dammit, when will scientists ever learn? This clearly is Jehovah communicating!

  It says it in the bible:

  3 Meninblack 2:19
  "All praise, he's found the awful truth, Balthazar, He's found the saucer news"

  BTW, that quote is from a Blue Oyster Cult song called "ETI: Extraterrestrial Intelligence"
• 

  seattleniceguy

  Awesome!!! Can you imagine if it were real?

  SNG
• 

  Elsewhere

  Looks like a false alarm.

  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3621608.stm 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.

  At the moment, we have no candidates that we are particularly excited about Dr Dan Wertheimer

  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".
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  dh

  Awesome!!! Can you imagine if it were real?

  that would be totally awesome, i wonder if it is true, will it change anything or will it just ge hushed up.
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  Country Girl

  <sob>

  I thought my parents were finally coming for me!

  Country Girl
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  frankiespeakin

  While that signal may not be from aliens,, I think anybody who beleives in evolution has to conclude that we are not alone in this galaxy,,that the same thing that happened on our earth will repeat itself over and over again on other planets like our earth of which there must be millions. There is a certain inherent order to matter that causes it to evolve from quarks to atoms to molecules to organic compounds to more complex organic compounds,, what happened here on earth can not be that unique.
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  ohiocowboy

  Hmmm. I wonder why all of a sudden they are changing their tune, and saying it is nothing, all within the matter of a few hours. I wonder if the Gov't. is making them say that so as to not create a possible panic, as the implications of actually hearing from ET's would be staggering.
• 

  Big Tex

  Space signal studied for alien contact.....

  Cool!

  Looks like a false alarm

  Bummer