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

[publiusr]

http://lesswrong.com/lw/kv/beware_of_stephen_j_gould/

Ouch. I rather liked his "Great Scablands Debate" article in Natural History (THE PANDA'S THUMB)

Sorry, we went off a little bit on a tangent here.

That's all right. As far as giving us tech--we already have the bomb--it wouldn't hurt them to give us fusion power--assuming there is a "them."

This looks to be a false alarm Maybe a Molniya sat--but to continue the discussion anyway...

Minor nit: They'd be sending a signal based on 1826 (95ly both ways).

Now we were messing about with telegraphs early on. Now, if a Bracewell probe were in the Solar system--might it pick up early telegraphs?. You have tornadoes, the Carrington event--sabotage. All these can break lines and have the fragments become de facto antenna perhaps.

I've heard it said that the 160 meter band is the "Mt. Everest of radios"

If this were a probe, it might pick up on weak artificial sgnals--wait a century or so, then beam a blurb that doesn't have to be as powerful as one sent 92 light years out. The home base of the probe may not even be in the direction the signal was sent.

If it orbits high above the plane of the ecliptic--might it be mistaken for a Soviet Molniya sat?

Heck, it might even be close enough to tap into our comms--if it is that..

 

[locutus101]

Assuming this truly is a message sent by an alien civilization I can see two possibilities:

1) They don't know that we exists or they do but don't consider us worth bothering about: In that case we're reading someone else's mail and that's a federal offense.

2) They know we're here and they're sending us something specifically adapted to our needs. Like maybe the plans for a replicator or a sonic shower or something. And that means we're dumber than they think because we haven't been able to decipher it, yet.

Either way, that's not good!

 

[think]

So the universe is talking to me ,,, if i could just figure out what it is saying...

And this song series I have made goes about /// or talks about.. mmmmm no just sounds like the touching of my mind by an alien force...you know thought to think..

http://ice9.soonlabel.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/As-the-voices-chatter-4.mp3

 

[Warp Core Breach]

Assuming this truly is a message sent by an alien civilization I can see two possibilities:

Protip, it isn't.

 

[locutus101]

Protip, it isn't.

We're discussing possibilities.

 

[Amaris]

It is highly unlikely that the signal was caused by some advanced alien civilization. The power requirements would be monstrous, number one (as in "power of the Sun" monstrous), and secondly, they would have to have some kind of interest in us to generate that kind of signal from 94 light years away. The earliest radio signal we sent out was in 1910. That was 96 years ago. They would have received the signal two years ago, and even if they responded right away, we wouldn't see any kind of result until 2110.

You could then say that perhaps they had a receiver light years out from their home system, but then you would be getting into the realm of science fiction. There's nothing wrong with wanting to communicate with an alien civilization, I hope we do, and I hope I'm around to see it happen, but it's still far too soon to even contemplate the possibilities as anything remotely serious. Of course, that is something we do a lot around here, so it doesn't really matter either way, I guess.

 

[Warp Core Breach]

We're discussing possibilities.

Well, you've managed to rack up 20 pages discussing a lot of things. But in the meantime, the rest of the scientific community decided it was a signal of terrestrial origin, most likely a milsat of some sort which fits the energy and frequency pattern of the signal received. So, where do we go from here?

I think I'm going to go watch that Buffy musical episode again.

 

[Amaris]

Well, you've managed to rack up 20 pages discussing a lot of things. But in the meantime, the rest of the scientific community decided it was a signal of terrestrial origin, most likely a milsat of some sort which fits the energy and frequency pattern of the signal received. So, where do we go from here?

I think I'm going to go watch that Buffy musical episode again.

Have they already begun to determine its origin? I was on the SETI site and they hadn't mentioned anything about that. Of course, it is SETI, and I know they hope to receive funding (something I would like to happen anyway) and this story is getting attention, but if you have a link to where scientists are already pinpointing the source of the signal, that would be great (if you don't mind!).

 

[Warp Core Breach]

Have they already begun to determine its origin? I was on the SETI site and they hadn't mentioned anything about that. Of course, it is SETI, and I know they hope to receive funding (something I would like to happen anyway) and this story is getting attention, but if you have a link to where scientists are already pinpointing the source of the signal, that would be great (if you don't mind!).

Well I don't mean to dismiss this whole thing alien signal thing outright, as there are no "official" statements really about the source, but it's pretty well known that military sats operate in the same wavelength and power profile and would provide the power necessary to cause the signal capture by Ratan-600 when flying overhead. Would also explain the brief capture as it was passing through the radio telescope array's view, and the lack of repetition of signal. This is about as close as we're probably going to get as far as an admission goes: http://tass.com/science/896683 , because classified.

Of course it could be a coverup (heh, let's not open that can of conspiracy worms), but Occam's Razor usually applies. I too would love to see us find a real signal from another world and perhaps one day we will, but all of this just seems to be media hyped nonsense.

 

[Amaris]

Well I don't mean to dismiss this whole thing alien signal thing outright, as there are no "official" statements really about the source, but it's pretty well known that military sats operate in the same wavelength and power profile and would provide the power necessary to cause the signal capture by Ratan-600 when flying overhead. Would also explain the brief capture as it was passing through the radio telescope array's view, and the lack of repetition of signal. This is about as close as we're probably going to get as far as an admission goes: http://tass.com/science/896683 , because classified.

Of course it could be a coverup (heh, let's not open that can of conspiracy worms), but Occam's Razor usually applies. I too would love to see us find a real signal from another world and perhaps one day we will, but all of this just seems to be media hyped nonsense.

Thank you for the link. It seems they're fairly certain it is likely a satellite, because they've had this occur before, with similar results. Yeah, that does seem the likely answer. Like you, I would love for it to be a signal from an alien civilization that has finally chosen to contact us, and while it could be some other odd phenomenon we have yet to discover, the military satellite explanation seems very reasonable.

 

[JWPlatt]

Forums have more amnesia than I even suspected. I linked to an NPR article just one page ago about the suspected terrestrial origin.

The call from aliens appears to have emanated from a Russian water tentacle military satellite.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...ource-reportedly-located-it-wasnt-the-vulcans

OR SO THEY SAY!

 

[locutus101]

Well, you've managed to rack up 20 pages discussing a lot of things. But in the meantime, the rest of the scientific community decided it was a signal of terrestrial origin, most likely a milsat of some sort which fits the energy and frequency pattern of the signal received. So, where do we go from here?

I think I'm going to go watch that Buffy musical episode again.

My question would be then. How can you mistake a signal coming from earth for one originating 95 light years away?

 

[Amaris]

My question would be then. How can you mistake a signal coming from earth for one originating 95 light years away?

Because the earth is not silent. There are thousands of satellites in orbit, every kind of broad spectrum and narrow band radio wave passing through the atmosphere, and even disturbances from local planetary bodies.

 

[locutus101]

Because the earth is not silent. There are thousands of satellites in orbit, every kind of broad spectrum and narrow band radio wave passing through the atmosphere, and even disturbances from local planetary bodies.

Be that as it may, there are ways to pinpoint the origin of a signal, regardless of ambient noise.

 

[Amaris]

Be that as it may, there are ways to pinpoint the origin of a signal, regardless of ambient noise.

I'm sure, but I'm also going to trust the people with degrees on this one as to why they don't have a 100% accuracy record.

 

[Gov Kodos]

I'm sure, but I'm also going to trust the people with degrees on this one as to why they don't have a 100% accuracy record.

A wizard did it.

 

[Amaris]

A wizard did it.

Seems legit.

 

[locutus101]

I'm sure, but I'm also going to trust the people with degrees on this one as to why they don't have a 100% accuracy record.

Or maybe it was a hoax.

 

[Amaris]

Or maybe it was a hoax.

There is no reason whatsoever, beyond baseless paranoia and conspiracy, to give credence to that idea.

TL;DR - No.

 

[locutus101]

There is no reason whatsoever, beyond baseless paranoia and conspiracy, to give credence to that idea.

TL;DR - No.

How would you know?