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  'Strong signal' detected from HD164595 (SETI)

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Author Topic:   'Strong signal' detected from HD164595 (SETI)
SpaceAholic
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Posts: 4437
From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 08-29-2016 04:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for SpaceAholic   Click Here to Email SpaceAholic     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A "strong signal" detected by a radio telescope in Russia that is scanning the heavens for signs of extraterrestrial life has stirred interest among the scientific community, reports AFP.
"No one is claiming that this is the work of an extraterrestrial civilization, but it is certainly worth further study," said Paul Gilster, author of the Centauri Dreams website which covers peer-reviewed research on deep space exploration.

The signal is from the direction of a HD164595, a star about 95 light-years from Earth.

The star is known to have at least one planet, and may have more.

The observation is being made public now, but was actually detected last year by the RATAN-600 radio telescope in Zelenchukskaya, Russia, he said.

Robert Pearlman
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From: Houston, TX
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posted 08-29-2016 06:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Seth Shostak, the senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, has weighed in with what we know and don't know about the reported signal. In closing, he makes the point:
One particularly noteworthy thing about this discovery is the fact that the signal was apparently observed in May, 2015 (it seems that this was the only time in 39 tries that they saw this signal). The discoverers didn't alert the SETI community to this find until now, which is not as expected. According to both practice and protocol, if a signal seems to be of deliberate and extraterrestrial origin, one of the first things to do is to get others to attempt confirming observations. That was not done in this case.

So what's the bottom line? Could it be another society sending a signal our way? Of course, that's possible. However, there are many other plausible explanations for this claimed transmission – including terrestrial interference. Without a confirmation of this signal, we can only say that it's "interesting."

Robert Pearlman
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From: Houston, TX
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posted 08-31-2016 04:53 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences release
Monitoring of the continuum of SETI candidates with RATAN-600

On August 30, 2016 there appeared a number of reports in different mass media on possible detection of a radio signal at RATAN-600 associated with the activity of an extraterrestrial civilization; in this connection, we consider it necessary to make official comments.

In the last few years, the astronomers of the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics of Lomonosov Moscow State University together with their colleagues from the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SAO RAS) have been conducting a survey of astronomical objects in the framework of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program. SETI is the common name for projects and activities for the scientific search for activity of extraterrestrial civilizations. The program is oriented towards searching for radiation of possible artificial origin.

The studies are carried out with RATAN-600 using wide-range continuum radiometers in the frequency range of 1-22.7 GHz. Such observations at RATAN-600 are made possible owing to its large collecting area of thousands of square meters, and this high sensibility of the telescope allows us to search for extremely weak signals in the Universe, to which SETI objects also refer. The objects of research within this program are solar-like stars with planets and solar-like stars with possible non-detected planets.

In the framework of this program, an interesting radio signal at a wavelength of 2.7 cm was detected in the direction of one of the objects (star system HD164595 in Hercules) in 2015. Subsequent processing and analysis of the signal revealed its most probable terrestrial origin.

As for the other objects of the RATAN-600 survey, it is too early to claim about any reliable scientific results. Using the obtained measurements, we are only able to estimate the upper limit of the detection of the studied areas. It can be said with confidence that no sought-for signal has been detected yet.

Mike Dixon
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From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
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posted 09-01-2016 04:27 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mike Dixon   Click Here to Email Mike Dixon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I'm wondering whether that was a one off signal, and if so, why?

oly
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posted 09-01-2016 04:34 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for oly   Click Here to Email oly     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Alien kids playing the music loudly while their alien parents were out?

Mike Dixon
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posted 09-01-2016 04:45 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mike Dixon   Click Here to Email Mike Dixon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Fascinating thoughts spring to mind, but none of us will ever be around to see the results.

moorouge
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posted 09-01-2016 05:29 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for moorouge   Click Here to Email moorouge     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Perhaps one should revisit Fred Hoyle's book "A for Andromeda" about radio signals from distant stars.

I believe it is still available from Amazon and some bits and pieces from the TV programme can be found on YouTube.

Robert Pearlman
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From: Houston, TX
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posted 09-01-2016 06:11 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Mike Dixon:
I'm wondering whether that was a one off signal...
As noted in the SAO statement, the most likely reason the signal was one-off and strong is that it was from interference on or near Earth (such as interference from a passing satellite).

p51
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posted 09-01-2016 12:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for p51   Click Here to Email p51     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
You have to wonder what we'd do if we got a definite radio message from somewhere like this. This system is almost 100 light years away, so even if we contacted them, nobody who sent a message would be alive if we ever got a reply.

And there would always be people wondering if the beings at the other end might decide to pop in for a visit? We'd have a few generations to debate the idea even if they had the technology to come here and left immediately. Imagine seriously thinking that an alien civilization we know nothing about is probably sending a ship to Earth but it'll be at least a couple of centuries before they get here.

Mike Dixon
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Posts: 1397
From: Kew, Victoria, Australia
Registered: May 2003

posted 09-01-2016 05:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mike Dixon   Click Here to Email Mike Dixon     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
As noted in the SAO statement...
Thanks Rob. Missed that.

moorouge
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From: U.K.
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posted 09-15-2016 10:44 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for moorouge   Click Here to Email moorouge     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by p51:
You have to wonder what we'd do if we got a definite radio message from somewhere like this.
Some of these questions are answered by Fred Hoyle in his book.

Anyway, many moons ago, sending a message to aliens formed part of an exercise in communication with my grade 11 students. One has to use as a basis a universal mathematical constant and binary code. The result for a very simple message is something like this -

0100110000000001010100
0100110101010101010101
1110110000000000000000
0100001100010001110101
0100011000111001010110
1010100101010101010101
1010011100010001110101
I'd be interested to see if anyone out there receives it, can understand it and wants to send a reply. Is there intelligent life out there?

All times are CT (US)

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