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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."
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Tuesday August 30 2016, @08:57PM
It's doubtful the Earth has ever generated any transmission with enough power for a detectable signal-to-noise ratio at that distance, and it's certain that, if we have, it's only been in the past half century.
Seems to me if we wanted to toss a signal at other nearby systems in hopes of making contact, the ones we eventually spot with conditions favorable to life (or better yet where we detected signs of liquid water/possible biology) would be prime candidates rather than broadcasting indiscriminately.
Earth, if detected, might draw some of that action, so it is at least feasible.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 30 2016, @10:01PM
It's feasible but we would have already noticed at least two or three such signals in the night sky.
It just seems like such an utterly improbable coincidence that an alien civilization would decide one day (only) 95 years ago to start sending a signal our way. If there are such directed transmissions, I imagine that the civilization sending them out would understand that it would need to be active for hundreds of millions of years just to hope a technological civilization pops up at the receiving end.
I might be off about the time scale I pulled out of thin air there, but the thing to think about is that if this really were something like that, the HD 164595 b-ians who flipped that switch 95 years ago would still have 95 more years to wait for a reply just to see if right now (relativistically speaking) there are any Sol c-ians who are technologically capable of receiving and replying.
What's the probability that such a 190-year long project would last on this planet uninterrupted by war, politics, etc? Maybe we could transmit for 10 or 20 years, but I highly doubt there would be anybody who would even know to look for the reply in 190 years.
A civilization capable of pulling off something like that in a meaningful way would at the very least be far, far more sociologically evolved than us. Maybe the universe is just too young for too many of those kinds of civilizations to pop up close enough for us to detect. Humanity at least has a very long way to go.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2016, @11:15AM
Probably just about as improbable as a third-rate human social network sending a high-powered signal specifically towards Gliese 581 on exactly 9 October 2008 [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2016, @04:15PM
Even then, they're betting that the Gliese 581 c-ians have a technological civilization right now and they're hoping that they've got their ears pointed in this direction. If they're behind our progress even by a hundred years, they'll miss it no matter how much of an intriguing and high-minded culture they have. If they just happen to not have anything pointed at us while that signal was transmitted, it was a waste of time. It's already improbable that somebody over there will get the message.
Let's assume they do receive it and have more than 6EQUJ5 [wikipedia.org] to show for it. (For all we know, the Wow! signal was something similar, but good luck figuring that out from the only record we have, a few intensity measurements.) Even then, who's going to be listening here in 2029? What if it takes a decade or two our time for them to decide to respond? Even if anybody is listening in 2029, how long before they lose interest and give up?
There's really no point transmitting anything unless it can be done continuously at least on a scale of decades. The other civilization needs time to become aware of the signal so they may focus their best resources on receiving it in full detail.