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SETI Is Investigating a Possible Extraterrestrial Signal From Deep Space

posted by janrinok on Tuesday August 30 2016, @08:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the perhaps-they-ARE-out-there dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

http://observer.com/2016/08/not-a-drill-seti-is-investigating-a-possible-extraterrestrial-signal-from-deep-space/

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."

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  • (Score: 2) by jelizondo on Wednesday August 31 2016, @12:57AM

    by jelizondo (653) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 31 2016, @12:57AM (#395529) Journal

    The Breakthrough Listen team has posted their archival search [berkeley.edu] at SETI for emission from HD 164595 and the initial analysis of their recent observations.

    [...]suggests that the RATAN transient is likely due to instrumental interference or to some other artifact of human technology. While absence of evidence for extraterrestrial intelligence is by no means evidence of absence, our GBT observations did not detect ongoing emission from the direction of HD164595 between 9.1 and 11.6 GHz to a sensitivity of ~ 10 mJy (10σ).[...]

    So there you go...

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2016, @06:11AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2016, @06:11AM (#395598)

    Reflection of a radar-gun or supermarket door opener sensor?