Is strange space signal a sign that ET's mother has called back?

The Scotsman ^ | 9-1-04 | James Reynolds

[fire_eye]

My wife assures me, after watching 493,176 B-grade horror movies exploring the subject, that if aliens come here they will promptly invade the body of a U.S. Senator and then run for President.

[mhx]

Oh, that's going to make me sleep a LOT better tonight.

[fire_eye]

Well, if it makes you feel any better, actually at the time she suggested it she was suspicious of Algore. Her theory was that the alien who had taken over Algore was having a hard time emulating the behavior of a human, which accounted for Algore's complete stiffness and woodenness, constant invention and reinvention of himself and his past (since the alien didn't really have a past here on earth, he was having a hard time being consistent in emulating an Earth past).

Pleasant dreams...

[RadioAstronomer]

I am aware, however, I am skeptical on this one.

[RadioAstronomer]

Thanks for the pings! :-)

[Calvin Locke]

Shostack was on C2CAM last night. The New Scientist "journalist" must have been new, because Shostack was unaware
it, and after a couple of calls, decided he better look in to it.

Apparently, she ["journalist"] was unaware of the the SETI terminology of candidates, promising candidates, etc., and how exactly they
are classified.

Shostack said whathisname of Seti@home was down at Aricebo, but the trip had nothing to do with what was reported.

So, an inccorrect report.

That is, unless you think *they* are covering up... :-)

[RadioAstronomer]

That is, unless you think *they* are covering up...

LOL! Tin foil suit time. I just don't "see" this one. There have been a few "hits" but unfortunately none reproducible.

IMHO, At least two separate systems and multiple hits before you would even entertain the idea of a "real" signal. Even then you would have to rule out any natural phenomena that has yet to be discovered.

[js1138]

Even if Jodi Foster batted her eyes at you?

[evets]

Four more years!

[RadioAstronomer]

Even if Jodi Foster batted her eyes at you?

LOL! I still hated the ending of that movie though. Any radio astronomer could punch holes thru the notion that a "Hadden" satellite could have made that signal.

[El Gato]

Pulsar. Better scientists than these have been fooled by them before.

Pulsars are rock steady, actualy they do slow down, but very slowly. This signal is said to vary between 8 and 37 Hertz (Not Hertz per second as the story says, Hertz is cycles per second)

I'm on the side of previously unknow natural process, as the actual researchers indicate is highly possible.

[El Gato]

This signal is said to vary between 8 and 37 Hertz (Not Hertz per second as the story says, Hertz is cycles per second)

I'm wrong 8 to 37 Hz per second is the rate of change of the frequency, not how much it has shifted, or what range it varies over.

[SunkenCiv]

only one earlier than this one (that I've found), and one follows it:

Mysterious signals from 1000 light years away
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1205081/posts

SETI has not found ET: official
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1205758/posts

[longfellow]

They broke the signal and it says " Hello Earth now that we know there is life on your planet ,we will be there shortly to destroy it."

[coconutt2000]

LOL!

Send back... "BRING IT ON!"

Because Bush will be waiting for them in the White House.

[AFreeBird]

Well according to SETI...

	Reports of SETI@home Extraterrestrial Signal Highly Exaggerated by Amir Alexander September 2, 2004: A rash of reports in recent days that SETI@home has discovered a likely signal from an alien civilization are highly exaggerated, says SETI@home Chief Scientist Dan Werthimer of U.C. Berkeley. The storm was initiated by an article in New Scientist magazine, which reported about SETI@home’s most promising candidate signal to date, and speculated about its possible origins. Like all of SETI@home’s 5 billion potential signals, this candidate, labeled SHGb02+14a, was assigned a numerical score representing the statistical likelihood that it is indeed an intelligent extraterrestrial signal. Its relatively high score placed it among the 200 “top candidates” selected for the targeted reobservation sessions that took place in March of 2003 at the Arecibo Radio Observaotry. Of all the candidates targeted in the sessions, however, SHGb02+14a was one of the very few to be confirmed during the reobservations, and the only one whose score following the sessions actually went up. A sky map of the reobservations that took place at Arecibo in March of 2003. The blue areas represent the plane of the Milky Way, the gray strip the band of sky seen from Arecibo. The squares mark the locations of the signal candidates revisited during the reobservation sessions. Image: University of California/SETI@home While this makes SHGb02+14a interesting, the chances that it actually represents an intelligent signal from beyond remain extremely slim. Random chance alone would make it probable that at least one of the billions of candidates detected by SETI@home would be observed on three separate occasions, as was the case for this candidate. Furthermore, as we reported in the SETI@home Update of May 17, 2004, the fact that this candidate’s frequency drifts rapidly makes it extremely improbable that it is a transmission from extraterrestrials. Because of the drift, explained Werthimer, “if we had looked at the sky even a few seconds later we wouldn’t have found a match” for this candidate. A signal that drifts so quickly that it can only be heard for seconds at a time at a given frequency can only be detected by blind luck. Needless to say, such a transmission is an unlikely vehicle for message from an advanced civilization. In addition, SETI@home Project Director David Anderson of U.C. Berkeley pointed out that SHGb02+14a is a candidate of a type known as a "barycentrically corrected gaussian." A true transmission of this type, he explained, would remain in a more or less fixed narrow-band frequency, and not drift rapidly as this signal does. At Arecibo the giant radio telescope still scans the sky, looking for an alien transmission. Around the world, millions are still crunching SETI@home data on their personal computers. The Search for extraterrestrial intelligence continues at full speed, but as of now there is no breakthrough. Of course, this could change at any time… We promise to keep you posted. To be a part of space exploration, Join The Planetary Society Today! for planetary news updates Read about the process of scoring candidates and SETI@homes most promising signals Learn more about the Reobservations at Arecibo in March of 2003 Click here to tell us what you think! For earlier headlines, read the Planetary Society News Archives. Site Map
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