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Scientists looking for aliens investigate radio beam 'from nearby star'
The Guardian ^ | Ian Sample

Posted on 12/19/2020 9:31:21 AM PST by BenLurkin

The narrow beam of radio waves was picked up during 30 hours of observations by the Parkes telescope in Australia in April and May last year... Analysis of the beam has been under way for some time and scientists have yet to identify a terrestrial culprit such as ground-based equipment or a passing satellite.

It is usual for astronomers on the $100m (£70m) Breakthrough Listen project to spot strange blasts of radio waves with the Parkes telescope or the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia, but all so far have been attributed to human-made interference or natural sources.

...980MHz, and an apparent shift in its frequency said to be consistent with the movement of a planet have added to the tantalising nature of the finding. Scientists are now preparing a paper on the beam, named BLC1, for Breakthrough Listen, the project to search for evidence of life in space...

The beam that appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf star 4.2 light years from Earth, has not been spotted since the initial observation, according to an individual in the astronomy community who requested anonymity because the work is ongoing. “It is the first serious candidate since the ‘Wow! signal’...”

...

Proxima Centauri... At least two planets are known to orbit the star. One is a gas giant and the other is believed to be a rocky world about 17% more massive than Earth.

In 2017, Nasa scientists used computer models to show that if Proxima b had an Earth-like atmosphere, it could easily be stripped away by the intense radiation and solar flares unleashed by its parent star. Under this battering, the 4bn-year-old planet could have lost its entire atmosphere in 100m years.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy
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To: PIF

I’m sorry for being flippant. Didn’t realize you took this stuff seriously.


21 posted on 12/19/2020 4:20:34 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

No worries - its a big universe; there’s room for both of us ...


22 posted on 12/19/2020 4:27:58 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: null and void
"Rubbish. All life's answers are in Red Dwarf!"

Definitely...The answers are coming...

From an article posted a week ago:
Scientists looking for aliens investigate radio beam 'from nearby star'
------------------------------------------
12/19/2020, 1:13:42 PM · 9 of 22
SuperLuminal to BenLurkin

Red Dwarf Alert!
Lister, Cat, and Rimmer finally calling home...
------------------------------------------

23 posted on 12/20/2020 10:15:22 AM PST by SuperLuminal (Where is Sam Adams now that we desperately need him)
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