Break out the Tin Foil! Could space signal be alien contact?

[Endangered Specie]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=857&e=4&u=/nm/oukoe_space_signals

{

LONDON (Reuters) - An unexplained radio signal from deep space could -- just might be -- contact from an alien civilisation, New Scientist magazine has reported. The signal, coming from a point between the Pisces and Aries constellations, has been picked up three times by a telescope in Puerto Rico.

New Scientist said on Thursday the signal could be generated by a previously unknown astronomical phenomenon or even be a by-product from the telescope itself.

snip

It was broadcast on the main frequency at which the universe's most common element, hydrogen, absorbs and emits energy, and which astronomers say is the most likely means by which aliens would advertise their presence.

The potentially extraterrestrial signals were picked up through the SETI@home project, which uses programmes running as screensavers on millions of personal computers worldwide to sift through the huge amount of data picked up by the telescope.

}


I really hope they wait till AFTER Jan 20th for them to ask us to take them to our "leader".

edit: And if so, you heard it here first. ;) :crazy:

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. They are beaming their absentee ballots for Kerry - alarmed about *!

[tigereye]

14. LOL

good one!

[mrboba1]

2. YES! YES!!

When they say 'take us to your leader' answer:
'no, no, just TAKE our leader!'

:D

[Hobarticus]

3. They've had enough of the RNC being beamed out into space...

It's a warning...

"Turn that sh*t off, or we invade".

[Endangered Specie]

5. The first signal sent into space was a Adolf Hitler speech...

1936 Olympics I believe... Not much has changed.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

4. sure it wasn't from the bullshit in NY last night? Talk about aliens!

[johnnie]

6. Probably

..just God speaking to shrub again.

[Me.]

7. "Taken"

Didn't that miniseries have Puerto Rico as a contact point?

[Az_lefty]

8. Arecibo finally heard something????

:toast:

[pmbryant]

9. Irresponsible headline

There isn't much information in that article, but they do say this:

New Scientist said on Thursday the signal could be generated by a previously unknown astronomical phenomenon or even be a by-product from the telescope itself.

In fact, those are far and away the two most likely possibilities (though not necessarily in the order mentioned).

:eyes:

Peter

[pmbryant]

10. Here's the original article. We shouldn't get too excited about ETs.

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996341

There's actually a lot of good information in this article, unlike the very short one originally posted. So if you're interested in astronomical stuff, I'd recommend reading it.

But I think the possibility of this signal being anything intelligently-generated is virtually nil. Of course, it still could be a very interesting natural phenomenon. Or it could be some kind of unaccounted for human-made interference.

EDIT: I see this more complete article also brings up the third possibility that it could be fraud perpetrated by hackers messing with the SETI@Home data.


--Peter

[truthspeaker]

11. And on the very off chance it IS ET life, it's still 1000 light years away

Meaning we wouldn't be having conversations with our neighbors. If we sent a signal today they would get it 1000 years from now, and we would get their reply in the year 4004.

[pmbryant]

12. Actually, the source hasn't been identified, so we don't know the distance

If it's interference, it could be coming from 1000 feet away. :-)

Peter

[pmbryant]

13. BBC: Astronomers deny ET signal report

Found this article in a thread in the E/E forum on this same topic and figured it should be here as well...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3621608.stm

Speaking to BBC News Online from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, where he is preparing an observing run to follow up Seti@home analysis, Dr Wertheimer said: "It's all hype. We don't have anything we are excited about.

"At the moment, we have no candidates that we are particularly excited about and the new 'signal' is not a priority."

He continued: "With Seti@home having analysed some 50 trillion frequency bands, it is not surprising that a signal like this occurs purely due to chance."

Dr Horowitz, who looks for alien signals using optical telescopes, told BBC News Online that it was "not new and definitely not a signal".

[Guy Fawkes]

15. kick