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A 'Very Peculiar' Signal from a Nearby Star


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It seems that there is a good deal of scientific interest in Prof. Mendez' ' very peculiar signal'. He reports that the Green Bank Observatory and the SETI Institute's Allen Telescope Array will put aside their regular work and  join in today's observations.

The unusual nature of this signal is indicated by several points. Among these: 

1.) It remains unidentified, two months after it was first observed. 

2.) If it is a stellar flare, it matches the appropriate characteristics very poorly. Prof. Mendez selected type II stellar flares, as most closely resembling what he observed. He noted, though, that these are known to occur at much lower radio frequencies than the 4 to 5 GHz range, in which he was observing. 

The signal Prof. Mendez received was very broad-banded in its frequency range. Type II flares are reportedly far narrower, in this respect.  

These flares are known to be relatively rare, occurring about once in a period of tens of hours. Prof. Mendez reported a number of impulses in the course of a 10 minute period.

    

Edited by bison
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Well, he actually said this:

In case you are wondering, the recurrent aliens hypothesis is at the bottom of many other better explanations.

So yeah, he's not technically ruling anything out, but he's not putting much stock in the idea, either.

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As  a scientist, he wouldn't be expected to embrace an explanation involving extraterrestrials, until it became inevitable. It's part of scientific orthodoxy to save 'aliens' as a last resort. This state of affairs is widely admitted by scientists. 

We have no idea how common intelligent life is in the galaxy, nor when we might happen upon it. The probability of either a natural or a intelligence-based outcome in any particular instance, like this one, could be judged by how well the evidence fits each hypothesis. It appears that the evidence in this case fits the natural explanation rather poorly, leaving considerable doubt about it.    

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Hell, I like this kind of stuff!

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4 minutes ago, NotAlien7 said:

In other words the signal was not intelligent in any way ? Then why try to listen for it again.

That's how we learn.  It may not be aliens, but its one more chunk of the universe we understand.  Listening and not detecting the signal may tell us something too.

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12 minutes ago, Tatetopa said:

That's how we learn.  It may not be aliens, but its one more chunk of the universe we understand.  Listening and not detecting the signal may tell us something too.

Your right of course but i cant help thinking that strange signals are becoming a way of getting a little bit of attention which could be the new way of getting more research money but even if that's true i think they deserve it.

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21 minutes ago, NotAlien7 said:

In other words the signal was not intelligent in any way ? Then why try to listen for it again.

Because the human mind is curious and curiosity was and is the impulse generator for human development. Curiosity made it possible that you can sit in front of a screen/keyboard to express ignorance globally.

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25 minutes ago, NotAlien7 said:

In other words the signal was not intelligent in any way ? Then why try to listen for it again.

The signal maybe not intelligent from a human p o v  but if it is intellingent from an E.T p o v it would be the greatest thing to ever happen to those who believe in Aliens. But let us wait until further observations have been made before jumping to a conclusion . It is of suffiecient interest to be studied further by the guys who know about these things.

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One reason the signal might be intelligent is the reported 'quasi-periodic' nature of its repeating bursts.  This is not, as far as I can ascertain, a known property of radio bursts associated with stellar flares.

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Prof. Mendez  reports that new observations of the star Ross 128, made yesterday, July 16th, were successful. He hopes to announce the answer to the question: What is causing these signals? by the end of this week.  This suggests that the mysterious signals were heard again, and well enough to permit prompt analysis.

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It will be interesting to see what this professor comes up with.

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Why is this not in the astronomy section?  Why would anyone assume this had anything to do with UFO's or ET's?  Ridiculous.

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Prof. Mendez writes that he will announce the full explanation of the Ross 128 signal tomorrow, Friday, July 21st. As he seems to have the answer now, the reason for the extra day's delay is unclear. Standing on ceremony like that makes it seem that the explanation is considered of greater importance, than if he had just given it at once. 

One also wonders how full an explanation Prof. Mendez can have. He indicated he would be content at this stage to rule out radio interference from one of our own satellites, and confirm a previously unknown phenomenon at stellar distance. He wouldn't be likely to have a full explanation of that, so soon.

 Perhaps the situation is reversed, and a case of Earthly interference was demonstrated, as unlikely as that seems for various technical reasons. In any case, we'll know more about the matter by sometime tomorrow. 

Edited by bison
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I am curious, why is interference from Earth unlikely?

Cheers,
Badeskov

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15 hours ago, badeskov said:

I am curious, why is interference from Earth unlikely?

 

I'd say interference from Earth is highly likely.

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Interference from Earth's surface was ruled out by de-aiming the antenna and losing the signal. Mundane interference would likely persist.   Satellites in orbits not too distant from Earth were also promptly ruled out. These move rapidly enough that their motion relative to the fixed stars could quickly be discerned.

The motion of distant satellites being much slower, they could more easily be mistaken for a source at stellar distance. A longer period of observation than the initial one, in May, was desirable, in order to check this possibility.

It was noted that the signal's bandwidth was much greater than that used by satellites, and that the signal type did not resemble those from satellites. Such interference is frequently encountered by radio astronomers. They should, one supposes, recognize such signals when they see them.  

This morning, Prof. Mendez announced that one or more geostationary satellites are the most likely cause of the signal, and that the details of the signals are being examined, presumably to confirm this hypothesis. This does not sound like the full explanation, or a conclusion, both of which were promised for today's announcement. 

It also appears that the frequency dependent, dispersion-like features of the Ross 128 signal are not well explained by geostationary satellites.   

Edited by bison
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24 minutes ago, bison said:

Interference from Earth's surface was ruled out by de-aiming the antenna and losing the signal. Mundane interference would likely persist.   Satellites in orbits not too distant from Earth were also promptly ruled out. These move rapidly enough that their motion relative to the fixed stars could quickly be discerned.

The motion of distant satellites being much slower, they could more easily be mistaken for a source at stellar distance. A longer period of observation than the initial one, in May, was desirable, in order to check this possibility.

It was noted that the signal's bandwidth was much greater than that used by satellites, and that the signal type did not resemble those from satellites. Such interference is frequently encountered by radio astronomers. They should, one supposes, recognize such signals when they see them.  

This morning, Prof. Mendez announced that one or more geostationary satellites are the most likely cause of the signal, and that the details of the signals are being examined, presumably to confirm this hypothesis. This does not sound like the full explanation, or a conclusion, both of which were promised for today's announcement.       

So geostationary satellites after all? 

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Geostationary satellites are merely a hypothesis awaiting confirmation, not the sort of full explanation or conclusion promised for today's announcement. The details of the signals are still being examined to test this hypothesis. 

It is not explained how the signals of geostationary satellites could, by chance, reproduce the appearance of frequency dependent dispersion, which was noted in the Ross 128 signal. Multiple reflections of satellite signals have been suggested, but how do random reflections match frequency and length of signal path to one another, in the same gradual and consistent way as does true dispersion?  

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Despite the widely claimed, supposed explanation of the Ross 128 signal, the SETI Institute still seems quite interested in it. Their Allen Telescope Array is currently scrutinizing that star (at 22:30 GMT) and have been since at least 20:03, when I learned of it by accident.

The star, also known as GJ 447, FI Virginis, and HIP 57548, is being monitored on a variety of frequencies between 4 and 5 GigaHertz, the same range where it was heard by Arecibo. Their work can be viewed at:

http://www.setiquest.info  

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