Popular Post bison Posted July 15, 2017 Popular Post #1 Share Posted July 15, 2017 (edited) What has been called by its discoverer a 'very peculiar' radio signal, has been reported by Prof. Abel Mendez, who is currently doing work at the Arecibo Observatory. The seeming source of this odd finding is the very nearby star Ross 128, only about 11 light years distant. The signal was received in May, and Mendez will attempt to reacquire it, tomorrow, July 16th. Prof. Mendez supposes that stellar flares are the likeliest cause of the signal, but notes that there are problems with this explanation. He also concedes that extraterrestrial intelligence can not be entirely ruled out at this time. Please find a link, below to further details on this discovery. http://phl.upr.edu/library/notes/ross128 Edited July 15, 2017 by bison corrected link address 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted July 16, 2017 Author #2 Share Posted July 16, 2017 (edited) 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 July 16, 2017 by bison 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlitterRose Posted July 16, 2017 #3 Share Posted July 16, 2017 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. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted July 16, 2017 Author #4 Share Posted July 16, 2017 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toast Posted July 16, 2017 #5 Share Posted July 16, 2017 Hell, I like this kind of stuff! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotAlien7 Posted July 16, 2017 #6 Share Posted July 16, 2017 In other words the signal was not intelligent in any way ? Then why try to listen for it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tatetopa Posted July 16, 2017 #7 Share Posted July 16, 2017 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotAlien7 Posted July 16, 2017 #8 Share Posted July 16, 2017 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. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toast Posted July 16, 2017 #9 Share Posted July 16, 2017 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. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spud the mackem Posted July 16, 2017 #10 Share Posted July 16, 2017 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. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted July 16, 2017 Author #11 Share Posted July 16, 2017 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted July 17, 2017 Author #12 Share Posted July 17, 2017 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. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra. Posted July 18, 2017 #13 Share Posted July 18, 2017 It will be interesting to see what this professor comes up with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OverSword Posted July 18, 2017 #14 Share Posted July 18, 2017 Why is this not in the astronomy section? Why would anyone assume this had anything to do with UFO's or ET's? Ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted July 20, 2017 Author #15 Share Posted July 20, 2017 (edited) 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 July 20, 2017 by bison Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badeskov Posted July 20, 2017 #16 Share Posted July 20, 2017 I am curious, why is interference from Earth unlikely? Cheers, Badeskov Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilly Posted July 21, 2017 #17 Share Posted July 21, 2017 15 hours ago, badeskov said: I am curious, why is interference from Earth unlikely? I'd say interference from Earth is highly likely. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted July 21, 2017 Author #18 Share Posted July 21, 2017 (edited) 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 July 21, 2017 by bison 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parsec Posted July 21, 2017 #19 Share Posted July 21, 2017 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? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted July 21, 2017 Author #20 Share Posted July 21, 2017 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted July 23, 2017 Author #21 Share Posted July 23, 2017 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 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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