[meteorite-list] Space signal Exaggerated says SETI....

From: Charles Viau <cviau_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Sep 3 00:17:15 2004
Message-ID: <20040903041713.2261226542_at_ns4.beld.net>

Posted on SETI home web page

Reports of SETI_at_home Extraterrestrial Signal Highly Exaggerated
by Amir Alexander

September 2, 2004:

A rash of reports in recent days that SETI_at_home has discovered a likely
signal from an alien civilization are highly exaggerated, says SETI_at_home
Chief Scientist Dan Werthimer of U.C. Berkeley.

The storm was initiated by an article in New Scientist magazine, which
reported about SETI_at_home's most promising candidate signal to date, and
speculated about its possible origins. Like all of SETI_at_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_at_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_at_home would be observed on three separate
occasions, as was the case for this candidate. Furthermore, as we reported
in the SETI_at_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_at_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_at_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

CharlyV

-----Original Message-----
From: meteorite-list-bounces_at_meteoritecentral.com
[mailto:meteorite-list-bounces_at_meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Matt
Morgan
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 11:30 AM
To: meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
Subject: [meteorite-list] Space signal studied for alien contact

Kinda interesting
<http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/space/09/02/space.signals.reut/index.html>

<><><><><>
Matt Morgan
Mile High Meteorites
http://www.mhmeteorites.com
P.O. Box 151293
Lakewood, CO 80215 USA


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Received on Fri 03 Sep 2004 12:17:13 AM PDT