Monday, May 18, 2009

Australian SETI-Astronomers Detect Unknown Signal

Instead of possible alien radio signals, Australian OSETI-Astronomers, looking for possible intelligent laser pulses from distant civilizations, have detected an unknown signal that has not been identified yet.

The logic for looking in this direction is based on real world circumstances. Over the decades since radio telescopes became popular, the radio spectrum has become increasingly more congested. To avoid interference, signals have become more focused and increasingly higher in frequencies. More of the information moved into the digital realm. As the digital data grew from kilobytes to gigabytes, light had to be utilized to carry the increased data density.

Using ourselves as a guide, a sufficiently advanced civilization is not likely to try to attract attention using tech that is for all intents the model T of communications. They are much more likely to use a data rich medium which leads us right back to light or Lasers.

Dr. Ragbir Bhathal head of the "OZ OSETI PROJECT" at the University of Western Sydney, using this idea, in the first week of December 2008 detected an unusual strong laser signal. They could not identify the burst and it has not re-occur. However as a proof of concept it has excited the team to continue.

Read More here


Thanks to Shaun A. Saunders for the post

2 comments:

Shaun said...

You might recall my story 'Last Light', on BMU show 39.

Paul, do you have an archive link to that one?

Beam Me Up said...

Recall?!!!! One of the most difficult reads I ever did and still classify this as one of my all time favorite stories.