Possible Extra-terrestrial Signal Discovered

SETI Astronomers have pointed their instruments on a star  94 light (A light-year is apx 6 trillion miles) years from Earth after a very strong signal was detected by a Russian telescope.

An international team of researchers is now examining the radio signal described in a paper by Italian astronomer Claudio Maccone as a "strong candidate for SETI" -- in the hopes of determining its origin.

Astronomer Douglas Vakoch notes that The signal is intriguing, because it comes from the vicinity of a sun-like star, and if it's artificial, its strength is great enough that it was clearly made by a civilization with capabilities beyond those of humankind. 

Thanks to listener Barry for the heads up URL HERE   and check the url for type 2  civilizations and Dyson spheres.

Aliens Nix, Signals From Tabby Random

A star system that SETI has designated "Tabby's Star" has been a source of speculation about extraterrestrial intelligence has offered, after two weeks of extensive scrutiny,  has offered up only radio silence. 

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) has been monitoring an unusual light pattern in the Tabby's Star system for more than two weeks.

The system has been under scrutiny since its unusual light fluctuation was discovered a few years back by users of the online astronomy crowd sourcing site Planet Hunters.

 Tabbyu is located 1,500 light years away.  Light from the star system occasionally  dropped  20%, according to data that was collected by NASA's Kepler Telescope.

SETI Institute started investigating the star after learning that the Kepler team had marked the data showing  an unusual  light pattern coming from the region.

Read more from the  CNN article HERE

Whoa NASA! Just What the Heck WAS That?

A NASA image showing a strange object on Mars has sparked the imagination of many who think this is finally the smoking gun evidence that “crab monsters” exist on the red planet.  

If you examine the rock formation more closely you’ll see something odd-looking – but not entirely uncommon.
 

See More Photos and the rest of the article HERE

Comparing the cost of running SETI

As you remember I pointed out last week that funding for SETI was being eviserated and the Allen 43 dish telescope array was taking the hit. Well my nephew listed this interesting piece from Phil Plait who did a comparitive cost of running SETI for a year which is 2.5 million dollars.

five tomahawk cruise missiles 2.5 million
entry level learjet 12.9 million
1 apache attack helicopter 18 million
citibank exec bonus 19.3 million
trident submarine launched nuclear icbm 29.1 million
cost of significantly increasing sensitivity (expanding) of the allen telescope array 50 million
eight elviss Andy Warhol 100 million
total 2010 revenue of world wrestling entertainment 477 million
cost of google buying admob 750 million
Toy Story 2 box office worldwide 2010 earnings 1.06 billion
Nimits class aircraft carrier 4.5 billion
ipad sales in 2010 @500ea 7.4 billion
Starbucks 2010 net revenue 10.7 billion
Citigroup 2008 bailout 25 billion
extending the bush tax cut 544.3 billion

us DOD 2010 budget 663.8 billion

Oh and I know this is nothing we could control, but as a distraction while one of the most efficient uses for our scientific investment was being raped, we watch the British Royal Family run through about 64 million dollars for a wedding. Now, Like I said, that's their business, but when I hear how many ooooooooohed and aaaaaaaaahhhhhed about this and the whole damn list above is just plain ignored, I just hoped they all were well greased and grabin for their ankles.

SETI shutting down?!

Wow, Tom Skerritt's part was prophetic now wasn't it? Now Jodi Foster never will be Contact...ed. You see where the SETI project has has to shut down the 42 radio dishes in its array called the Allen Telescope Array, near Hat Creek in California? Yep, it was announced this week (4/22) by SETI Institute CEO Tom Pierson, who described the recent decision by U.C. Berkeley, "our partner in the Array", to reduce operations. Pierson noted that there may be work coming, that would keep the array functioning, from the USAF. The shutdown comes at a very odd time as SETI was set to study the multitude of smaller planetary systems that have been revealed by NASA’s Kepler Mission.

Here are a couple of places to read more about the shutdown

IO9 article

Article in SETI

Was Enrico Fermi Half Right?

In this Discovery New online article, the Fermi Paradox is again addressed. Well not the paradox directly which asks with all the supposedly populated planets in our galaxy, we should have been contacted by intelligent lifeforms by now. Since we haven't, where are they? - Instead the Discovery article is a good new bad news affair.

From the article:

• The good news, the Milky Way could be abundant in intelligent life forms. The bad news, we may never hear from them.

Kinda grabs your interest huh?

The American Association for the Advancement of Science met recently and were asked,

• ... how long will it be before we receive an interstellar greeting from an extraterrestrial civilization?

Responses varied widely from it may have already happened and we missed it to 250 years in the future. One wonders what these estimates are based on. Simply the estimates are based on the fact that the number of stars being reached in SETI optical and radio searches is growing exponentially because there are more and better telescopes dedicated to the search.
In fact, the article states that in the next two years more stars will be scanned than in the first 50 years!

However some scientists have said that we should hope to see something by 2035. Saying that if we still haven't seen a signal within 25 years then there is something wrong with our fundamental assumptions. Then there are those that agree that life is likely to be very common but that intelligence is an evolutionary crap shot and therefor very rare.

From the article:
Rare Earth hypothesis proponents say we'll never hear anything because (we're) .... likely to be the only sentient life in the galaxy.

Then there is the argument that evolution has tried twice for intelligence in two different branches therefor making intelligent life common place. hummmm

Anyway, this article does make some very interesting points, but at times reads like a rant on wildlife parks (currently in the news) so I would suggest reading with a critical eye and take away what you like.

Read the complete Discovery News article here

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

SETI@home needs YOU!

According to the ScienceDaily online magazine: The longest-running search for radio signals from alien civilizations is getting a burst of new data from an upgraded Arecibo telescope, which means the SETI @ home project needs more desktop computers to help crunch the data. Since SETI@home launched eight years ago, the project has signed up more than 5 million interested volunteers. Yet, new and more sensitive receivers on the world's largest radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and better frequency coverage are generating 500 times more data for the project than before. According to project scientist Eric Korpela, the new data amounts to 300 gigabytes per day, or 100 terabytes (100,000 gigabytes) per year, about the amount of data stored in the U.S. Library of Congress. What triggered the new flow of data was the addition of seven new receivers at Arecibo, which now allow the telescope to record radio signals from seven regions of the sky simultaneously instead of just one. With greater sensitivity and the ability to detect the polarization of the radio signals, plus 40 times more frequency coverage, Arecibo is set to survey the sky for new radio sources.

If you are interested in participating in the Seti@HOME project, you can go to http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ to get more information or to download the software.

complete story

When Does SETI Throw in the Towel?

Shaun Saunders brings this article to our attention. Appearing on Space.com, Seth Shostak asks the question, that space being infinite, at what point do the researchers looking for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, call it a day, pack up and go home. The article makes compelling arguments for both sides and is intelligently written. Take a look.