Scientists rule out presence of huge alien megastructure orbiting distant star
It has now ruled out the existence of two types of radio signals which could indicate the presence of aliens who are either trying to communicate across space or who may be using spacecraft powered by intense microwave beams.
The Kepler space telescope had picked up signs that the star system had dimmed on occasions by up to 20 per cent.
Seti had considered one possibility was that a technologically adept civilisation had built megastructures in orbit around star, causing the dimming, for example with a large-scale astroengineering project.
It has trained its Allen Telescope Array on the star for more than two weeks.
The Array consists of 42 antennas, each 6 meters in size, and is located approximately 500km north of San Francisco in the Cascade Mountains.
“This is the first time we’ve used the Allen Telescope Array to look for relatively wide-band signals, a type of emission that is generally not considered in SETI searches,” said SETI Institute scientist Gerry Harp.
Seti says analysis of the Array data shows no clear evidence for either type of signal between the frequencies of 1 and 10 GHz
Seth Shostak, a veteran searcher for alien-life at the Seti Institute, says this suggest a "natural" phenomenom rather than the suggestion of alien life.
“The history of astronomy tells us that every time we thought we had found a phenomenon due to the activities of extraterrestrials, we were wrong,” he said.
“But although it’s quite likely that this star’s strange behaviour is due to nature, not aliens, it’s only prudent to check such things out."
The group is going to continue monitoring the situation.
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OK, the title on this little article proclaims "Scientists rule out aliens" . When, in fact, that's not what Seth Shostak actually said. I heard Seth on C2C with What's his name the other night, and although Seth said that it's not probable, he still didn't rule it totally out, despite George paraphrasing it that way.
My next observation is this: SETI ruled out two types of signal.....nothing more than that and on that evidence alone decided no? Hmmmmm.......once again, makes me wonder about SETI and Seth.
And not to worry! Good old SETI shall continue to monitor that situation!
What's your opinion on this one?
It has now ruled out the existence of two types of radio signals which could indicate the presence of aliens who are either trying to communicate across space or who may be using spacecraft powered by intense microwave beams.
The Kepler space telescope had picked up signs that the star system had dimmed on occasions by up to 20 per cent.
Seti had considered one possibility was that a technologically adept civilisation had built megastructures in orbit around star, causing the dimming, for example with a large-scale astroengineering project.
It has trained its Allen Telescope Array on the star for more than two weeks.
The Array consists of 42 antennas, each 6 meters in size, and is located approximately 500km north of San Francisco in the Cascade Mountains.
“This is the first time we’ve used the Allen Telescope Array to look for relatively wide-band signals, a type of emission that is generally not considered in SETI searches,” said SETI Institute scientist Gerry Harp.
Seti says analysis of the Array data shows no clear evidence for either type of signal between the frequencies of 1 and 10 GHz
Seth Shostak, a veteran searcher for alien-life at the Seti Institute, says this suggest a "natural" phenomenom rather than the suggestion of alien life.
“The history of astronomy tells us that every time we thought we had found a phenomenon due to the activities of extraterrestrials, we were wrong,” he said.
“But although it’s quite likely that this star’s strange behaviour is due to nature, not aliens, it’s only prudent to check such things out."
The group is going to continue monitoring the situation.
_____________________________________________________________________
OK, the title on this little article proclaims "Scientists rule out aliens" . When, in fact, that's not what Seth Shostak actually said. I heard Seth on C2C with What's his name the other night, and although Seth said that it's not probable, he still didn't rule it totally out, despite George paraphrasing it that way.
My next observation is this: SETI ruled out two types of signal.....nothing more than that and on that evidence alone decided no? Hmmmmm.......once again, makes me wonder about SETI and Seth.
And not to worry! Good old SETI shall continue to monitor that situation!
What's your opinion on this one?
