Extraterrestrial Hunters: First Alien Signal or Interference?

Another brick down the wall. An unusual and still unexplained radio signal detected by NASA's Kepler satellite baffled scientists. The 2012 hunt is starts!

The search for extraterrestrial life just got a little closer to its goal. Scientists released preliminary results Friday of signals from NASA's Kepler satellite as part of the Search of Extraterrestrial Intelligence based out of the University of California Berkeley.

Source: www.ibtimes.com...

(Photo: SETI at Berkeley)
This radio signal doesn't show intergalactic life yet, but has researchers hoping that signals like it in the future from NASA's Kepler mission may uncover life beyond Earth.

From the SETI project group:

"We know these signals are interference, but look similar to what we think might be produced from an extraterrestrial technology. They are narrow in frequency, much narrower than would be produced by any known astrophysical phenomena, and they drift in frequency with time, as we would expect because of the doppler effect imposed by the relative motion of the transmitter and the receiving radio telescope. Even though these signals are interference, detecting events with similar characteristics to what we expect from ET is a good indication that the first steps of our detection algorithms are working properly."

However, two signals, KOI 817 and KOI 812, seem to come from a single origin and are affected by the Doppler effect, similar to the sound of a passing ambulance. That means the signal could be moving away or towards the Earth, not coming from an Earthling source itself.

Researchers said they expect new data to be released in the upcoming weeks from the nearly 50 terrabyte data trove collected in early 2011.

We wait.

Like you said, and we wait.... and wait.... and wait... and end up with an inconclusive result which warrants no further action like the WOW signal.

Originally posted by scottlpool2003
Like you said, and we wait.... and wait.... and wait... and end up with an inconclusive result which warrants no further action like the WOW signal.

Sadly, I agree with you.

But "something" tell me that there is a little breach in the dam...

Originally posted by Arken

From the SETI project group:...

However, two signals, KOI 817 and KOI 812, seem to come from a single origin and are affected by the Doppler effect, similar to the sound of a passing ambulance. That means the signal could be moving away or towards the Earth, not coming from an Earthling source itself.

I'm not sure that's from the SETI project group, as I can't find it on their website, rather their website contains this apparently contradictory information:

seti.berkeley.edu...

Update: Friday, January 6, 2012 After posting the plots below on January 5, it became clear that we had not stated as definitively and absolutely as possible that these signals are interference. We have updated the post to make this clear. Sorry for any confusion.

That's dated Jan 6, the article you cited is dated Jan 9, so it appears to be a HOAX! or something.

Also there's already an existing thread which points out that Jan 6 clarification:
SETI finds alien signals?

It was caused by a satellite. I read about this on Slashdot (i think) several days ago.
They didn't claim it was a "possible" E.T.I signal on the seti website, it was a misjudgment. Supposedly they had put an update on the site saying "this is interesting" without clearly explaining what had made the signal.

edit: yeh, here it is: science.slashdot.org...

Few links on there explaining it all.

At least as they say, it's interesting to know what an E.T.I signal might look like.

Out of curiosity did anyone else's virus security go off on the op source site? When I clicked on the link it flagged for me and im not sure why. Maybe a glitch but thought id ask.

As far as the story goes its to bad it didnt pan out as real. We need something major to affect changes for the better on this planet and sadly I think an external entity is about the only way to get that done.

ETA regarding the other 2 signals -
KOI - 812 and 817

Apparently those 2 signals are going to be man made and in orbit. The link above is actually from a blog, but it deals specifically with those 2 signals, as well as the OP signal. Anyone have any info that tells a diferent story on the 812 / 817 detections?

Radio isn't going to find anything.

reply to post by eyespying


Being in radio myself, I have to agree.
The distances are too great and radio signals are far too weak.
Stars put out orders of magnitude higher power radio waves than communication radios do.
So to receive ET's general radio traffic one of their dishes would have to be:
1.Accidentally aimed in our direction.
2.Putting out incredible amounts of power.
3.Not be anywhere next to a star. (from our point of view)
4.Be transmitting at the same time we have our dishes pointed at them. Just how often does NASA transmit to our deep space probes?