Russian SETI researchers are pursuing a promising signal
It may not be aliens, but something weird was picked up by Russian radio astronomers, who are now digging for answers.
It could be nothing. In the kinds of circles that search for transmissions from alien civilizations, it always is. But nonetheless, Russian researchers in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) have something intriguing they’re pursuing.
Let’s heavily caveat this. SETI efforts worldwide have had plenty of promising signals. None of them have been confirmed to come from extraterrestrial civilizations. Several have turned out to be from terrestrial sources, and early on, two high profile “What ifs?” lead to the discovery of pulsars and quasars rather than alien megastructures or technologically advanced societies.
Still, there’s enough substance to this message that researchers working from the RATAN-600 observatory in Russia are investigating what might have caused it. They’ve pinpointed a likely star, HD 164595, which is located in the Hercules constellation. It’s known to have one planet, a Neptune-sized world in a 40 day orbit. Given that HD 164595 is a Sun-type star, that planet would be too hot for life, but there may be other undiscovered planets in the solar system.
The signal was first detected in May 2015 at the 2.7 cm band, which is around 11 Ghz in the super-high frequency band. That places whatever the signal was in the microwave band. As Lee Berger at Ars Technica points out, there’s no known astrophysical source at these wavelengths. There’s some chatter that if (BIG if) this is of non-natural origin, it could be slightly to moderately more advanced than our own. “… if it came from an isotropic beacon, it would be of a power possible only for a Kardashev Type II civilization,” Paul Gilster at Centauri Dreams writes. “If it were a narrow beam signal focused on our Solar System, it would be of a power available to a Kardashev Type I civilization.”
Read more ~ Astronomy Magazine
Image: This 2013 photo shows the RATAN-600 observatory, where a recent microwave transmission has SETI researchers excited.
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