An alien signal?

I was browsing the Net the other day looking for news in the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) community. I found something that, for me, was both cautiously exciting and something I was reluctantly skeptical about. An ET signal had apparently been discovered by SETI@Home that passed through pretty much all of their strict filters. The first mention of it seems to be in the Sept. 1, 2004 issue of New Scientist magazine.

The signal was detected by the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico in February 2003 and was seen (or heard?) on three seperate occasions; one of the fitering criteria of SETI (repeatability) had been passed. Each time it was detected, it was STRONGER, even though generally it was a weak signal! The signal was located at a point between the constellations Pisces and Aries. However, there are no stars in that area for 1000 light years. The frequency of the signal was around what astronomers call the “water hole”, the frequency that H2O emits, about 1420 MHz.

The signal, named SHGb02+14a, has been found to not be noise, interference, no known astronomical object, and fraud or a hoax doesn’t seem to be the case either.

All of this appears to be an exciting situation. However, I am optimistically skeptical, because, as far as I know, no other radio telescope has tried to confirm it; only the Arecibo telescope has ever listened to it. I am very curious to know what other scopes would find, if anything.

One disappointment I’ve found is actually the non-existance of any other news about it. A search on the Net comes up empty, save the few mentions of it around the time of the New Scientist article.

Keep listening!

Frank

 

An Impressionable Book

I remember, as a child, going to the library in Valejo, CA and looking at the science fiction books. I was particularly impressed by the cover art on the Foundation series novels by Isaac Asimov. This art (see below) is from the 1980′s edition cover of “Foundation” by Isaac Asimov. It has a philosophical air to it that I like. I judged that book by its cover when I first saw it in elementary school and decided to read it! I’m very glad I did.

 

I highly recommend the time to read it…it just may convince you to continue on with the rest of The Foundation series by Asimov. I believe it was the forerunner and main idea behind the concept of a galactic empire as has been expanded on by Star Wars and, later, Star Trek. If you would like to see the genesis of the idea behind those phenomena (Star Wars/Star Trek) then you’ll very much be rewarded by reading that series…besides, anything by Asimov is worth its weight in gold.

Frank

 

Like puzzles? Check this out!

Do you like to solve puzzles? Did you enjoy the ideas behind “The Da Vinci Code”? Well, try this out:

The Voynich Manuscript

It is an illustrated manuscript written in an unknown language and dating gives it an age as old as 1450 CE. The illustrations of biology, astronomy, and medicine are just as mysterious as the language it is written in. Cryptographers throughout the years have tried, failingly, to decipher the manuscript. Check it out here:

http://www.voynich.nu/

Check it out.

Frank M.