SETI Has Observed a 'Strong' Signal That May Originate From a Sun-like Star (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The RATAN-600 radio telescope in Zelenchukskaya, Russia has detected a strong signal around 11 GHz (which is very unlikely to be naturally-caused) coming from HD164595, a star nearly identical in mass to the Sun and located about 95 light years from Earth. The system is known to have at least one planet. If the signal were isotropic, it would seem to indicate a Kardashev Type II civilization. While it is too early to draw any conclusions, the discovery will be discussed at an upcoming SETI committee meeting on September 27th. According to Paul Gilster, author of the Centauri Dreams website, "No one is claiming that this is the work of an extraterrestrial civilization, but it is certainly worth further study. Working out the strength of the signal, the researchers say that if it came from an isotropic beacon, it would be of a power possible only for a Kardashev Type II civilization. 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. The possibility of noise of one form or another cannot be ruled out, and researchers in Paris led by Jean Schneider are considering the possible microlensing of a background source by HD164595. But the signal is provocative enough that the RATAN-600 researchers are calling for permanent monitoring of this target."

Comments

11 GHz

[Anonymous Coward]

Is used for microwave communication, so it could be that. A bounced signal or something.

Re:11 GHz

[Anonymous Coward]

Can't tell if joking or serious.

But I think he's suggesting it's a signal sent extremely recently that happens for whatever reason to be interfering with just that observation. Which has happened before, I believe.

Re:11 GHz

[budgenator]

yes that's X-band (7.0 to 11.2 gigahertz (GHz)) used by military, and civilians mostly for Radar, Amateur radio has a frequency band in there (10.000 to 10.500 GHz,) to., The satellite communication band Ku (12–18 GHz) has (the band 11.2–12 GHz the working definitions of Ku band and X band overlap) is in there as well. A lot of weird shit can happen in those frequency bands, and it's not unusual for people to play around there doing things that aren't strictly legal, you'd be surprised the havoc someone can cause with a fluorescent light, some waveguide and an old TV dish.

When we were doing receiver alignments and got to noise tests, we had to turn off the fluorescent lights because they pumped out a lot of X-band high end noise.

SETI has observed nothing

[Donwulff]

Except possibly in the widest sense of "SETI has observed someone else observing"... A Russian radio-telescope site claims it has observed the alleged signal well over a year ago - which should give you an idea how important this observation is. The headline, copied straight from ARS Technica though, isn't just ordinarily imprecise, but anyone who's on social media is already aware of the original observation, and is now eagerly waiting for independent confirmation. Without that, it can be anything from an attempt grabbing funding to a Russian radio-frequency jammer test. Because of that, an idependent SETI observation would be very significant. Unfortunately, it's likely a rare event since they've not managed to spot it again in over a year.

High Kardashev means the opposite

[Ecuador]

This has been played out in the media in a way that a "high" Kardashev (no relation to the Kardashians I believe) is exciting, in that it points to a very advanced civilization. In reality it is the opposite, a signal requiring a civilization to have fully harnessed a star means that it is less likely to be an actual ET signal.