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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."
But it's aliens.
Is used for microwave communication, so it could be that. A bounced signal or something.
I usually don't post anything here, but...It seems like not all are that impressed.
https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=80193#1813506
and they are going to keep not claiming very loudly and repeatedly.
Please no, we can't take a Kardashian civilization!
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.
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.
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Aliens that are advanced enough to signal us with that kind of power aren't going to find us advanced enough to be worth talking to if they can even understand our primitive methods of communication at all. If there's anything we have that they want, they'll just come take it, much like we don't ask permission before clearcutting forests inhabited by animals. Even if they just want to study us, our scientists don't send a beacon to an ant colony before they come and fill the ant colony with molten aluminum to take a casting -- so there's no reason to think that advanced aliens would do so either, they'll just come and do their studies and if they happen to kill humanity with their research techniques, that's just a necessary part of research, no big loss.
Just for your amusement, non-Slavic speakers:
Zelenchukskaya means "of vegetables".
...they announce that the signal has a blue shift component.
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Table-ized A.I.
Wanting to get paid for your labor isn't capitalism. Wanting to get paid just for already owning something is.
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If Earth launched a satellite precisely enough at the direction of the HD164595, and sufficient time elapsed for the distance to make earth's solar orbit fall in the range of the satellite's broadcast, and the satellite was sending communications back towards earth in its trail, could we not prank some future generation by not recording the launch? And how exactly do we know that wasn't done to us? Soviet Russia would have valued being the only ones to know that a signal wasn't coming from aliens, for example. Or some USA billionaire could have planned it, or rogue NASA could have calculated its eventual transmission would increase NASA funding...
If we translate the signal and it says that a Kardasian Prince needs us to transfer money in order to release millions of dollars from his account, it's a bad sign.
Gently reply
Sorry, which country is true capitalism? All i see around here are state sponsored monopolies, global corporations who make their own rules, the military industrial complex and lobbyists.
If you live in the west, and probably everywhere else, you live in corporatism, not capitalism.
The grand parent was saying that the current corporate culture of profit driven "capitalism" is akin to slavery with its destruction of the individual, and the race to the bottom. Maybe slavery got us computers and all that, but it also built the pyramids. The ends don't necessarily justify the means, and certainly aren't the only way to go about doing things. I fail to see your point. That computers wouldn't have been invented if not for monopolies? If you know the history of technology that is not what happened. In fact its the reverse. Small companies like microsoft defeating huge behemoths like IBM. (Which then of course became just as ruthless as the companies they successfully usurped, starting the cycle all over again)
As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy