SETI@Home’s Odd Catch

by | Sep 3, 2004 | Astrobiology and SETI | 1 comment

New Scientist is carrying the news of a singular find by SETI@Home, the distributed computing project that uses data from the Arecibo radio telescope to look for extraterrestrial radio signals. What is being described as ‘the best candidate yet for a contact by intelligent aliens in the nearly six-year history of the SETI@home project’ has been detected, emmanating from a source that may or may not be located somewhere between the constellations Pisces and Aries. Dubbed SHGb02+14a, the signal is weak and may in fact be the result of either an unknown natural phenomenon or an artifact in or near the Arecibo dish itself.

Centauri Dreams‘ take: the odd drift in the 1420 MHz signal argues for a local anomaly at Arecibo. Yes, it could be a transmitter on a rapidly spinning planet, but what confounds researchers is that each observation starts at exactly 1420 MHz and then sees the signal begin to drift. What we need are independent observations from other dishes to confirm whether SHGb02+14a is really there. As New Scientist notes, a 1967 team thought they had found an alien signal, but it turned out to be the discovery of the first pulsar. Nice to see Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who found the 1967 signal, quoted in the article.

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1 Comment

  1. ljk on May 20, 2009 at 7:32

    SETI@home Celebrates 10th Anniversary

    http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=28232

    “The world’s largest and longest-running volunteer computing project, SETI@home, celebrates its tenth anniversary this month with 140,000 participants and 235,000 computers powering the search for intelligent signals from space.”

    So who is still running SETI@Home on their computers?

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In Centauri Dreams, Paul Gilster looks at peer-reviewed research on deep space exploration, with an eye toward interstellar possibilities. For many years this site coordinated its efforts with the Tau Zero Foundation. It now serves as an independent forum for deep space news and ideas. In the logo above, the leftmost star is Alpha Centauri, a triple system closer than any other star, and a primary target for early interstellar probes. To its right is Beta Centauri (not a part of the Alpha Centauri system), with Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon Crucis, stars in the Southern Cross, visible at the far right (image courtesy of Marco Lorenzi).

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