After 1.5 million days of computer time, SETI@home heads home to probe potential signs of alien civilizations

'We're now approaching the point to do the analysis and write-up,' co-founder tells El Reg

In a phone interview with The Register, computer scientist and software architect David P. Anderson, co-founder of SETI@home, said the project isn't shutting down. "SETI@home is a typical science experiment where you have a hypothesis and collect data and write-up conclusions," he said. "We're now approaching the point to do the analysis and write-up."

---

Very disappointed, we have been used. Difficult not to post without breaking the rules.

Very disappointed, we have been used...

How so?

s@h has achieved a tremendous run filtering a vast array of data.

Expect more news yet for what will be found next!

And even if amongst all that is found in the data, we find no alien intelligence in this search, that is an interesting result in itself.


Keep searchin',
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

we were?

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/nasa-seti-contract-alien-hunting-contamination-earth-missions-a9615731.html
Nasa asks alien-hunting institute to make sure extraterrestrials do not contaminate Earth

Nasa has asked the Seti Institute to ensure alien life does not contaminate Earth.

The Seti, which stands for “search for extraterrestrial intelligence”, Institute is primarily focused on discovering life elsewhere in the universe. But the new contract asks it to ensure that it is not spread anywhere else – tasking it with avoiding the contamination of Earth or other planets during space missions.

---

Oct. 15, 2020 - The Search for E.T. - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hwuo4vPcyU How is the SETI Institute ramping up the search for extraterrestrial intelligence? Initiatives that will speed our reconnaissance of the heavens include new receivers, the use of the Very Large Array in New Mexico, and the possibility that astronomers could find massive artifacts near distant worlds. Hear Andrew Siemion and Seth Shostak discuss the latest SETI developments and SETI@home present status.

Millions of Signals From an Intelligent Civilization!

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-detected-26-million-possible-technosignatures-they-all-came-from-us

Yes, SETI research has analyzed 26,631,913 candidate technosignatures but flagged all as anthropogenic RFI

Good news is that by an order of 15 there are that many more signals yet to be identified.

Anyone know who Margot is? I did not see her listed under project personnel.

Jean-Luc Margot is almost certain a man not a woman, and probably associated with the SETI Institute not SETI@Home.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Jean-Luc Margot is almost certain a man not a woman, and probably associated with the SETI Institute not SETI@Home.

Thanks! My thoughts were on Margot Kidder as I had just watched a re-run of superman and was not thinking clearly.

Anthropogenic? How was this determined and then what is the content of these transmissions and why haven't we heard about them and where do they eminate from and so on.

Anthropogenic? How was this determined and then what is the content of these transmissions and why haven't we heard about them and where do they eminate from and so on.

I suspect the transmission are from objects (satellites, etc) the inhabitants of the 3td Rock from our sun have put in space.

---

Report in today's UK 'Guardian' newspaper (18 December 2020):

Scientists looking for aliens investigate radio beam 'from nearby star'

... an intriguing radio wave emission that appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun.

The narrow beam of radio waves was picked up during 30 hours of observations by the Parkes telescope in Australia in April and May last year, the Guardian understands. Analysis of the beam has been under way for some time and scientists have yet to identify a terrestrial culprit such as ground-based equipment or a passing satellite.

The observations were under the auspices of the Breakthough Listen project, but sadly not our part of it - we never got to crunch Parkes data. But best wishes to those who are analysing the potential signal.

Well what else do we know about this. Why has it taken all these months. What do stochastic analyses indicate.
Is the money here being well spent ?

The signal was detected in April-May last year (2019)? This probably reflects a long, careful attempt to answer the question:' Is it earth-based interference, or a genuine SETI signal'? The pandemic may well have introduced further delays. Since the signal was heard for only 30 hours, and not reacquired, the answer, like that for the famous Ohio State University 'Wow Signal' may be very elusive.
The reported point of origin of the signal, Proxima Centauri, is not necessarily a problem. Even it planets there are uninhabitable, due to the star's flaring, an automated transmitter could have been placed there. They may have started signally us intermittently, and recently.
As far as Earth-based interference is concerned, the frequency of the signal-- 980 MegaHertz, puts it within a aeronautical radio navigation allocation. If the source of the signal were one of these beacon transmitters, it should, it seems, have been possible to ascertain this.
I await the planned scientific paper with considerable interest.

Further information has come to light on the Proxima Centauri SETI signal candidate. An article in Scientific American contains many additional details, and is linked below. To summarize a few of these points:

Much of the long delay in our hearing of this candidate signal has to do with how it was initially detected. A survey of the stellar flaring of Proxima Centauri, conducted in April and May of 2019, was archived and eventually flagged for examination by the Breakthrough Listen Project.

A very narrow-band, unmodulated signal ( only 1 frequency bin wide) was discerned at 982.002 MegaHertz on several days. The archived record of this signal was examined by Breakthrough Listen during October, 2020. It passes all the 'filters' intended to screen out mundane interference, and is apparently still being analyzed.

The signal was repeatedly lost when the radio telescope was aimed away from Proxima Centauri, and regained upon re-aiming on it. This tends to rule out terrestrial interference, and support an extraterrestrial source.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/alien-hunters-discover-mysterious-signal-from-proxima-centauri/

Further information has come to light on the Proxima Centauri SETI signal candidate...

... stellar flaring of Proxima Centauri...

A very narrow-band, unmodulated signal ( only 1 frequency bin wide) was discerned at 982.002 MegaHertz on several days...

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/alien-hunters-discover-mysterious-signal-from-proxima-centauri/

Sounds like a natural maser.

Very interesting non-the-less! There is more to learn and study from that one... That could prove to be a very good test for candidate signal tests :-)


Keep searchin',
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Further information has come to light on the Proxima Centauri SETI signal candidate...

... stellar flaring of Proxima Centauri...

A very narrow-band, unmodulated signal ( only 1 frequency bin wide) was discerned at 982.002 MegaHertz on several days...

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/alien-hunters-discover-mysterious-signal-from-proxima-centauri/

Sounds like a natural maser.

Further detail is discussed by Anton Petrov:

SETI Detected a Strange Radio Signal From Proxima Centauri


One further significant detail is that the signal is blue shifted matching that expected for the planet Proxima Centauri B. The sidebands shown for the signal suggest a steady continuous modulation.

Might that turn out to be an effect from aurora on that planet or some other interaction with a magnetic field for the planet?

Might the signal be the result of the planet disturbing or otherwise interacting with the effects of the flares from the parent star?

(All just astronomically wild guesses :-) )

See the wikipedia entry on this event: BLC-1

Very interesting non-the-less! There is more to learn and study from that one... That could prove to be a very good test for candidate signal tests :-)

Keep searchin',
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Further information has come to light on the Proxima Centauri SETI signal candidate...

... stellar flaring of Proxima Centauri...

A very narrow-band, unmodulated signal ( only 1 frequency bin wide) was discerned at 982.002 MegaHertz on several days...

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/alien-hunters-discover-mysterious-signal-from-proxima-centauri/

Sounds like a natural maser.

Very interesting non-the-less! There is more to learn and study from that one... That could prove to be a very good test for candidate signal tests :-)


Keep searchin',
Martin

Thanks for your reply, Martin. It could be an astrophysical MASER . I looked for information on any spectral lines a MASER might produce at or near 982 MHz, but found none. Perhaps a previously unobserved spectral line, from a substance not heretofore known to be a MASER medium. That seems a longshot, though. Have you any thoughts on what the MASER medium could be, in this case?

The only connection I see with any spectral line is the following curious fact: The frequency of the Proxima Centauri signal ( 982.002 MHZ ) is *very* nearly three times the deuterium spectral line at 327.384 MHz. This could be a coincidence. of course, but the fit is remarkably close. This looks to me more like the logic of a SETI 'magic frequency' than a natural phenomenon.

It shouldn't be that difficult to see if there is any modulation that might indicate other than natural phenomena.

Should perhaps read, but how do you detect possible modulation in a signal?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulation

Or maybe the gaussian was just only the carrier here for such a thing.

It shouldn't be that difficult to see if there is any modulation that might indicate other than natural phenomena.

There has been some discussion of this point in astronomical circles. The Parkes radio telescope was being used for the observation of stellar flares at Proxima Centauri. The candidate SETI signal was examined only much later, in the archives.
We do not have the observational details yet, but it seems reasonable that they might well have been using a long integration time, which would tend to smear out any details like modulation.

If so, the radio energy from relatively long periods of time would have been averaged to one value. This enables the readings from relatively long-lasting phenomena like stellar flares to build up to greater strength, and facilitate the observations.

We'll know more about this when Dr. Simeon and his team complete their analysis of the candidate signal, and publish papers about it. The only reason we heard about this signal candidate at this early point, is that someone leaked a bit of information about it to the Press.