[escepticos] Descubierta una señal alienígena

["Victor R. Ruiz" <rvr@...>]

  Hola:

  O eso afirma un radioastrónomo anónimo.

. . . .


   Thursday, October 29, 1998 Published at 18:42 GMT
   Puzzle over alien 'discovery'

   Is there intelligent life in this star system?
   By our Science Editor David Whitehouse
   
   The scientific world is buzzing with the suggestion that signals from
   aliens living in another star system may have been picked up by a
   part-time astronomer.
   
   Other astronomers are scrambling to confirm or deny them.
   
   It could either be the most important discovery ever made, or more
   likely, a case of mistaken identity or an elaborate hoax.
   
   At first the part-time astronomer who discovered the signals would not
   reveal his identity. However he has since been named as Paul Dore of
   Siemens Plessey Systems in the UK.
   
   He has been using a small radio telescope belonging to his firm to
   scan the sky for intelligent signals.
   
   On October 22 and on the following night, he reported detecting
   signals from the EQ Pegasi star system which is 22 light years away.
   
   The signals were not the type that occurs naturally. The data has been
   distributed to several astronomers and observatories.
   
   However astronomers at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in England say it
   is all a case of mistaken identity. Astronomer Ian Morrison told BBC
   News Online: "I think he has detected signals from a satellite."
   
   The truth is out there
   
   The same search for extra-terrestrial life is being carried out by
   professional astronomers using the world's largest radio telescopes
   such as the one in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.
   
   They call it Seti, the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.
   
   With the development of radio astronomy in the 1950s, astronomers
   realised that they had telescopes that could send and receive radio
   signals between the stars.
   
   The first search for radio signals from space was in 1960. Two nearby
   stars were observed but no signals were detected.
   
   Since then about 40 searches have been made. Many unusual signals have
   been detected but astronomers think that none of them were from
   intelligent life.
   
   Last month astronomers at the giant Arecibo radio telescope conducting
   'project Phoenix,' a detailed search for radio signals from
   intelligent life in space, detected a signal from EQ Peg but concluded
   that it was man-made interference.
   
   The EQ Peg star system is unlike our own. It consists of two dim red
   dwarf stars orbiting each other. From time to time explosions,
   so-called stellar flares, occur on both stars.
   
   Detecting signals from some form of intelligence living in a nearby
   star system would be the most important scientific discovery ever
   made.
   
   At the moment it seems likely that the 'alien' radio signals are just
   man-made interference.
   
   Terrestrial signals can easily fool astronomers into thinking that
   they have detected ET.
   
   The searchers of project Phoenix recently tracked a signal for 14
   hours before they realised it was a scientific satellite.
   
   Many astronomers involved in searching for life in space have
   expressed regret that the EQ Peg observations were released without
   going through the procedure agreed to tell the public about possible
   ET signals.
   
   Because of this they say they are suspicious that it is all a hoax.
   
   Even if it is it will have caused many scientists to think again about
   how they would release the news of a real discovery.

. . . .

  Ale, ya tenemos portada del Más Allá de la Paciencia del próximo enero.


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Víctor R. Ruiz                rvr en idecnet.com
    Agrupación Astronómica de Gran Canaria
   Sociedad de Meteoros y Cometas de España
 Asociación de Variabilistas de España - AVE
AA Gran Canaria      http://aagc.dis.ulpgc.es
info.astro  http://www.astrored.org/infoastro
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