re: #107 Dr Lizardo
I run the SETI Boinc program on my computer. SETI already weighed in on this; they sent out a message to us (possibly from Proxima Centauri) to note this is not the big deal the press is making of it:
SETI@home: āBafflingā āsignalā āfrom HD 164595ā is probably none of the above.
Iām sure that many of you have seen the news reports of a āSETI signalā detected from the star HD 164595I was one of the many people who received the the email with the subject āCandidate SETI SIGNAL DETECTED by Russians from star HD 164595 by virtue of RATAN-600 radio telescope.ā Since the email did come from known SETI researchers, I looked over the presentation. I was unimpressed. In one out of 39 scans that passed over star showed a signal at about 4.5 times the mean noise power with a profile somewhat like the beam profile. Of course SETI@home has seen millions of potential signals with similar characteristics, but it takes more than that to make a good candidate. Multiple detections are a minimum criterion.
Because the receivers used were making broad band measurements, thereās really nothing about this āsignalā that would distinguish it from a natural radio transient (stellar flare, active galactic nucleus, microlensing of a background source, etc.) Thereās also nothing that could distinguish it from a satellite passing through the telescope field of view. All in all, itās relatively uninteresting from a SETI standpoint.
But, of course, itās been announced to the media. Reporters wonāt have the background to know itās not interesting. Because the media has it, and since this business runs on media, everyone will look at it. ATA is looking at it. I assume Breakthrough will look at it. Someone will look at it with Arecibo, and weāll be along for the ride. And Iāll check the SETI@home database around that position. And weāll all find nothing. Itās not our first time at this rodeo, so we know how it works.