
An Interesting SETI Candidate in Hercules - phreeza
http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=36248
======
f2f
Great, another wow signal! Now we can rest easy that the first one wasn't a
fluke... Regardless of whether this is the making of sentients or a physical
phenomena we have one more reason to keep looking up in the sky :)

here's a good description of the wow signal and why it's important. if this
one has similar characteristics we just increased chances of observing a
really interesting phenomena by 100%:

[http://www.universetoday.com/93754/35-years-later-the-wow-
si...](http://www.universetoday.com/93754/35-years-later-the-wow-signal-still-
tantalizes/)

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adrianratnapala
The article talks about the frequency and strength of the signal but I didn't
spot anything about its structure.

What is it about this signal that is supposed to make it seem (possibly)
unnatural?

~~~
cantrevealname
I expect that it is tantalizing for the same reason as the "Wow!" signal:

 _" First, ["Wow!" signal] did appear to be an artificial radio signal, rather
than a natural radio emission such as a pulsar or quasar. The Big Ear
telescope used a receiver with 50 radio channels; the signal was only heard on
one frequency, with no other noise on any of the other channels. A natural
emission would cause static to appear on all of the frequencies, and this was
not the case. The signal was narrow and focused, as would be expected from an
artificial source."_

 _" The signal also “rose and fell” during the 72 seconds, as would be
expected from something originating in space. When the radio telescope is
pointed at the sky, any such signal will appear to increase in intensity as it
first moves across the observational beam of the telescope, then peak when the
telescope is pointed straight at it and then decrease as it moves away from
the telescope. This also makes a mere computer glitch a less likely
explanation, although not impossible."_

Source: [http://www.universetoday.com/93754/35-years-later-the-wow-
si...](http://www.universetoday.com/93754/35-years-later-the-wow-signal-still-
tantalizes/)

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mercurialshark
This is possibly exciting. _Its metallicity is almost identical to that of the
Sun._

If hypothetically it were the best case scenario, something broadcasted by a
sentient being, then the position that the universe simply isn't old enough to
be densely populated becomes a lessor issue.

Considering that our sun is a third or fourth generation star, based on its
metallicity/age and if heavier elements are necessary for advanced
civilizations to evolve - it's possible that the intergalactic space race is
only just beginning.

~~~
flukus
>This is possibly exciting. Its metallicity is almost identical to that of the
Sun.

That and being 0.99 solar masses. If we were going to send messages out to the
universe picking sun like stars would be a sensible choice.

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jloughry
TIL the unit of amplitude, mJy, refers to Janskys [1].

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jansky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jansky)

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hoodoof
It says it could be a Kardashian Type II civilization. Scary thought.

~~~
ainar-g
I think you meant "Kardashev".
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale)
Unless this was a Kim Kardashian joke.

~~~
hoodoof
Oh I must have read it wrong.

I thought the scientists theorized about the existence of civilizations
evolved entirely from a single Kardashian genome.

The only thing I wondered about is what the difference would be between type I
and type II Kardashian civilizations.

~~~
okket
And at some point a sub group split off and called themselves Cardassians.
Everything makes sense now...

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mateiz
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hercules_Text](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hercules_Text)

~~~
kabdib
Great book, except for the bit about being able to boot an Apple ][ with a
binary from a SETI download.

[I've often wondered what a computer and OS designed by an extraterrestrial
civilization would look like. But it's impossible to for just _us_ to project
our own systems out any reasonable amount of time. It's unclear that we'll
even have keyboards and displays 100 years from now, or that we'll have
replaced C with something better <\-- troll :-) ]

~~~
jen729w
For all of Independence Day's faults, I couldn't forgive the fact that Will
Smith flew up to the alien mother ship and plugged in a USB key (containing
the virus which destroyed the ship (er, spoiler)).

~~~
flukus
That's because all of our tech was based off the roswell crash, that's the
hand wavy way of explaining the compatibility. That and a telepathic species
can afford to be complacent on internal security.

The one I can't forgive is the aliens having telepathy in the first place. So
much sci fi has this and it ruins the story for me as much as it would if a
wizard showed up.

~~~
nsxwolf
Why not a telepathy consistent with physics? Electromagnetic radiation emitted
into the brain of a recipient and whatnot.

~~~
flukus
For one, I've never seen the telepathy be interfered with by other
electromagnetic radiation or anyone build a faraday cage to limit the
communication. Telepathy goes right through the deflector shield in star trek.

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okket
Don't get carried away like with Tabetha's Star and the alien megastructures a
few months ago...

[http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-blogs/cosmic-
relief...](http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-blogs/cosmic-relief-david-
grinspoon/could-it-be-possible-signs-of-e-t-intelligence/)

~~~
bjd2385
The nonsense that looms in this story's wake is sickening. I couldn't even
finish the article. It's nothing more than an attention-grabber. Funding comes
from public support, so as long as astronomers and writers capture the
imagination and attention/awareness of the public, i.e. looking up, the more
relevant and important the `dry` research underneath will appear in Congress,
or to those overseeing grants, etc.

~~~
pmoriarty
What fraction of the science funding goes to SETI?

~~~
foobarbecue
Exactly 0. Nevada Senator Richard Bryan killed federal funding for SETI (which
used to be under NASA) in 1993. Now it is funded entirely by donations.
[http://www.seti.org/faq#obs6](http://www.seti.org/faq#obs6)

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obvio171
I was expecting SETI to find intelligence on Earth before space. They've been
looking at the entropy of bee hives and other disembodied signal-passing
collectives for a while now.

~~~
rbanffy
They are smart, but can't do miracles.

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sevenless
I always thought optical SETI makes more sense. With relatively inexpensive
lasers we can send an extremely bright message, vastly outshining our sun, to
every star within a few thousand light years. Surely that's how you'd say
'We're here' to aliens.

[http://seti.harvard.edu/oseti/](http://seti.harvard.edu/oseti/)

~~~
xyzzy123
Sending seems a lot more risky than receiving.

~~~
sevenless
Risky for what? Alien invasion? If interstellar travel were that easy or
worthwhile they'd be here already, especially what with terrestrial radio
broadcasts.

~~~
xyzzy123
If your argument is that terrestrial radio broadcasts mean we don't need the
laser... then why do we need the laser?

Re: interstellar invasion, perhaps not, but hard to rule out the possibility
that the response we get to our broadcasts is something like a relativistic
projectile.

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perplexes
Is there a recording of the signal available anywhere?

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eggy
I want to be first to pilot the machine Herculeans are sending in code for us
to build just like in the movie 'Contact'!

~~~
jcoffland
Great it's actually very similar to a machine featured in South Park.

~~~
LyndsySimon
Oh well - it's still better than dealing with the TSA.

