Few weeks ago, a mysterious radio signal has been picked up by SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) fueling the speculations that aliens are trying to get in contact with Earth.
The sound was detected by a Russian RATAN-600 radio telescope. The Guardian explains the RATAN-600 is located in Zelenchukskaya in the Caucasus mountains ant it covers the sky of Asia and Europe in search for possible signals of extraterrestrial life.
Previous reports suggested astronomers thought it came from a sun-like star which only 95 light years away from Earth, meaning the signals have been traveling since 1922. While fans of the extraterrestrials were titillated with the idea, the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SAO RAS) said nonetheless that it is just one of those interesting yet unverified discoveries.
To pacify the bout of assumptions, SAO RAS has released a statement saying they are likely noise from Earth and not aliens. Earth Sky quoted SAO RAS saying, "Subsequent processing and analysis of the signal revealed its most probable terrestrial origin. It can be said with confidence that no sought-for signal has been detected yet."
In addition, METI (Messaging Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) International President Doug Vakoch told CNET via email said the signal could plainly be "due to a satellite flying overhead at just the right time, or it could be radio interference caused by an Earth-based transmitter."
Seth Shostak of Seti Institute has released his own opinion as well, saying that the extraterrestrial speculations are dubious from the start.
"One particularly noteworthy thing about this discovery is the fact that the signal was apparently observed in May, 2015 (it seems that this was the only time in 39 tries that they saw this signal). The discoverers didn't alert the SETI community to this find until now, which is not as expected, " he wrote, adding that the discovery is nothing but an interesting find.
This isn't the first time a false alien signal has caused frenzy among people. Press Reader notes that another signal has been detected in Australia last year. While they initially though it was from aliens, they later found its just from an astronomer thaking his food out of the microwave.
Read:
Mysterious Radio Signal Unlikely to be From Aliens, Astronomers Say
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