SETI SIGNAL, ET OR PROSAIC (Monday, Much Better!) PLUG? .

On the New Scientist site at This Link is what some think may be a possible signal from an advanced civilization, considered "the most promising signal in all the history of SETI". The signal is drifting as if on a planet spinning around but it would have to be spinning 40 times as fast as the earth, and the overall drift would be changing they say, but it always starts at the same frequency. Another puzzle is that the signal is in an empty region far from any known star. On the New Scientist site they consider all the possibilities like a hacker in the softwear or a bad telescope, but they dismiss these for reasons like the sighting of the same signal by more than one observer, and it's as yet unknown how the telescope could make the error, if so.

On the New Scientist site they say

"The fact that the signal continues to drift after this correction is “fishy”. “If [the aliens] are so smart, they’ll adjust their signal for their planet’s motion.”

But we're so smart, and we don't adjust our TV signal of the 50's going out at the speed of our washers, radios, and I Love Lucy will be in reruns 1000 years!

It's the most interesting of all the SETI finds and they aren't just in up mode alone about it just yet. And there's one other possible explanation I can think of that would fit the evidence. Perhaps it's a large space station far from a star system, not impossible that an advanced civilization may have fusion power of their own (or other types of atomic power like my atomic motor.) so for whatever reason in the complex evolution of a civilization they may be or have to be far from their place of origin. If a source like this were distant from a star, it wouldn't change frequency with motion around the star in siderial time (stationary relative to the stars, not in motion so much relative to just one star) this would be why no general phase shift was seen. The fast phase shift observed in this interpretation would be with the rotation of the space station to generate artificial gravity, perhaps for industrial use. A relatively small spinning space station would be easier to explain than a high speed planet because to spin 40 times as fast as the earth would take a lot more mass to hold it together, and this mass would fuse, so we could see the star that was the source (Our giant worlds like Sarurn were almost massive enough to be stars). That it's a faint signal and that the phase of 1420 mhz modulates would be perhaps because the signal they watch would be intended just for them and not boosted to reach us.

A more mundane possiblity since they say the signal doesn't seem like information from an evolved civilization may be it's one of the so named exosolar planets, far from the star that formed it, formed as stuff attracted mass, not yet a star even if massive. If on the surface of a spinning world some sort of natural atomic reaction would be taking place, it's in the wavelength of hydrogen because it would go through the hydrogen rich atmosphere of the planet. So it would have some absorption lines of the spectra (if it were a large enough plug, it might be mostly above the atmosphere of the distant world for a time before it was more compact, a prediction of this explanation.) Astronomers and others consider the option that most planets and stars have a natural atomic reactor inside to light up the stars not impossible, otherwise they would be unable to light with just the amount of mass they have. So if atomic reactors are mostly mundane radiation this would be a possible explanation of the source of the signal, far from the star where it was born. A radioactive asteroid or other moon with natural heat could plug in the side of the massive planet and emit radiation with each rotation and also without the general phase shift if far from a star like "the extrasolar planets" of astronomers. A prediction of this explanation is that the one source would go in and out of line of radiance to the earth as it rotates. The space station explanation wouldn't have this necessarily because light would be of use all the way around the station. If it were an accident like an explosion of the fusion or other power on the station the source might or might not go in and out of our line of sight. If it's a wheel it wouldn't have to go out of our sight, and other more complex light of more faint sort just from the usual activities that would go on in the station from day to day would possibly be seen if this explanation were true. If it were an accident by an advanced civilization's star ship or spinning station, they might be too busy repairing the damage or unable to stop the radiation from leaking out the information about their whereabouts, or for some other reason. Perhaps they know of us and were a bit suprised at the catastrophe on the ship if that's actually the explanation of the signal, but figured with no way we could do them any harm due to our slow starships, they would't think we were of import to conceal their signal from, or may welcome our wit and savvy. If so it would seem they would have already let us know before this, thus it may be explained by way of the civilization's being advanced enough to build a large machine, but still unaware of our presence. Carl Sagan in Cosmos says the number of advanced civilizations in the galaxy at any one time has been imagined to be just 4. While it would seem too much good fortune in the search for life to have found a civilization so near we would see the radiance of a starship, if fusion is known to them (and there may be many advanced civilizations with fusion) they may have the power of a star and we see stars all the time when we look up. The New Scientist site is a good science site, one of the best, and it may be a bit wild to see how this turns out in light of this.


Another conventional cause might be a compact star with a strong magnetic field that spins in opposite motion to the more usual spin of the star. These would cancel out so the field would form a bubble without jets. With spin there are poles. With no overall spin there would be no usual jets and with a strong spherical field with strong field lines the star would be invisible in most wavelengths because it would cut the lines of radiance outward of the heat. With a massive small and dense star, an incoming comet or asteroid if impacting would radiate out much power as it would become part of the star's own mass. This would spin around fast like these dense massive sources are believed by most to. The energy of the comet stuff would be strong enough on conversion to radiate through the field lines and reach us but not strong enough to energise the entire field of the star so all that would be seen would be the light of the comet embedded in the star with each revolution, in the wavelength of hydrogen because there would be an atmosphere of the hydrogen and oxygen from the comet or other impacting mass through which the light of the mass as it was made more energised would reach us. I tend to favor this second explanation more, because as they say on the New Scientist site the light seems to be unlike a more complex source. On this page (about the solar systems they find having massive planets in unusual oribits) I say why I think extrasolar planets may be common and may add a lot of the unseen mass to the universe. If the signal in the above was far from any star this would seem to fit in better either with the advanced life cause, or the extrasolar planet, but not the magnetic star. If the proto cloud formed a star it would have been massive enough to form more, but smaller masses could exist more often by accretion of leftover rocks from older star systems in rooms of greater volume, they would be in these realms to close the cosmos in general.

No doubt it's probably just a more massive power source, or we may have actually even found advanced life, finally we may have reached the sign of the feline, mine will always ignore meece!