- A radio signal picked up by a search for extraterrestrial
intelligence marks the best candidate yet for "first contact"
by aliens.
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- The signal was traced to a point between the constellations
Pisces and Aires, according to New Scientist.
-
- Astronomers who have been scanning the universe for years
seeking contact with intelligent life said it stood out as being "unusual".
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- The signal has been observed for only about a minute,
not long enough to allow astronomers to analyse it in detail.
-
- It is unlikely to be the result of any obvious radio
interference or noise, and does not bear the hallmark of any known astronomical
object.
-
- Although it is the best candidate yet for contact with
an alien life form, the astronomers say that it may turn out to be an unknown
astronomical phenomenon, or simply a blemish produced by the telescope.
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- For six years, the SETI@home project (Search for Extra-Terrestrial
Intelligence), has used programs running as screensavers on millions of
PCs worldwide to sift signals picked up by the Arecibo telescope, in Puerto
Rico. David Anderson, the project's director, said he was intrigued by
the signal but sceptical.
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- According to a new paper in Nature, we might be more
successful searching our own backyard for clues to other life forms.
-
- The article by Dr Gregory Wright and Christopher Rose,
the professor of electrical and computer engineering at Rutgers, the State
University of New Jersey, suggests that to discover if we are alone, we
should look for signs in our planetary backyard, akin to the monolith in
Arthur C Clarke's 2001.
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- They calculate that inscribing information and physically
sending it to some location in deep space is more energy-efficient than
using radio waves, which disperse.
-
- "Think of a flashlight beam," says Prof Rose.
"Its intensity decreases as it gets farther from its source."
The same goes for radio waves.
-
- However, a physical message stays where it lands. As
for the form of alien messages, he speculates that it could be anything
from text in a real language to, more likely, organic material embedded
in an asteroid or in a crater.
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- Prof Rose suggests that there may be many messages, perhaps
millions.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=FLALTXUOJJ
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