Another "enigma" from Space?

I came across this today in the online edition of "NewScientest Magazine". Interesting.......



Mysterious signals from 1000 light years away

19:00 01 September 04 Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition



In February 2003, astronomers involved in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) pointed the massive radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, at around 200 sections of the sky.

The same telescope had previously detected unexplained radio signals at least twice from each of these regions, and the astronomers were trying to reconfirm the findings. The team has now finished analysing the data, and all the signals seem to have disappeared. Except one, which has got stronger.

This radio signal, now seen on three separate occasions, is an enigma. It could be generated by a previously unknown astronomical phenomenon. Or it could be something much more mundane, maybe an artefact of the telescope itself.

But it also happens to be the best candidate yet for a contact by intelligent aliens in the nearly six-year history of the SETI@home project, which uses programs running as screensavers on millions of personal computers worldwide to sift through signals picked up by the Arecibo telescope.

Absorb and emit

“It’s the most interesting signal from SETI@home,” says Dan Werthimer, a radio astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and the chief scientist for SETI@home. “We’re not jumping up and down, but we are continuing to observe it.”

Named SHGb02+14a, the signal has a frequency of about 1420 megahertz. This happens to be one of the main frequencies at which hydrogen, the most common element in the universe, readily absorbs and emits energy.

Some astronomers have argued that extraterrestrials trying to advertise their presence would be likely to transmit at this frequency, and SETI researchers conventionally scan this part of the radio spectrum.

SHGb02+14a seems to be coming from a point between the constellations Pisces and Aries, where there is no obvious star or planetary system within 1000 light years. And the transmission is very weak.

“We are looking for something that screams out ‘artificial’,” says UCB researcher Eric Korpela, who completed the analysis of the signal in April. “This just doesn’t do that, but it could be because it is distant.”



To read the rest of this story go to the following web page: http://www.newscientist.com/news/nographic.jsp?id=ns99996341



For the record....I use the SETI@HOME software to scan for signals. I think I have logged in excess of 250 hours of computer time trying to help find an "Extraterrestrial Signal" from somewhere out there. It is a worthwile effort of unused computer time, if a person leaves their computer on alot of the time like I do. The link for the software (which is free) is:



http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/download.html



My personal opinion on all of this?



I beleive that the Human Race has already had (and maintains in top goverment secrecy) contact with alien intelligence and that the Goverments are trying to figure out a way to inform the population at mass, without causing total chaos and panic. Imagine the implications of contact from another world. It would undoubtedly send all of our religious institutions into a total tailspin, not to mention the "perceived" ability of our goverments to NOT be in total control of our world'......



I have read quite a few articles that mentioned what would "likely happen" if it were revealed to the general public, that contact had been acheived. Interesting hyposisis of different things that are talked about.



One of the articles that may shed a little more light on my rambling:

http://www.123infinity.com/extraterrestrial_life.html





Happy Labor Day!!