SETI denies hearing ET's voice

By Graeme Wearden, ZDNet UK
06 September 2004 09:50 AM
Tags: seti, graeme, wearden, signal, report, zdnet, radio, anderson
Reports that a group set up as part of the Search for Extraterrestrial Life (SETI) has detected a radio transmission that it suspects could be a signal from an alien civilisation have been dismissed by the organisation.

"Sorry, but there's nothing new to report," said David Anderson, director of SETI@home.

"The candidate signal in question was essentially ruled out as an ET [extra-terrestrial] signal because its Doppler drift rate varied too widely," Anderson told ZDNet UK, adding that this fact had first been reported back in April.

Many media organisations reported last week that a faint radio pulse had been picked up that could be an attempt by living beings on another planet to get in touch. The signal was at 1420MHz, the frequency of hydrogen, which astronomers frequently monitor as they map the universe.

Alien-seekers expect that a civilisation capable of drawing attention to itself would know which parts of the radio spectrum other life forms might be watching.

The SETI project uses spare CPU cycles on millions of PCs to analyse radio signals.

Rupert Goodwins contributed to this report.

ZDNet UK's Graeme Wearden reported from London. For more coverage from ZDNet UK, click here.

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Talkback 1 comments

    It's all a cover up!! The sign ...Anonymous -- 06/09/04

    It's all a cover up!!

    The signals were real - the varying Doppler shift just means that the spacecraft that the signals were emanating from was speeding up and slowing down erratically! I know this because I was with the aliens when they were sending it at the time!

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