News reports of signal from alien life off-base

News reports of signal from alien life off-base, scientists say

http://www.world-science.net/newspg2..._signalfrm.htm
Posted Sept. 2, 2004 World Science Staff

A rash of recent news reports about the detection of a
possible signal from alien life forms is "highly
exaggerated," said the scientist who was originally quoted
as the key source of the news.

The slew of reports began when New Scientist magazine
published a story on Wednesday about the most promising
signal detection to date of the SETI@home program. The
program is a scientific project that allows home computer
users to donate part of their computers’ processing power
toward helping the search for extraterrestrial
civilizations.

"As of now there is no breakthrough," said an announcement
Thursday on the website of the The Planetary Society, a
space advocacy group. The website quoted SETI@home Chief
Scientist Dan Werthimer of the University of California at
Berkeley saying the reports were "highly exaggerated."

The magazine reported that SETI@home had found its most
promising signal to date, and discussed its possible
origins. But the Planetary Society announcement said the
reports should be taken with a grain of salt.

"Like all of SETI@home’s 5 billion potential signals, this
candidate, labeled SHGb02+14a, was assigned a numerical
score representing the statistical likelihood that it is
indeed an intelligent extraterrestrial signal. Its
relatively high score placed it among the 200 ‘top
candidates’ selected for the targeted reobservation
sessions."

During later reobservations, this signal was "one of the
very few to be confirmed during the reobservations, and the
only one whose score following the sessions actually went
up."

But "the chances that it actually represents an intelligent
signal from beyond remain extremely slim," the announcement
added.

The statement continued as follows.

"Chance alone would make it probable that at least one of
the billions of candidates detected by SETI@home would be
observed on three separate occasions, as was the case for
this candidate. Furthermore... the fact that this
candidate’s frequency drifts rapidly makes it extremely
improbable that it is a transmission from extraterrestrials.
Because of the drift, explained Werthimer, ‘if we had looked
at the sky even a few seconds later we wouldn’t have found a
match’ for this candidate. A signal that drifts so quickly
that it can only be heard for seconds at a time at a given
frequency can only be detected by blind luck. Needless to
say, such a transmission is an unlikely vehicle for message
from an advanced civilization"

"Around the world, millions are still crunching SETI@home
data on their personal computers. The Search for
extraterrestrial intelligence continues at full speed."

--
Guy Macon http://www.guymacon.com