Life - out there....

[American Patriot]

Alien seed sent to Earth? Scientists discover mysterious organism

Some scientists believe this is a seed sent to earth by aliens

The never-before seen image shows a microscopic metal globe spewing out biological material feared to be an infectious agent.
Though the origin or purpose of the mysterious sphere is uncertain, experts say it could contain genetic material – the precursor to life.
They sensationally claim it could have been designed by an intelligent species to “seed” and propagate alien life on Earth.
It is the first time anything like this has been seen and points not only to the existence of extra-terrestrial life, but to complex and civilised beings watching our planet.
It follows findings that DNA capable of inserting itself into living creatures and replicating can exist in harsh space conditions.
A tiny ‘plasmid’, a circular strand of DNA used in genetic engineering, was sent into space from Sweden in 2011 on the exterior of a TEXUS-49 rocket.
The mysterious organism has baffled scientists

After enduring 1,000C heat it was found to still be intact and with its biological properties when it returned to Earth.
Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe director of the Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology at the University of Buckingham in England, said it is further proof of alien life.
However the latest finding, by Professor Milton Wainwright and his team from the University of Sheffield and the University of Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, could reveal a much more sinister purpose.
Conjuring images as warned by H.G Wells in his 1898 novel War of the Worlds – it could have been deliberately engineered and sent to Earth to infect the planet.
Professor Wainwright said the structure is made from the metals titanium and vanadium with a “gooey” biological liquid oozing from its centre.
He said there are several theories as to where it came from, the first being it is a complete microorganism programmed to propagate alien life on Earth.
“It is a ball about the width of a human hair, which has filamentous life on the outside and a gooey biological material oozing from its centre,” he said.
Could it of been alien beings that sent this potential seed of life to earth!?

“We were stunned when X-ray analysis showed that the sphere is made up mainly of titanium, with a trace of vanadium.
“One theory is it was sent to Earth by some unknown civilisation in order to continue seeding the planet with life.
“This seeming piece of science fiction, called “directed panspermia” would probably not be taken seriously by any scientist were it not for the fact that it was very seriously suggested by the Nobel Prize winner of DNA fame, Sir Francis Crick.
“Unless of course we can find details of the civilisation that is supposed to have sent it in this respect it is probably an unprovable theory.”
Professor Wainwright and his team found the object in dust and particulate matter collected from the stratosphere.
He sent balloons 27km into the sky to collect debris from space and isolated several particles he claims are proof of life in space.
It comes as the mysterious “ghost particle”, also found by Professor Wainwright was revealed and follows the revelation last year of the astonishing “Dragon Particle” the first of its kind to point towards proof of life in space.
Professor Wainwright said the curious orb landed on the sampler balloon it left a tiny impact crater proving it could not have gently fallen from close by.
He said: “On hitting the stratosphere sampler the sphere made an impact crater, a minute version of the huge impact crater on Earth caused by the asteroid said to have killed off the dinosaurs.
“This impact crater proves that the sphere was incoming to Earth from space, an organism coming from Earth would not be travelling fast enough when it fell back to Earth to cause such damage.
“This seems never before to have been found on Earth.”
He said one theory is the object was released deliberately to infect the human race with life-threatening diseases, another is that it travelled millions of miles on a comet.
He said: “For the moment, we are content to say that the life-containing titanium sphere came from space, possibly from a comet.
“NASA is currently sending a balloon into the stratosphere to look for life.
“Hopefully they will get the same results as we have, whether or not they acknowledge what the team have found, or claim the discovery for themselves remains to be seen.”
The findings come as scientists in the UK and Japan launch the ISPA (Institute for the Study of Panspermia and Astroeconomics) which seeks to prove life on Earth originated from Space.
Professor Wickramasinghe, director for research at the institute has long-maintained biological material including bacteria and viruses are constantly raining down from the skies.
He said: “Mainstream science and institutions have fought against theories which expound these beliefs but now evidence from meteorites, from samples of bacteria from space and from space observation is making resistance more difficult.
“Proving that the Earth is in a constant exchange of matter with the larger cosmos would have implications not only in terms of our identity, but could also give us insight into alien viruses which may be important for our group identity, evolution and survival itself.”
UIP Summary

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We find this an extremely intriguing/exciting story and one which could open up to be one of the biggest findings ever for the human race!
It is becoming more and more clearer each week that us humans potentially did not entirely come from Planet Earth, but instead come from Space, perhaps from Microbes/bacteria off a passing Comet etc, or perhaps from Alien beings who have seeded this planet with Science beyond our belief!
Could it possibly be that this planet we live on was even Terraformed by Alien Beings who have helped spread life throughout the Universe!? Perhaps these are the beings that we see in the sky, reviewing their little ‘experiments’ here on Planet Earth!
Scientists are finding more and more evidence which leans towards the fact that the human race is perhaps Alien to its own planet. The Big Question is though, if we can be possibly ‘formed’ here on Earth, then what else could potentially drop out of the atmosphere and grow on Planet Earth!? (please see thought provoking image below).
What other beings could possibly be seeded on Earth from outer space!?

[American Patriot]

I think Asimov was one of the first guys to propose life not based on carbon. Maybe it was someone else. I distinctly recall Sagan proposing "floating balloon-like creatures in Jupiter's atmosphere" along with some kind of smaller, fast moving "predator" type, both of which used gases expelled to move, and fly.

Anyway, today, it comes out.....

No water needed: Methane-based life possible on Saturn’s moon Titan, study says

Published time: March 01, 2015 11:05 Get short URL

A representation of a 9-nanometer azotosome, about the size of a virus. (I mage from the study)

8



Tags
Biology, Science

Researchers from the Cornell University have developed a methane-based, oxygen-free life form that theoretically may exist in the cold and harsh environment of the planet Saturn’s giant moon Titan, defying the idea that water is necessary for life.
Scientists modeled the cell membrane of small organic nitrogen compounds, and it can function in extremely cold liquid methane temperatures: Titan has seas of liquid methane of almost 300 degrees below zero.
The cell is made of carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen molecules: they exist in the Titan seas, but simultaneously demonstrate flexibility and stability of the liposome on Earth, according to a study published in Science Advances journal.
The cell was called "azotosome" where “azote” stands for nitrogen in French, while “soma” is “body” in Greek.

Read more‘Despeckle it!’ NASA gets clearest views of Titan yet (PHOTOS)
"Using molecular simulations, we demonstrate that these membranes in cryogenic solvent have an elasticity equal to that of lipid bilayers in water at room temperature," said James Stevenson, co-author of the research from the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University.
"As a proof of concept, we also demonstrate that stable cryogenic membranes could arise from compounds observed in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon, Titan, known for the existence of seas of liquid methane on its surface," Stevenson said.
On Earth, life is based on the phospholipid bilayer membrane. Being a water-based vesicle, it holds organic matter of a cell. A vesicle made from this type of membrane is called a liposome, “a lipid body.”
One of the leading scientists who participated in the study, Paulette Clancy, told Science Times that they had “the right tools” to make it work.
“We didn't come in with any preconceptions about what should be in a membrane and what shouldn't. We just worked with the compounds that we knew were there and asked, 'If this was your palette, what can you make out of that," Clancy said.
The researchers’ next move would be to attempt to show the cells’ behavior in a methane, oxygen-free environment, and to see what processes would be equivalent to metabolism and reproduction.

[American Patriot]

Feb. 27, 2015

Life 'not as we know it' possible on Saturn's moon Titan

By
Anne Ju
Jason Koski/University Photography
Graduate student James Stevenson, astronomer Jonathan Lunine and chemical engineer Paulette Clancy, with a Cassini image of Titan in the foreground of Saturn, and an azotosome, the theorized cell membrane on Titan.


Liquid water is a requirement for life on Earth. But in other, much colder worlds, life might exist beyond the bounds of water-based chemistry.
Taking a simultaneously imaginative and rigidly scientific view, Cornell chemical engineers and astronomers offer a template for life that could thrive in a harsh, cold world – specifically Titan, the giant moon of Saturn. A planetary body awash with seas not of water, but of liquid methane, Titan could harbor methane-based, oxygen-free cells that metabolize, reproduce and do everything life on Earth does.
Their theorized cell membrane, composed of small organic nitrogen compounds and capable of functioning in liquid methane temperatures of 292 degrees below zero, is published in Science Advances, Feb. 27. The work is led by chemical molecular dynamics expert Paulette Clancy, the Samuel W. and Diane M. Bodman Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, with first author James Stevenson, a graduate student in chemical engineering. The paper’s co-author is Jonathan Lunine, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Astronomy.
Lunine is an expert on Saturn’s moons and an interdisciplinary scientist on the Cassini-Huygens mission that discovered methane-ethane seas on Titan. Intrigued by the possibilities of methane-based life on Titan, and armed with a grant from the Templeton Foundation to study non-aqueous life, Lunine sought assistance about a year ago from Cornell faculty with expertise in chemical modeling. Clancy, who had never met Lunine, offered to help.
“We’re not biologists, and we’re not astronomers, but we had the right tools,” Clancy said. “Perhaps it helped, because we didn’t come in with any preconceptions about what should be in a membrane and what shouldn’t. We just worked with the compounds that we knew were there and asked, ‘If this was your palette, what can you make out of that?’”
On Earth, life is based on the phospholipid bilayer membrane, the strong, permeable, water-based vesicle that houses the organic matter of every cell. A vesicle made from such a membrane is called a liposome. Thus, many astronomers seek extraterrestrial life in what’s called the circumstellar habitable zone, the narrow band around the sun in which liquid water can exist. But what if cells weren’t based on water, but on methane, which has a much lower freezing point?
James Stevenson
A representation of a 9-nanometer azotosome, about the size of a virus, with a piece of the membrane cut away to show the hollow interior.


The engineers named their theorized cell membrane an “azotosome,” “azote” being the French word for nitrogen. “Liposome” comes from the Greek “lipos” and “soma” to mean “lipid body;” by analogy, “azotosome” means “nitrogen body.”
The azotosome is made from nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen molecules known to exist in the cryogenic seas of Titan, but shows the same stability and flexibility that Earth’s analogous liposome does. This came as a surprise to chemists like Clancy and Stevenson, who had never thought about the mechanics of cell stability before; they usually study semiconductors, not cells.
The engineers employed a molecular dynamics method that screened for candidate compounds from methane for self-assembly into membrane-like structures. The most promising compound they found is an acrylonitrile azotosome, which showed good stability, a strong barrier to decomposition, and a flexibility similar to that of phospholipid membranes on Earth. Acrylonitrile – a colorless, poisonous, liquid organic compound used in the manufacture of acrylic fibers, resins and thermoplastics – is present in Titan’s atmosphere.
Excited by the initial proof of concept, Clancy said the next step is to try and demonstrate how these cells would behave in the methane environment – what might be the analogue to reproduction and metabolism in oxygen-free, methane-based cells.
Lunine looks forward to the long-term prospect of testing these ideas on Titan itself, as he put it, by “someday sending a probe to float on the seas of this amazing moon and directly sampling the organics.”
Stevenson said he was in part inspired by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, who wrote about the concept of non-water-based life in a 1962 essay, “Not as We Know It.”
Said Stevenson: “Ours is the first concrete blueprint of life not as we know it.”

[American Patriot]

http://observer.com/2016/08/not-a-dr...om-deep-space/

Shit is about to get real.... Basically, the Russians found, last year, a signal meeting the criteria of "intelligent life, and broadcasting a signal outward from a planet". They have identified one Neptune sized planet thus far. The star is similar to ours. It's 95 light years out. Probably a "Type II" civilization if there IS one and this isn't a fluke of time-space, stars pulsing or something.

This is big, and no one is talking about it.

Now, in refreshing my memory about the various types of civilizations (and this is hypothetical anyway) I don't believe they would be Type II, but rather type I. At this point though, it's impossible to see or know. And we've not confirmed the signals yet anyway.

Not a Drill: SETI Is Investigating a Possible Extraterrestrial Signal From Deep Space

If the signal is truly from an alien world, it’s one far more advanced than ours

By Robin Seemangal • 08/29/16 11:02am

Jodie Foster as a SETI scientist in the film Contact, based on Carl Sagan’s book about E.T. communication. (Image: Warner Bros)



An international team of scientists from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is investigating mysterious signal spikes emitting from a 6.3-billion-year-old star in the constellation Hercules—95 light years away from Earth. The implications are extraordinary and point to the possibility of a civilization far more advanced than our own.


The unusual signal was originally detected on May 15, 2015, by the Russian Academy of Science-operated RATAN-600 radio telescope in Zelenchukskaya, Russia, but was kept secret from the international community. Interstellar space reporter Paul Gilster broke the story after the researchers quietly circulated a paper announcing the detection of “a strong signal in the direction of HD164595.”


The mysterious star’s designation is HD164595, and it’s considered to be sun-like in nature with a nearly identical metallic composition to our own star. So far, a single Neptune-like (but warmer) planet has been discovered in its orbit—HD 164595 b. But as Gilster explained, “There could, of course, be other planets still undetected in this system.”


Decorated Italian SETI researcher and mathematician Claudio Maccone along with Russia’s Nikolai Bursov of the Special Astrophysical Observatory are the principal scientists working on the apparent discovery. They claim that “permanent monitoring of this target is needed.”



The RATAN-600 Radio Telescope in Russia. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)



“The signal conceivably fits the profile for an intentional transmission from an extraterrestrial source,” said Alan Boyle, author of The Case for Pluto who reported the story for Geekwire. “In any case, the blip is interesting enough to merit discussion by those who specialize in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.”


The signal’s strength indicates that if it in fact came from a isotropic beacon, the power source would have to be built by a Kardashev Type II civilization. (The Kardashev scale is used to determine the progress of a civilization’s technological development by measuring how much energy was used to transmit an interstellar message.) An ‘Isotropic’ beacon means a communication source emitting a signal with equal power in all directions while promoting signal strength throughout travel.


In his acclaimed work “Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations,” Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev explained that a Type II civilization would be able to harness the energy of their entire host star. The most common hypothetical example of this would be a Dyson Sphere—which is a massive artificial structure that could completely encapsulate a star and transfer the energy to a nearby planet.



A cut-away diagram of an idealized Dyson shell, a variant on Dyson’s original concept.(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)



Basically, if the signal was beamed out into the galaxy without aim or direction, that would require an enormous amount of power to actually be detected. But what if the signal was beamed specifically at our solar system? Well, that would require less energy and could indicate the presence of a Kardashev Type I civilization—meaning that it could be a highly technological, contemporary society that harnesses the solar energy emitted by its local star, much like our planet does with solar panels. This particular civilization’s social structure is theorized to be completely globalized and interconnected.


“The signal is provocative enough that the RATAN-600 researchers are calling for permanent monitoring of this target,” said Gilster. And that’s exactly what is transpiring. As of last night, the SETI institute is diverting its Allen Telescope Array in northern California to investigate while their counterparts at METI International (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) will use Panama’s Boquete Optical Observatory.


The detection of the mysterious signal and the ensuing investigations will be discussed at the IAA SETI Permanent Committee during the 67th International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara,

Mexico, on September 27—the same day and location where Elon Musk will reveal his plans to colonize Mars. The Observer will be following up on both these stories from the Congress.


Robin Seemangal focuses on NASA and advocacy for space exploration. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, where he currently resides. Find him on Instagram for more space-related content: @nova_road.

[American Patriot]

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=36248

An Interesting SETI Candidate in Hercules

by PAUL GILSTER on AUGUST 27, 2016

A candidate signal for SETI is a welcome sign that our efforts in that direction may one day pay off. An international team of researchers has announced the detection of “a strong signal in the direction of HD164595” in a document now being circulated through contact person Alexander Panov. The detection was made with the RATAN-600 radio telescope in Zelenchukskaya, in the Karachay–Cherkess Republic of Russia, not far from the border with Georgia in the Caucasus.
The signal was received on May 15, 2015, 18:01:15.65 (sidereal time), at a wavelength of 2.7 cm. The estimated amplitude of the signal is 750 mJy.
No one is claiming that this is the work of an extraterrestrial civilization, but it is certainly worth further study. Working out the strength of the signal, the researchers say that if it came from an isotropic beacon, it would be of a power possible only for a Kardashev Type II civilization. If it were a narrow beam signal focused on our Solar System, it would be of a power available to a Kardashev Type I civilization. The possibility of noise of one form or another cannot be ruled out, and researchers in Paris led by Jean Schneider are considering the possible microlensing of a background source by HD164595. But the signal is provocative enough that the RATAN-600 researchers are calling for permanent monitoring of this target.

Image: The RATAN-600 radio telescope in Zelenchukskaya. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Here I’m drawing on a presentation forwarded to me by Claudio Maccone, from which I learn that the team behind the detection was led by N.N. Bursov and included L.N. Filippova, V.V. Filippov, L.M. Gindilis, A.D. Panov, E.S. Starikov, J. Wilson, as well as Claudio Maccone himself, the latter a familiar figure on Centauri Dreams. The work is to be discussed at a meeting of the IAA SETI Permanent Committee, to be held during the 67th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Tuesday, September 27th, 2016,
What we know of HD 164595 is that it is a star of 0.99 solar masses at a distance of roughly 95 light years in the constellation Hercules, and an estimated age of 6.3 billion years. Its metallicity is almost identical to that of the Sun. A known planet in this system, HD 164595 b, is 0.05 Jupiter mass with a period of 40 days, considered to be a warm Neptune on a circular orbit. There could, of course, be other planets still undetected in this system.

Image: Strong signal from the direction of HD 164595. “Raw” record of the signal together with expected shape of the signal for point-like source in the position of HD 164595. Credit: Bursov et al.
From the presentation:

The estimated probability ~2 X 10-4 to simulate the signal from the direction of the HD164595 by signal-like noise is small, therefore HD164595 is good candidate SETI. Permanent monitoring of this target is needed.

All of which makes excellent sense. We can’t claim the detection of an extraterrestrial civilization from this observation. What we can say is that the signal is interesting and merits further scrutiny.



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Gonzo August 29, 2016 at 13:58

The possibility of ever finding intelligent life are virtually nil.
Suppose there are only 100 things that have to go ‘right’ for life to arise. Even in that artificially (incredibly so) limited set of conditions, we know that some of those conditions must be satisfied at a particular point in time in solar system/planetary evolution.
Then there is the vanishingly small possibility of two such civilizations occurring close enough together that they could detect one another.
I’ve explained it this way: Compress the entire time the universe has existed into one 2 hour period. Compress the entire visible universe into the size of Texas Memorial Stadium, where the Longhorns play. (Capacity 100,000 ish).
Now during that period, and starting with the highest rows and proceeding downward, have everyone in the stadium flip a coin 100 times. When the highest row in the nosebleed section gets ready to flip their second coin, the row just below them should flip their first, and so on. In other words, the field is the big bang and the rows of seats are older the further you upward you get.
Anyone who achieves ‘heads’ for all 100 coin flips then turns on a flashlight for half a second. DURING that second, the person looks to see if there are any other flashlights visible from where that person stands.
That flashlight pulse represents the situation where life has developed to the point of strong radio wave communication that would have any possibility of detection by other species.
This is why the Fermi Paradox is not really a paradox. Even if all the conditions for life come together, the possibility that two such systems will develop AND be at the level where they are broadcasting signals that could be detected and received by each other… just so small as to be treated as impossible.
Humans should stop get to work on domes for Mars colonization, a space station for Ceres, and free orbiting human “generation” habitats orbiting the sun between earth and Mars.

[American Patriot]

http://www.geekwire.com/2016/signal-...rest-hd164595/

They’re not saying it’s aliens, but signal traced to sunlike star sparks SETI interest

BY ALAN BOYLE on August 28, 2016 at 9:30 pm




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SETI researchers say an intriguing radio spike was detected last year by the RATAN-600 radio telescope. (Credit: SAO RAS)

SETI researchers are buzzing about a strong spike in radio signals that seemed to come from the direction of a sunlike star in the constellation Hercules, known as HD 164595.
The signal conceivably fits the profile for an intentional transmission from an extraterrestrial source – but it could also be a case of earthly radio interference, or a microlensing event in which the star’s gravitational field focused stray signals coming from much farther away.
In any case, the blip is interesting enough to merit discussion by those who specialize in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI – including Centauri Dreams’ Paul Gilster, who brought the case into the public eye this weekend.
At least two SETI research groups are aiming to track HD 164595 tonight. The SETI Institute is using the Allen Telescope Array in northern California, while METI International is looking to the Boquete Optical SETI Observatory in Panama.
Gilster reports that the signal spike was detected more than a year ago, on May 15, 2015, by the RATAN-600 radio telescope in Zelenchukskaya. That facility is in the Russian republic of Karachay-Cherkessia, not far from the Georgian border.
The apparent source of the signal, HD 164595, is interesting for a couple of reasons: It’s a sunlike star, about 95 light-years away from Earth, and it’s already known to have at least one “warm Neptune” planet called HD 164595 b. “There could, of course, be other planets still undetected in this system,” Gilster says.


The case has been compared to the one-time-only “Wow Signal” of 1977, or the more recent controversy over KIC 8462852, also known as “Tabby’s Star” or the alien-megastructure star.
There’s been no word of a sequel to HD 164595’s blip in the more than 15 months since it was recorded. Nevertheless, Gilster says it’s due for discussion at next month’s International Astronautical Congress in Mexico.
The researchers behind the detection, led by Nikolai Bursov of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Special Astrophysical Observatory, rate HD 164595 as a good candidate for SETI investigation. “Permanent monitoring of this target is needed,” they say.
Doug Vakoch, president of San Francisco-based METI International, said his research group would try observing HD 164595 as early as tonight, weather permitting, with the Boquete Optical SETI Observatory. In an email to GeekWire, he explained why he and other SETI scientists have an obligation to follow up on intriguing prospects:

“Standard SETI protocols call for confirmation of possible signals from a separate observatory. This helps ensure that the original signal didn’t arise from a technical glitch in the original observatory, and it helps rule out a hoax perpetuated by some enterprising graduate students targeting a SETI experiment.
“In the past, plans for SETI follow-up observations have focused on confirmation of the original signal, seeking a repeat signal at the same frequency. That’s a critical step for confirmation – and we don’t yet have evidence that this sort of follow-up has happened for HD 164595.
“In addition, we need to be alert to the possibility than if we do really find a signal from an advanced civilization, they are also transmitting at other frequencies than the one where we first detected them. That’s why it’s so important to prepare for follow-up SETI observations at both radio and optical frequencies, to be launched as soon as we detect a credible candidate signal at any frequency.”

Vakoch was involved in follow-up observations of KIC 8462852 last year, and he plans to keep watch on Proxima Centauri as well.
Update for 9:30 p.m. PT Aug. 28: Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., weighed in on HD 164595 in an email to GeekWire:

“This is a bit of a puzzling story, as the Russians found this signal a year ago or so, but just didn’t let others know. That’s not good policy, as what you really want is confirmation at another telescope, but… Is it real? The signal may be real, but I suspect it’s not ET. There are other possibilities for a wide-band signal such as this, and they’re caused by natural sources (or even terrestrial interference).
“I just did a quick calculation of how much wattage they’d need to wield from 94 light-years (I think that’s the distance) in order to produce the apparently received signal, and that would be a big utility bill, even if they were directing the transmission (as opposed to broadcasting equally in all directions). It’s also the case that theknown planet around the star is in an awfully tight orbit, which means it’s probably a place that’s hotter than Seattle’s best restaurant. Of course, there could be other planets there …
“So, not too much to say so far. However, we’re looking at this object with the Allen (not Alan) Telescope Array as I speak to you!”

Check out Gilster’s full report about HD 164595 on Centauri Dreams, and be sure to read the comments.

Love space and science? Sign up for our GeekWire Space & Science email newsletter for top headlines from Alan Boyle, GeekWire’s aerospace and science editor.

GeekWire aerospace and science editor Alan Boyle is an award-winning science writer and veteran space reporter. Formerly of NBCNews.com, he is the author of "The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference." Follow him via CosmicLog.com, on Twitter @b0yle, and on Facebook and Google+.

[American Patriot]

[American Patriot]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/30/health...-civilization/

Hear me now? 'Strong signal' from sun-like star sparks alien speculation


By James Griffiths, CNN
Updated 5:34 AM ET, Tue August 30, 2016

NASA: Proof of alien life closer

Story highlights

• Very strong signal detected from star HD 164595, 94 light years away
• If artificial, signal could be evidence of a hugely advanced alien civilization
• Astronomers are training their telescopes on the star in the hopes of learning more

(CNN)Astronomers engaged in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) are training their instruments on a star around 94 light years from Earth after a very strong signal was detected by a Russian telescope.



An international team of researchers is now examining the radio signal and its star, HD 164595 -- described in a paper by Italian astronomer Claudio Maccone and others as a "strong candidate for SETI" -- in the hopes of determining its origin.




"The signal from HD 164595 is intriguing, because it comes from the vicinity of a sun-like star, and if it's artificial, its strength is great enough that it was clearly made by a civilization with capabilities beyond those of humankind," astronomer Douglas Vakoch, president of METI International, which searches for life beyond Earth, tells CNN.


Whenever a strong signal is detected, "it's a good possibility for some nearby civilization to be detected," Maccone tells CNN.
Advanced civilization?

Paul Gilster of the Tau Zero Foundation, which conducts interstellar research, said that if the signal was artificial, its strength suggested it would have to come from a civilization more advanced than our own.


Such a civilization would likely be Type II on the Kardashev scale, an attempt by the Soviet astronomer of the same name to categorize various technological stages of civilizations.


"The Kardashev scale is based basically on the energy that that civilization might be able to funnel for its own use," says Maccone.


At present, our own species is somewhere near Type I on the scale, whereby a civilization is able to harness all the energy available to it on its own planet, including solar, wind, earthquakes, and other fuels.



Dyson swarm (pictured) or Dyson spheres are proposed technologies for capturing all energy emitted by a star.






A Type II civilization would be able to harness the entirety of the energy emitted by its star, billions of billions of watts.


Doing so would require a colossal undertaking, likely the construction of some kind of superstructure, such as a giant sphere or swarm of super-advanced solar panels popularized by astronomer Freeman Dyson that could catch and store all radiation put out by the sun.


Scientists believe superstructures are probably our best chance of detecting alien life unless they are actively trying to communicate with us.


A Dyson sphere was one of the solutions suggested to the peculiar light fluctuations detected around Tabby's Star, which caused great excitement when they were detected last year.
Maccone is working on developing an alternative mathematical measure of how advanced civilizations are, based on the amount of knowledge and information available to them, that "might help us in the future classify alien civilizations" that we detect.


Dimming star remains mystery, but it's likely not caused by comets





Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth



This diagram lines up planets recently discovered by Kepler in terms of their sizes, compared with Earth. Kepler-22b was announced in December 2011; the three Super-Earths were announced April 18, 2013. All of them could potentially host life, but we do not know anything definitive about their compositions or atmosphere.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth

This illustration depicts Kepler-62e, a planet in the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the sun. It is about 1,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth

This illustration depicts Kepler-62f, a planet in the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the sun, in the same system as Kepler-62e.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth

This diagram compares the planets of our own inner solar system to Kepler-62, a five-planet system about 1,200 light-years from Earth. Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f are thought capable of hosting life.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth

The planet Kepler-69c is about 2,700 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth

This diagram compares the planets of our own inner solar system to Kepler-69, which hosts a planet Kepler-69c that appears to be capable of hosting life, in addition to planet Kepler-69b.
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Photos: Where life might live beyond Earth

This artist's illustration represents the variety of planets being detected by NASA's Kepler spacecraft.
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[American Patriot]

This from seti@home

Eric Korpela Volunteer moderator Project administrator Project developer Project scientist Send message Joined: 3 Apr 99 Posts: 1191 Credit: 16,652,434 RAC: 4,371

Message 1813506 - Posted: 29 Aug 2016, 17:50:30 UTC Last modified: 29 Aug 2016, 17:52:24 UTC

I'm sure that many of you have seen the news reports of a "SETI signal" detected from the star HD 164595 I was one of the many people who received the the email with the subject "Candidate SETI SIGNAL DETECTED by Russians from star HD 164595 by virtue of RATAN-600 radio telescope." Since the email did come from known SETI researchers, I looked over the presentation. I was unimpressed. In one out of 39 scans that passed over star showed a signal at about 4.5 times the mean noise power with a profile somewhat like the beam profile. Of course SETI@home has seen millions of potential signals with similar characteristics, but it takes more than that to make a good candidate. Multiple detections are a minimum criterion. Because the receivers used were making broad band measurements, there's really nothing about this "signal" that would distinguish it from a natural radio transient (stellar flare, active galactic nucleus, microlensing of a background source, etc.) There's also nothing that could distinguish it from a satellite passing through the telescope field of view. All in all, it's relatively uninteresting from a SETI standpoint. But, of course, it's been announced to the media. Reporters won't have the background to know it's not interesting. Because the media has it, and since this business runs on media, everyone will look at it. ATA is looking at it. I assume Breakthrough will look at it. Someone will look at it with Arecibo, and we'll be along for the ride. And I'll check the SETI@home database around that position. And we'll all find nothing. It's not our first time at this rodeo, so we know how it works. ____________ @SETIEric

[American Patriot]

http://www.businessinsider.com/alien...d164595-2016-8

Astronomers have detected an 'interesting' and possibly alien radio signal coming from a sun-like star

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The Allen Telescope Array in California. SETI Institute
If it sounds too good to be true it probably is, goes the famous adage — and so it especially goes with claims of potential alien signals.
Still, astronomers are puzzling over a powerful burst of energy that seems to have emanated from the star HD 164595, located some 94 light-years away in the constellation Hercules.
"An international team of researchers has announced the detection of 'a strong signal in the direction of HD164595,'" book author Paul Gilster wrote at his blog Centauri Dreams, noting that a Russian radio telescope called RATAN-600 detected the signal on May 15, 2015.
"No one is claiming that this is the work of an extraterrestrial civilization ... But the signal is provocative enough that the RATAN-600 researchers are calling for permanent monitoring of this target," he wrote.
The signal's discoverers are urging the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) to take a long, hard look at HD 164595.
Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, said that's exactly what the organization started doing Sunday night after it heard about the alleged signal.
"We looked last night with Allen Telescope Array [ATA] last night and didn't find anything," Shostak, who wasn't involved in the signal's initial detection, told Business Insider. "But like all SETI experiments, you can't prove it's not there, only that it is there by finding the signal again."
An 'interesting' signal

A chart of a powerful (and potentially alien) radio signal that allegedly came from the vicinity of the star HD 164595.C. Maccone et al./Centauri Dreams
Gilster and Shostak are both gleaning their information from a scientific presentation sent to them byClaudio Maccone, an Italian astronomer who collaborated with Russian researchers at RATAN-600.
The deck of slides will allegedly be shown to researchers at the International Astronomical Meeting in Mexico on Sept. 27. (Business Insider contacted Maccone for a copy, but he did not immediately respond; Gilster, however, sent us a PDF.)
The signal from HD 164595 is so intriguing, according to the presentation, because the star is "exactly Sun-like".
HD 164595 weighs about the same as the sun (just 1% lighter), is 4.5 billion years old (100 million years younger than the sun), and has a similar temperature (just 12 degrees warmer). It's elemental composition, or "metallicity," is nearly the same, too.
Astronomers have also found a Neptune-like planet (called HD 164595 b) orbiting the distant star, and Gilster notes there may be other planets there — perhaps smaller, rockier worlds left undetected by telescopes and spacecraft like NASA's Kepler mission.
But the alleged signal is what got the attention of Maccone and his Russian colleagues.
Shostak characterized it as 2.7 cm in wavelength and 11 GHz in frequency, which makes it an ultra high-frequency signal that's not too different from a digital TV signal.
Assuming the signal is real, Shostak says it'd have to be incredibly powerful for Earth to have detected it coming from HD 164595.
"If they're aiming it straight at Earth, it'd require about 50 trillion watts," Shostak said, or 50 followed by 12 zeros. "That's a little more than all of humanity uses at any moment, more than all the energy being used by all of our power plants, cars, buses, planes, trains, and so on."
And if the signal is being broadcast in all directions? The power requirement gets even steeper, he said.
"The amount of power you'd need is something like 100 billion billion watts," Shostak says, or 100 followed by 20 zeroes. That's roughly 100 million times more energy required compared to a focused, beam-type signal pointed at Earth.
Either amount is "pretty impressive," Shostak said, and unlikely to be alien in origin, though it's still a possibility.
'Probably not E.T.'

The RATAN-600 radio telescope in Russia. александр с кавказа/WIkimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Shostak says no one is holding their breath in hopes that the signal is alien — not even Maccone himself.
For one, says Shostak, the research group took more than a year to say anything about the signal. "It's a gentlemen's agreement that if you find a signal that could be real, you call up someone else to check it out in an effort to convince yourself," he said. "The people who found it didn't think enough to tell other people right away."
The Russian researchers, Maccone told Shostak, didn't do this because "they were shy."
"To me that says they are not so convinced it's ET [extraterrestrial]," Shostak said, noting that Maccone even told him that he thinks "it is probably not ET."
Second, Shostak says the RATAN-600 radio telescope in Russia (shown above) has a sort of "astigmatism," so it can't verify with great certainty that the signal is actually coming from a place like the HD 164595 star system.
"If you have an ordinary telescope dish, you can zero on one spot on the sky. That spot is usually fairly small, like aiming a laser pointer," Shostak said. "But their antenna is small in one direction and big in another. It's like a squished egg. When you pick something up, you don't know precisely where it's coming from."
Shostak also said the signal the RATAN-600 facility picked up is wide and "spread all over the dial," which makes it harder to verify. "It swallows 1,000 MHz of spectrum. It's like they're getting all of the TV stations at once," Shostak said. "You’d know there's a transmission in there, but not exactly where."
Which is why, when SETI looked for the signal, it may not have found it; it could be spread out and weak in every channel, or powerful in one channel but harder to zero in on. "Even if you don't see lights on in the windows, it doesn't mean no one is there," Shostak said. "Maybe you're too far away or not looking at the right time."
He says SETI plans to look for the signal again Monday night using the ATA, but insisted that Maccone and his colleagues need to publish their work — and preferably outside of a Power Point presentation.
"I think that says something itself. We'd all like to know more," he said. "Until that's done, this is 'interesting if true.'"
A gravitational lens or "Einstein ring." The blue ring is a galaxy behind a large galaxy that has distorted spacetime, bending the light around it like a lens. ESA, NASA/Hubble
So what might the signal be, if not aliens?
"We have a detection of a single source, much like the famous WOW! signal. The WOW! signal never did repeat, and this one may do the same, in which case we won't know whether it is an actual distant signal or a local event caused by something we haven't figured out," Gilster told Business Insider in an email.
One thing it could be is the accidental work of a gravitational lens: When a massive object, such as a star, warps the fabric of space enough to collect, focus, and concentrate a signal behind it on a far-off target like Earth.
"I am also interested in the idea that this is a microlensing event caused by the star passing in front of a more distant target," Gilster said, noting astronomers at the Paris Observatory are looking into the possibility.
But most likely it's something more mundane, SETI@Home project scientist Eric Korpela wrote in a forum on the site.
"[T]here's really nothing about this 'signal' that would distinguish it from a natural radio transient (stellar flare, active galactic nucleus, microlensing of a background source, etc.) There's also nothing that could distinguish it from a satellite passing through the telescope field of view. All in all, it's relatively uninteresting from a SETI standpoint," he wrote.
"But, of course, it's been announced to the media. ... Someone will look at it with Arecibo, and we'll be along for the ride. ... And we'll all find nothing. It's not our first time at this rodeo, so we know how it works."