Prof. Abel Méndez @ProfAbelMendezWe are trying to post the results from the observations of #Ross128 before the end of the week.
Prof. Abel Méndez @ProfAbelMendezWe are waiting for all results to reach a conclusion on the nature of the signals from #Ross128 later this week. Spoilers: not aliens. 8:16 am · 18 Jul 2017
Quote from: starsilk on 07/17/2017 05:57 pmany beacon would need to be easily identifiable as 'intelligent', and that's not difficult to do - pulsing out prime numbers for example. 2, 3, 5, 7 is all you need. that would give pretty much any intelligent listener a 'wow' moment.Radio waves are not numbers, you cannot send them directly.You have to encode and modulate the numbers somehow when transmitting them.And then the receiver has to be able to understand the modulation, demodulate it, and also understand the encoding to do the decoding.
any beacon would need to be easily identifiable as 'intelligent', and that's not difficult to do - pulsing out prime numbers for example. 2, 3, 5, 7 is all you need. that would give pretty much any intelligent listener a 'wow' moment.
It’s unlikely that Ross 128 has been big in your life. In fact, it’s unlikely you’ve ever seen it, despite the fact that it’s nestled in the prominent summer constellation, Virgo. That’s because Ross 128 is a dim bulb of a star, a so-called red dwarf. Even on the darkest of moonless nights, it’s 100 times too faint to be seen with the naked eye.In May, radio astronomers at the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico pointed their Brobdingnagian antenna in the direction of Ross 128. The researchers’ interest was to learn if they could measure any natural radio emissions from this very close (11 light-years) dwarf. Such stars are known to act up, and the turbulent flares that erupt from their surfaces produce radio static. The hope was that small changes in such emission might offer clues to planets whose magnetic fields might perturb these stellar storms. (Note that Ross 128 does not have any known planets, but that doesn’t guarantee there aren’t any. What the Puerto Rican astronomers found when the data were analyzed was a wide-band radio signal. This signal not only repeated with time, but also slid down the radio dial, somewhat like a trombone going from a higher note to a lower one.That was odd, indeed. And the discoverers, led by Abel Mendez at the University of Puerto Rico, immediately enlisted the help of other astronomical observatories to keep watch on Ross 128. They suspected one of three possible causes for the radio noise: (1) Flares from the star, as above; (2) other background astronomical source, or (3) terrestrial interference, most likely from some artificial satellite. A deliberate transmission from intelligent beings on a planet near the star is another possibility of course, but was at the bottom of their list.The Arecibo observers were careful to point out that the intelligent beings explanation – while instinctively more appealing than a barrel of kittens – was the least likely. Still, the facts are that no one yet knows for sure what’s going on in this system.Beginning last weekend, Jon Richards swung the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Arrayin the direction of Ross 128, and so far has collected more than 10 hours of data. Even using the massive Arecibo antenna, the detected signal was weak, and that makes its detection with other instruments difficult. But it’s obviously important to check the signal out and, insofar as possible, see if it’s really coming from the Ross 128 star system.Institute scientist Gerry Harp is looking at the ATA data now, and this page will be updated with whatever findings are made. Of course it’s possible that Ross 128 will shed its anonymity and become the first star system to show good evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. But it’s likely – at least on the basis of past experience – that we will find another, less romantic explanation for the mystery that now enshrouds this object. That, of course, is a frequent occurrence for anyone doing exploration, and hardly a cause for discouragement, but rather an incentive to continue the search.
Prof. Abel Méndez @ProfAbelMendezI analyzed the #Ross128 data and reduced the explanations for the signals from many to just two. Still waiting for other observatories data.12:29 am · 20 Jul 2017
Prof. Abel Méndez @ProfAbelMendezFull explanation of the signals of #Ross128 will be given on Friday.12:48 am · 20 Jul 2017
Likely satellite produced RFI.http://seti.berkeley.edu/ross128.pdf
Prof. Abel Méndez @ProfAbelMendezOur conclusion on #Ross128 will be posted here at 11 AM AST.
Not sure what time this works out at in the UK.QuoteProf. Abel Méndez @ProfAbelMendezOur conclusion on #Ross128 will be posted here at 11 AM AST.https://mobile.twitter.com/ProfAbelMendez/status/888389584652046336
Quote from: Star One on 07/21/2017 02:34 pmNot sure what time this works out at in the UK.QuoteProf. Abel Méndez @ProfAbelMendezOur conclusion on #Ross128 will be posted here at 11 AM AST.https://mobile.twitter.com/ProfAbelMendez/status/8883895846520463362PM UTC
Quote from: Star One on 07/21/2017 07:30 amLikely satellite produced RFI.http://seti.berkeley.edu/ross128.pdfI don't think we can say that a satellites is the likely explanation based on that paper, just that it is a realistic possibility. BL determined that there are satellites that have C band transmitters that may have been in the field of view. They didn't report if these were really in Arecibo's beam or if they were just near it. They didn't detect any signals either from Ross 128 or one of these satellites. Though the satellites are listed as operating in the C band they didn't investigate if they were supped to be operating in this specific part of the band with these signal characteristics. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be a satellite but because the signal was so faint and showed dispersion I'm thinking its also got a fair chance of being from further away.
Prof. Abel Méndez @ProfAbelMendezThe #Weird!Signal was most likely caused by one or more geostationary satellites. The shape of the signal is still under investigacion.4:38 pm · 21 Jul 2017
After a careful analysis of the observations we performed last Sunday from the Arecibo Observatory, together with SETI Berkeley using the Green Bank Telescope and the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array, we are now confident about the source of the Weird! Signal. The best explanation is that the signals are transmissions from one or more geostationary satellites. This explains why the signals were within the satellite’s frequencies and only appeared and persisted for Ross 128; this star is close to the celestial equator where many geostationary satellites are located. This fact, though, does not yet explain the strong dispersion-like features of the signals (diagonal lines in the figure); however, It is possible that multiple reflections caused these distortions, but we will need more time to explore this and other possibilities.
We undertook observations with the Green Bank Telescope, simultaneously with the 300m telescope in Arecibo, as a follow-up of a possible flare of radio emission from Ross 128. We report here the non-detections from the GBT observations in C band (4-8 GHz), as well as non-detections in archival data at L band (1.1-1.9 GHz). We suggest that a likely scenario is that the emission comes from one or more satellites passing through the same region of the sky.
Meet the new neighbor: an Earth-sized exoplanet just 11 light-years away that could potentially harbor life.European scientists announced today the discovery of a world orbiting nearby star Ross 128. The planet, named Ross 128 b, has a predicted temperature range that could allow liquid water to exist on the surface. Ross 128 b is now the second-closest such world to Earth; only Proxima Centauri b, at 4.25 light years away, is closer. Xavier Bonfils, the lead author of the paper announcing the discovery in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, told me via email Ross 128 b has a mass about 1.35 times that of Earth.
As if this news wasn't interesting enough, there's also a SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) angle to the story. Earlier this year, Ross 128 made headlines because it appeared to be sending out a semi-repeating radio signal. The signal was later explained to likely be a geostationary satellite in Earth orbit, but today's announcement puts Ross 128 back in play as a star system potentially capable of hosting life. The newly found exoplanet will soon be the target of many future observations—including SETI searches."We are considering additional follow-up in light of the new discovery at radio and optical wavelengths," said Andrew Siemion, the director of the SETI Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, in an email. "Nearby exoplanets are particularly exciting from a SETI perspective, as they permit us to search for and potentially detect much weaker signals than from more distant targets."
This story was also reported by cbc:http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/exoplanet-earth-like-temperature-quiet-star-1.4400440 Regardless of the alleged ET signals, the discovery of this planet is significant.