Comments on: Unusual radio signal announced https://habitablezone.com/2016/08/29/unusual-radio-signal-announced/ Tue, 07 Apr 2026 19:18:10 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: RL https://habitablezone.com/2016/08/29/unusual-radio-signal-announced/#comment-37395 RL Mon, 29 Aug 2016 23:35:07 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=59517#comment-37395 A LOT of very questionable claims come out of the Russian scientific community... <blockquote>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 the known 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!”</blockquote> Of course I am hoping there is something to this... A LOT of very questionable claims come out of the Russian scientific community…

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 the known 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!”

Of course I am hoping there is something to this…

]]> By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2016/08/29/unusual-radio-signal-announced/#comment-37394 ER Mon, 29 Aug 2016 20:56:56 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=59517#comment-37394 "HD" stands for the Henry Draper Catalogue, which allowed me to look up the associated star. It is also listed in the ESA 1997 Hipparcos catalogue as 88194. Its coordinates are RA = 18h 0m 39s, Dec = 29d 34' 11" (Epoch 2000.0). Its a fairly bright star, just below visual detection of the average human eye, although it might just be visible to a sharp-eyed individual under very dark and clear skies. Its a 0.99 solar mass G star about 6.3 Gyr old with a hot gas giant orbiting in a very close orbit. You couldn't ask for a better SETI candidate. And its only 94 ly away. You can get a good look at it using the POSS plates online, in a variety of color emulsions. Its the brightest star within a half degree, so it should be easy to locate even in a rich field. The website below allows you to pick your window size, color, and coordinates and imagery dataset. Pick the GIF imagery (NOT the FITS) and SIMBAD options, and leave the HST options blank. There doesn't seem to be much there. The data describes an eerily sunlike star, almost a match to Sol, and quite nearby, although my deep star chart identifies it as a binary. There doesn't seem to be anything particularly interesting in the field, just a few faint galaxies and stars, nothing that sticks out particularly. Of course, the star may have absolutely nothing to do with the alleged signal. http://archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/dss_form?target=HD+164595&resolver=SIMBAD “HD” stands for the Henry Draper Catalogue, which allowed me to look up the associated star. It is also listed in the ESA 1997 Hipparcos catalogue as 88194. Its coordinates are RA = 18h 0m 39s, Dec = 29d 34′ 11″ (Epoch 2000.0). Its a fairly bright star, just below visual detection of the average human eye, although it might just be visible to a sharp-eyed individual under very dark and clear skies.

Its a 0.99 solar mass G star about 6.3 Gyr old with a hot gas giant orbiting in a very close orbit. You couldn’t ask for a better SETI candidate. And its only 94 ly away.

You can get a good look at it using the POSS plates online, in a variety of color emulsions. Its the brightest star within a half degree, so it should be easy to locate even in a rich field. The website below allows you to pick your window size, color, and coordinates and imagery dataset. Pick the GIF imagery (NOT the FITS) and SIMBAD options, and leave the HST options blank.

There doesn’t seem to be much there. The data describes an eerily sunlike star, almost a match to Sol, and quite nearby, although my deep star chart identifies it as a binary. There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly interesting in the field, just a few faint galaxies and stars, nothing that sticks out particularly. Of course, the star may have absolutely nothing to do with the alleged signal.

http://archive.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/dss_form?target=HD+164595&resolver=SIMBAD

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