“Strong” SETI Signal Not So Alien after All

Earlier this week, astrophysicists were abuzz over reports that a “strong” radio signal had been picked up from space, seemingly emanating from a star 95 light years away. After the signal was discovered by the RATAN-600 radio telescope in Russia (pictured), Paul Glister, the science writer who broke the news, admitted that the chances that it was transmitted by alien life were slim, but still an exciting and unexplained discovery. Glister, though, failed to consider what turned out to be the real source of the transmission: right here, on Earth. No wonder it was so “strong.”

The Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SAO RAS), owner of the RATAN-600, has admitted that the source of the signal – which was thought to have emerged from the HD164595 star system – is most likely of “terrestrial origin.”

“On August 30, 2016 there appeared a number of reports in different mass media on possible detection of a radio signal at RATAN-600 associated with the activity of an extraterrestrial civilization; in this connection, we consider it necessary to make official comments,” SAO RAS wrote.

“In the framework of this program, an interesting radio signal at a wavelength of 2.7 cm was detected in the direction of one of the objects (star system HD164595 in Hercules) in 2015. Subsequent processing and analysis of the signal revealed its most probable terrestrial origin,” SAO RAS revealed. “As for the other objects of the RATAN-600 survey, it is too early to claim about any reliable scientific results. Using the obtained measurements, we are only able to estimate the upper limit of the detection of the studied areas. It can be said with confidence that no sought-for signal has been detected yet.”