Dom Galeon reports that the detection of peculiar radio signals from a dim star roughly 11 light-years away from Earth had the public speculating wildly last week about the possibility that we had finally detected an alien communication. After looking further into the signals with a little help from the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Life (SETI) Institute, astronomers at the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo are ready to confirm the source of the signals from Ross 128, and it is not ET.
They are now confident about the source of the Weird! Signal, Abel Mendez, director of the PHL, wrote in a blog post on Friday. The best explanation is that the signals are transmissions from one or more geostationary satellites in orbit around Earth. The signal officially named the Weird! Signal, was only spotted near Ross 128, one of several red dwarf stars Mendez and his team have been studying, because Ross 128 is close to the celestial equator of Earth where many geostationary satellites are in orbit, he explained.
Of course, this does not mean that the search for alien life is not worth the effort. Before we can consider any such explanation, however, we need to explore all stellar and astronomical possibilities. Sometimes, these possibilities may take 40 years to be completely explored, as was the case with the Wow! Signal, but such is the nature of scientific inquiry.
This was a great experience of open science, Mendez wrote. Sometimes projects, observational campaigns, or missions do not necessarily reach their objectives. The lesson here is that we all need to continue exploring and sharing results openly. Some people prefer to only learn about the successes, but others prefer science in real-time, no matter the end result.
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