No, SETI Has Not Detected Alien Signals From Space 160
The Bad Astronomer writes "Rumors are going around that SETI astronomers have detected possible alien signals from space. Bottom line: signals were detected when the Green Bank Telescope was pointed at target planets discovered by Kepler, but the signals are almost certainly interference from man-made satellites orbiting the Earth. This happens pretty often, so we need to be aware that these kinds of false positives pop up."
Re:Call me an idiot ... (Score:5, Informative)
If you move a thousand miles and the source is a thousand light years away, the angular deviation is almost precisely zero.
But if you move a thousand miles and the source is ten miles away, you're basically moving out of the source's way.
So wouldn't you expect the signal to go away for a man-made satellite, and stay for an alien signal? That's the precise opposite of what they're saying.
Side lobes [wikipedia.org]. Radio transmitter antennas typically do not radiate in a perfectly spherical, cow shaped arrangement. There are strong lobes and weak (side lobes). If you track the signal through space, you should get a pretty good idea what the shape really is. You can compare that to the generalized, known shapes of the antenna radiation patterns are on various spacecrafts and get a pretty good idea if it's either a satellite or the most godawful giant radio transmitter the universe has ever seen.
Re:"almost certainly" (Score:5, Informative)
From those of is with speech issues, "Fuck You"