7 ms·

Were we contacted by aliens

10 points by kostyk 12y ago

andyrj 12y ago
So when do we start building the giant gyroscope to send Jody Foster through some wormholes? :) Joking aside, this is the first that I have read about any signals being unidentified in origin and not having an explaination other than ET's. Why isn't this bigger news here in the USA? I am hesitant to trust this information due to their own use of language like, "perhaps the WOW! signal." Is the bbc turning into the UK'S version of our "History" channel?
- SL61 12y ago
  The Wow! signal is pretty well known, and is called that because the astronomer who saw it wrote "Wow!" on the printout. It's not quite as unexplained as the BBC article suggests, but none of the possible explanations are completely verified. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal#Speculation_on_the_signal.27s_origin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal#Speculation_on_the_...
  - andyrj 12y ago
    I remembered hearing of the signal but thought it still had other plausible explainations. You are right the article does make it seem like everything but ET's is off the board, or atleat thats how I read it. Thanks for clarifying.
- BerislavLopac 12y ago
  They're referring to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal -- it's the official name of the phenomenon.
tzs 12y ago
No. If it were aliens trying to contact us (well, probably not specifically us...it would be much more likely they'd not have a specific target) there would be more than just one signal. Note that this doesn't mean that it wasn't from aliens--just that it probably wasn't a contact attempt. It could be something aliens generated for some other purpose, or by accident, and we just happened to be looking at the right time to notice it.
chisleu 12y ago
Old news. I find it interesting that we think aliens might use a naturally occurring phenomenon to contact us. It seems like they would use something that couldn't possibly be anything natural, so as to draw attention. To that end, it probably wouldn't be a smart thing to draw attention to yourself. I'm still pissed that I wasn't consulted about putting a map to Earth on the damned Voyager. Maybe I saw Independence Day too many times.

10 points by kostyk 12y ago

So when do we start building the giant gyroscope to send Jody Foster through some wormholes? :) Joking aside, this is the first that I have read about any signals being unidentified in origin and not having an explaination other than ET's. Why isn't this bigger news here in the USA? I am hesitant to trust this information due to their own use of language like, "perhaps the WOW! signal." Is the bbc turning into the UK'S version of our "History" channel?

SL61 12y ago
The Wow! signal is pretty well known, and is called that because the astronomer who saw it wrote "Wow!" on the printout. It's not quite as unexplained as the BBC article suggests, but none of the possible explanations are completely verified. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal#Speculation_on_the_signal.27s_origin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal#Speculation_on_the_...
- andyrj 12y ago
  I remembered hearing of the signal but thought it still had other plausible explainations. You are right the article does make it seem like everything but ET's is off the board, or atleat thats how I read it. Thanks for clarifying.
BerislavLopac 12y ago
They're referring to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal -- it's the official name of the phenomenon.

tzs 12y ago

No. If it were aliens trying to contact us (well, probably not specifically us...it would be much more likely they'd not have a specific target) there would be more than just one signal. Note that this doesn't mean that it wasn't from aliens--just that it probably wasn't a contact attempt. It could be something aliens generated for some other purpose, or by accident, and we just happened to be looking at the right time to notice it.

chisleu 12y ago

Old news. I find it interesting that we think aliens might use a naturally occurring phenomenon to contact us. It seems like they would use something that couldn't possibly be anything natural, so as to draw attention. To that end, it probably wouldn't be a smart thing to draw attention to yourself. I'm still pissed that I wasn't consulted about putting a map to Earth on the damned Voyager. Maybe I saw Independence Day too many times.