Comments on: Mysterious signal detected possibly coming from Proxima Centauri

By: Jeff Wright

Jeff Wright — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 18:51:20 +0000

On SETI
https://phys.org/news/2025-10-seti-successful.html
https://phys.org/news/2025-10-alien-civilizations-cosmic-eye.html

By: Jay

Jay — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 04:38:03 +0000

LocalFluff,
You are correct. Also the satellite that you speak of might have had a highly elliptical orbit. The Russians still use them and so do the XM satellites, called “Tundra” orbits. Something to throw out there.
The thing that get me is the almost dead to rights 982.00 MHz signal. I saw someone post that the frequency is the TACAN (Tactical Air Navigation) Channel 21X here in the U.S.A. I do not know if this channel is also used in Australia.

By: Mike Murphy

Mike Murphy — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 18:55:44 +0000

Bob,

The connection between the Wow signal and a cometary source is still controversial. The Wow signal appeared in only one of the two sets of horns at the feed of the Big Ear radio telescope, so a source like a comet with its continuous “broadcast” of radio noise should have been recorded when the source drifted through the second set of horns. The sudden cut off of the signal adds to the mystery of the Wow signal, and reduces the chances that it originated from a comet.

Mike

By: LocalFluff

LocalFluff — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 14:38:49 +0000

@Jay
If it comes from an orbiting satellite, not geosynchronized, it should doppler shift its frequency as it passes by. Only not so much if the telescope’s field of view pointed perpendicularly to its orbit. But even then it should’ve passed through the field of view within a minute or a few. That’s at least as I understand it from orbital periods. And it could’ve been a stationary source on the ground.

By: John

John — Sun, 20 Dec 2020 02:57:25 +0000

A tone like that can mean only one thing. It’s a warning beacon.

I wish they would have put the observation details in one spot in the article, but they say or imply observations for 30 minutes at a time for 26 hours total with ‘nodding’ in between. That’s interesting if the signal only showed up when pointed at proxima at widely separate times. Too bad nothing else has seen it, assuming they’ve been looking since 2019.

They’re probably right, not from intelligence, just humans.

By: Jay

Jay — Sat, 19 Dec 2020 18:40:25 +0000

982 MHz is in the aeronautical radio navigation range of the spectrum. They might of picked up a beacon or plane.

I would be interested to know how they filter out the man made noise. I know the weak signal processing that Dr.Taylor did at the late Arecibo observatory with pulsars, but I wonder what algorithms SETI uses to sift through the signals.