Curious radio signal stirs talk of extraterrestrials

A curious radiosignal picked up by a Russian telescope is probably not atransmission from an extraterrestrial civilization, butastronomers in California are taking a second look anyway, theSETI Institute said on Tuesday.

A group of Russian astronomers last year detected whatappeared to be a non-naturally occurring radio signal in thegeneral location of a star system 94 light-years from Earth.

Their findings emerged after Italian researcher ClaudioMaccone, who chairs the International Academy of Astronautics
committee on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, orSETI, told colleagues of a presentation he heard about the
signal, said Seth Shostak, a director at the SETI Institute.

"I don't think we're taking it terribly seriously," Shostaksaid. "The Russians looked in this direction 39 times, and asbest we can tell they found it once."

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Interference or satellite?

Most likely, the radio signal was caused by terrestrialinterference or a satellite, a common occurrence, Shostak told
Reuters.

If the Russians thought they had a serious signal from ET,he said, they also likely would have disclosed it sooner.

"They didn't say anything about it for more than year. If wehad found a signal, we'd check it out and call up otherastronomers to check it out as well," Shostak said.

Nevertheless, SETI astronomers have spent the last twonights using an array of radio telescopes in California to studythe suspect star, HD 164595, which has one known planet inorbit.

The planet is about the size of Neptune, but circles itsstar far closer than Mercury orbits the sun. HD 164595 couldhave other planets in orbit that are more suitably positionedfor water, which is believed to be necessary for life.

So far, though, astronomers have not detected any unusualsignals from the star, Shostak said.

"We have to be very careful not to get cynical about falsealarms," he said. "It's easy to say 'Aw man, it's just anothercase of interference,' but that risks not paying attention whenyou should."

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