Sunday, May 24, 2009

Laser Pulse from Space Boggles SETI

Several years ago, it was determined that SETI should expand its monitoring for alien signals to technology other than radio waves. Even on Earth, radio has become a very old and almost obsolecent form of communication. One of the possible new methods discussed was the transmission of Laser burst communications. A lab was established with astrophysicist Ragbir Bhathal placed in charge. His lab, armed with monitoring equipment, slowly prowls the heavens in search of regular pulses of laser light. These pulses could be a key indicator of laser burst communications being used by another civilization. This type of communication is nothing new, having been used on Earth for at least twenty years now. It only makes sense that a civilization as advanced as ours would do the same.

A few months ago, he found something. A regularly occuring pulse of laser light. Mr. Bhathal is cautious to claim it is of extraterrestrial origin, but so far it cannot be ruled out. Nor has a natural origin been ascribed to it. At this point, it remains an anomaly, and he is scanning this region for a repeat of the laser burst event.

On August 15th, 1977 a similar event occured involving radio waves. The now famous "Wow!" Signal was picked up using narrowband radio by Dr. Jerry Ehman. At least 50 separate searches were conducted for the signal, but nothing was ever heard from it again. It was never determined what the origin of the signal was, but it was not ascribed to be a natural signal. All of this is very similar to the current happenings with Mr. Bhathal's laser event.

If this plays out in the right way, it could change our world.

No comments: