Powerful anomalous radio signal from space, which was actively reported by the media, most likely of terrestrial origin

Radio astronomy telescope of the Academy of Sciences "RATAN-600"

Yesterday and today, a number of major foreign and domestic media reported on the fixation of a powerful radio signal from the system HD164595, the constellation of Hercules, which could be of extraterrestrial origin. Depending on the level of the principles of the resource, various types of headings were used, ranging from "Astronomers have recorded an anomalous signal from space" to "Scientists have discovered a signal from aliens."

The signal itself was recorded by the Russian observatory RATAN-600 located in Karachay-Cherkessia and belonging to the Special Astrophysical Laboratory of the Russian Academy of Sciences ( SAO RAS ).
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Some doubts on this news arose at the moment when the amateur astronomer turned out to be the primary source , who through his acquaintances allegedly fell into the hands of the scientific work of Russian researchers.

Understandably, the “source” did not contain any references to the work itself, which should be published only on September 27 of this year at the IAC international conference. In addition to several screenshots of the graphs and statements of the author about the "sensationalism" of the observation, there was no evidence.

It should be noted that similar observations were already made at the RATAN-600 at the beginning of zero ( reference to the work ) and then the scientists came to the unequivocal conclusion:



It was a bit strange why the information about such a serious observation was published by an amateur astronomer. For an explanation of the situation, we turned to the Russian Academy of Sciences and received the following response from Yuri Kovalev, a member of the Astronomical Center of FIAN,

According to the image that I saw on the network, I assume that RATAN has aimed and registered quite strong radiation at a wavelength in the region from 3 to 1 cm. Broadband radiation.

Where he actually went, what is the value of the spectral flux density, at what wavelength - all this can be accurately seen only in a scientific article (at worst, in ATel or at a conference). Or ask directly the observer - Nikolai Bursov.

The image is actively replicated in the network, which says Yuri Kovalev

It should be noted that the author of the above study for 2002 is also Nikolai Bursov. Unfortunately, it was not possible to get a comment from him personally.

SAO RAS itself responded to the situation in the network around the observation made at the RATAN.

This afternoon the following announcement was posted on their official website:

On August 30, 2016, a number of media outlets reported on the possible detection on RATAN-600 of a radio signal related to the activities of an extraterrestrial civilization, in connection with which we consider it necessary to give an official comment.

For the past several years, employees of the Scientific Research Institute of Nuclear Physics at the Moscow State University (Research Institute of Nuclear Physics named after D. Skobeltsyn at Moscow State University), together with employees of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, have been carrying out search studies on astronomical objects - candidates for Search (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). SETI is a common name for projects and activities to search for extraterrestrial civilizations. The program is focused on the search for radio emission of artificial origin. The studies are carried out on the RATAN-600 radio telescope using broadband continuum radiometers in the frequency range 1-22.7 GHz. Such observations at the RATAN-600 became possible due to its large collecting surface - thousands of square meters, due to which the high sensitivity of the telescope makes it possible to search for extremely weak radio signals in the Universe, which also include SETI objects. The objects of research under this program are sun-like stars with planets and sun-like stars whose presence of planets is unknown.

As part of this program, in 2015, an interesting radio signal at a wavelength of 2.7 cm was detected from one of the objects (the HD164595 star system in the constellation Hercules). The signal processing and analysis revealed that it is highly likely that it is a signal of earth origin.

As for the other objects of research at RATAN-600, at the present moment it is early to speak about a reliably obtained scientific result. The measurements performed can estimate the radio emission of the studied areas only by the upper detection limit. It is safe to say that the search signal has not yet been detected.

Relying on inaccurate information from a dubious source, a number of world-famous English-language resources, as well as domestic media, with a high degree of certainty announced that they were receiving a signal of extraterrestrial origin, which is not true.