posted on Sep, 7 2004 @ 08:26 PM
I have just arrived at this thread and had a quick browse through the posts, so forgive me if I repeat what some previous 'poster' has stated. What
is significant about these 'mysterious' signals is that they do not conform to other signals encountered during SETI sweeps. This does not
necessarily mean that the signals originate from an 'intelligence' source. They could emanate from a spatial phenomenon which has never before been
encountered. Our observable universe is one of the greatest of mysteries and without doubt secrets a lot of phenomena about which we know little or
nothing. I suppose time will be the telling factor - in that, in time perhaps we will be able to observe in greater detail what is in that particular
region of the night sky, and more importantly what is causing the signals that is giving us much to talk about. I remember when I was more than
casually interested in cosmology, the big discussion topic were Quasars that had just been discovered and which were made even more mysterious by
having numbers (like 3C293) instead of names. Everyone was talking about them. What could they be? How can they appear so bright and be so remote?
That was long before the advent of 'Black Holes' as topics of public interest. Now we know as much as we'll ever know about Quasars and the even
stranger Black Holes are barely worth a mention except maybe over a pint when someone begins a debate about when one is going to swallow up our Sun
and its family of planets.
But assuming that the signals are emanating from an 'intelligence' and the distance is correct, we should remember or at least reflect that whatever
caused the signal, did so a thousand years in the past. Whatever caused the signal we are now receiving may no longer exist. On the otherhand, it
may have originated from an intelligence that is now 1000 years (our years!) more advanced that what it was then. When you reflect on how we have
advanced in the last 100 years in terms of space exploration etc perhaps we should be putting out the 'Welcome' flags and bunting.
Cheers