Posted: Fri, Sep 3, 2004, 11:56 AM ET (1556 GMT)
Reports that astronomers have detected an unusual signal from a distant star have been downplayed by researchers, who say there is little chance the signal comes from an extraterrestrial civilization. New Scientist magazine reported Wednesday that the SETI@home project, sifting through data collected at the Arecibo radio telescope, had identified a mysterious signal emanating from an unidentified source at least 1,000 light-years away. A followup search at Arecibo detected the signal again, while eliminating other candidate signals also found by SETI@home. Astronomers, though, cautioned that this redetection does not mean the signal is necessarily artificial or even real: it may represent a previously-unknown natural phenomenon, or could also be noise or man-made interference. Additional searches are planned to confirm and characterize the signal.
