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ET signal from space detected on May 29, 2001?

Annoucement and the greatest confusion:

The Swiss radio station "Premiere" communicated:

Sunday, April 29 2001 07:00:

"Detection of an extraterrestrial signal by an Australian radio telescope. This morning, around 06:30am, Swiss time, we received exceptional information from our reporter in Australia, Diane Care: a particular signal coming from space has allegedly been detected by a radio telescope of the Parkes Observatory. The question of the existence of an extraterrestrial life is raised again."

The announcement includes of course the ridiculous news item about the shutdown of the so called "British UFO Bureau" which I have already explained, which adds some more confusion to this affair.

Tuesday 1st of may, Parkes observatory announces:

On its web site on http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/:

"News Flash: 1 May 2001. Recent internet reports have erroneously indicated that the Parkes telescope detected a SETI signal last week. No such signal was detected. The story seems to have originated in Switzerland. It appears to be a publicity stunt engineered by two students presenting a SETI project, as part of the "Week of Science" festival in Geneva."

On 29.04.2001 it seemed impossible to get any valuable additional information, except that the signal has been detected 10 days ago and that the news leaked out of the observatory. to the local reporting person of the Swiss radio channel.

Later the same day, an overexcited and totally confused astronomer has been summoned to "explain" the information on the same radio channel: he does not know anything, he ignores the nature of the signal and just explains that if it is a natural radio signal there is nothing interesting about it, that stars emit light and radio waves (did you know that!), and if it is an artificial signal (which is what the news item is all about!) then it would be evidence of an extra-terrestrial intelligence, but "this would be like science fiction" etc.

The next day was just as confused but also very exciting: we learn that the ET signal has been "smuggled out" or hacked out, from a non-encrypted laboratory network transmission, RSR says that the observatory sees nothing particular in the signal but at the same time, the Observatory director says otherwise in the on-line audio interview: he admits that unusual signals were received in the last days. They are unusual, but not interpreted yet, (which is totally normal, this might take ages). In the interview, the Observatory spokesman seems quite embarrassed by the "no comment" previously issued. Obviously something is happening: it would have been possible to state that no particular signal was received...

Tueday 1st of may, RSR announces the signal is confirmed: it is certain now that it is a message from an intelligence located in space. The United Nations has been informed and are expected to announce the discovery soon.

There is still not even the slightest echo of this event in any other media.

If you wish to work on the signal, you can find it here.

Tueday 1st of may, Parkes observatory announces:

On its web site on http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/ :

News Flash: 1 May 2001. Recent internet reports have erroneously indicated that the Parkes telescope detected a SETI signal last week. No such signal was detected. The story seems to have originated in Switzerland. It appears to be a publicity stunt engineered by two students presenting a SETI project, as part of the "Week of Science" festival in Geneva.

The RSR has now, 05.01.2001 14:00, announced that they have set up a "special operation" and the director adds that "we are sorry for the disagreement".

Checking:

At this time, I could positively verify that the information is really from the "Premiere" Swiss radio Channel. The radio's web announcement is on http://www.rsr.ch/ in the section "Premiere".

I also checked, of course, that the Parkes Observatory in Australia is involved in the SETI project. It is.

The RSR radio announcements:

The text corresponding to the radio announcements as they are published at this time on the web site of the Radio Suisse-Romande "Premiere" radio station, they have devoted a special news page to this event:

The audio messages are capital: they sometimes totally contradict the meaning of the text. You need to listen to these audio track to get the real "taste" of the event.

TUESDAY MAY 1ST 2001 - 11:40:00 AM:

Intensity of Parkes signal increases!

The scientific community had suspected it for several days but after several checks, they acquired the certainty that a augmentation of intensity can mean only two things: either the power of the transmitting source increases for an unknown reason, or the source approaches the Earth. Certain specialists however mention about a possible natural explanation (a gravitational lens could pass in front of the transmitter).

TUESDAY, MAY 1ST 2001 - 8:50:00 AM:

ET Message not understandable.

[STREAM]L'annonce radio

The message of Parkes has the shape of an attractive tangle of white squares and black squares, which reminds of the message that humanity sent in space thanks to our radio telescopes since the beginning of the sixties. The similarity is so disconcerting that we are wondering whether the scientists did not already complete its decoding and all there is to do now is to attempt to understand the significance of this mysterious mosaic coming from space.

TUESDAY, MAY 1ST - 5:22:00 AM:

Parkes signal contains a message!

[STREAM]L'annonce radio

Thanks to the powerful means of calculations of various institutes, the signal of Parkes has been analyzed and partially decoded. The scientists succeeded in identifying in the signal, a repetitive and compressible structure to a significant degree. It is now certain that Humanity intercepted its first message of extraterrestrial origin. While being based on a definite statement of principle a few years ago by a committee of the International Academy of Astronautics, the scientific community, at the origin of this discovery, made the decision to put the results of the first decodings at the disposal of everyone and to disclose in the same way their continuing work. This decision starts from the idea that a message coming from an extraterrestrial civilization does not belong to anybody particular and must thus be accessible to all. Moreover, and in agreement with a UN treaty, the scientific institutes have now informed the Secretary General of the United Nations of their discovery.

MONDAY, APRIL 30 - 5:20:00 PM:

At last, Parkes Observatory reacts.

[STREAM]Audio announcement

According to the spokesmen of the Parkes Observatory, the detected signal is no different than the continuous stream of signals received by astronomy observatories worldwide. They add that if certain scientist put forth hypothesis about the origin of the Parkes signal, it is under their own responsibility.

MONDAY, APRIL 30 - 4:15:00 PM:

What is an ET signal?

In exclusiveness for the French-speaking Switzerland Radio, Didier Raboud, astronomer, explains what an extraterrestrial signal is and which should be its characteristics so that it qualifies as artificial and different from the similar hundreds of signals collected each day by the radiotelescopes all around the world.

MONDAY, APRIL 30 - 11:50:00 AM:

Hacking at Parkes, the signal does exist indeed!

[STREAM]Audio announcement

New events in what is now referred to as "the Parkes Affair", the information processing system of Parkes has been hacked during a non-encrypted transfer of the signal data. Our correspondent in Australia, Diane Care, is in possession of this signal (seemingly given by the pirate himself) and can thus confirm its existence.

SUNDAY, APRIL 29 2001 - 8:10:00 PM:

A mere extraterrestrial natural signal? Doctor in astronomy explains:

[STREAM]Audio announcement.

The news that we announced this morning is still impossible to confirm. Emmanuel Gripon invited Didier Raboud, astronomer. According to him, a radio telescope is designed to detect and receive extraterrestrial signals. In his opinion, there is nothing amazing in this announcement. One must know that the stars, emit light and send radio waves, detectable by a radio telescope.

SUNDAY, APRIL 29 2001 - 5:40:00 PM:

No comment:

[STREAM]Audio announcement.

Whereas early this morning, on French-speaking Switzerland Radio "La Premiere" we have learned about the detection of a signal by the Parkes Observatory in Australia, the surprise is huge: this information has still not been commented by the Observatory, and does not appear on any other news media.

SUNDAY, APRIL 29 2001 - 9:00:00 AM:

Signal seems to have been detected 10 days ago:

[STREAM]Audio announcement.

A leak seems to be at the origin of this information, it also specifies that the signal has been detected ten days ago already.

SUNDAY, APRIL 29 2001 - 7:00:00 AM:

Detection of an extraterrestrial signal by an Australian radio telescope.:

[STREAM]Audio announcement.

This morning, around 06:30am, Swiss time, we received exceptional information from our reporter in Australia, Diane Care: a particular signal coming from space has allegedly been detected by a radio telescope of the Parkes Observatory. The question of the existence of an extraterrestrial life is raised again.

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This page was last updated on May 1, 2001.