[LINK] SETI picks up regular laser pulse emanating from space

[Kim Holburn]

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25448647-30417,00.html
> AFTER you've spent more than 20 years hunting for an alien signal,  
> you think you'd be celebrating if you noticed a mysterious pulse  
> suddenly rising up on your computer readouts. A regular pulse, amid  
> the random clatter of the cosmos, suggests that someone very smart  
> at the other end is sending a message.
>
> But when Ragbir Bhathal, an astrophysicist at the University of  
> Western Sydney, who teaches the only university-based course on SETI  
> (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) in Australia, detected  
> the suspicious signal on a clear night last December, he knew better  
> than to crack open the special bottle of champagne he has tucked  
> away for the history-making occasion.
>
> Instead, he's spent the past few months meticulously investigating  
> whether the unrecognised signature was caused by a glitch in his  
> instrumentation, a rogue astrophysical phenomenon, or some unknown  
> random noise.

.....


This from the article caught my attention:
> The belief that an alien civilisation might also be listening to our  
> television and radio signals has also been dashed by the recent  
> discovery that the signals don't, as once thought, reach into deep  
> space: they eventually become so weak that they disappear in the  
> roar of the electromagnetic noise.

Whew, I have worried for a long time that all that crap would be  
noticeable out there.  I can stop worrying now.

Kim

-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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