The Truth About the BLC1 SETI Candidate Signal

An explanation of what really happened with the BLC1 radio signal and why it isn't an alien signal nor is it all that interesting.

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[JohnMichaelGodier]

For those interested in the materials on this situation, here are the papers and a news article from yesterday where Andrew Siemion, the principle scientist at Breakthrough Listen that discovered the signal, addresses the situation.

The article:


The initial paper:

"A radio technosignature search towards Proxima Centauri resulting in a signal of interest", Smith et al, 2021


The paper that knocked the signal out.

"Analysis of the Breakthrough Listen signal of interest blc1 with a technosignature verification framework", Sheikh et al, 2021


A very interesting paper on the very poor likelihood of seeing an alien civilization in the next star system over. And yes, that's Avi Loeb.

"The Copernican Principle Rules Out BLC1 as a Technological Radio Signal from the Alpha Centauri System", Siraj and Loeb, 2021

[soaphelps]

SETI: the signal must repeat.

Also seti. Sends one burst. Doesn’t send a second.

[bluessoul]

Big fan! I have listened to a lot of your content over the road as a trucker. Still do!

[TheAngryAstronaut]

I'm a bit disappointed that you didn't even mention Astron's recent involvement. Did you get confirmation that this was made up or something?

[ExcretumTaurum]

Alternate theory: JMG is a Proximan undercover agent.

[corneliuspraeda]

Kids in John's neighborhood are like "Aw we gotta stop by the Godier house AGAIN?! Their candy

[doom]

Ah yes, the last video before bed has arrived.

[piotrd.]

So, basically SETI validation protocols exclude anything than SUTAINED, TARGETTED attempt at contact specifically with us.

[off_Planet]

Well, our professor seems a bit salty since this came out

[caiooca]

If there is a civilization at Centauri, it doesn't mean that the universe is full of them. It means we are clustering 👀

[flaparoundfpv]

As a lifelong mushroom hunter, I have to disagree with your point at 3 min. You can often hike all day looking for morels and get totally skunked. But if you find one, you know you'll almost always find another nearby. Almost never do you find just one without also finding 2 and 3.

[SwrveYT]

I feel like a ‘Top 5 best SETI signals in history’ type of video would be a great long video to listen to :)

[ElijahHull-zz]

The great silence you always talk about is only due to our detection equipment being ridiculously incapable of seeing or hearing anything from anywhere for gods sake man we only recently finally seen what Pluto really looks like

[easterislehead]

My father-in-law operates the radio telescope pictured in the thumbnail of this video. It’s Astropeiler Stockert in Germany, sort of near Bonn. Because of a lifetime of watching videos like these on YouTube and TV, I was able to correctly guess that a the distinct peaks he showed me in a waveform from the telescope were from the spiral arms of the galaxy, which really impressed him and made a great first impression when he showed me around the place (back before my wife and I had even gotten engaged).

[pauljensen]

From false aliens to sugar free candy, this episode has all sorts of horrors abound!😮

[bakfixx]

Two civilizations right next to each other... Well, if panspermia is a valid hypothesis then maybe this isn't so easily dismissed.

[ProbabilityOverdrive]

If life evolves independently then yes, life coming from literally the next star system is quite unlikely compared to everywhere else in the universe. But with panspermia on the table the next star system over sounds like a great candidate for life.

[patryn]

The message we sent with the puerto rico dish also was only once so saying the blc1 does not meet that requirement is hypocritical. Also saying that satisitically it is not possible for a civilization to be next door is utter crap sinve we do not know how life gets started or the actual conditions in the centari system, on both we merely are guessing.

[johnnyringo]

John I'd agree....but if an already established planet colonized the nearest planet they would make absolute sense.

Also there is an actual European space agency commonly used lab/entity has studied it for years and is saying there is more there ....why don't we wait for their findings?

[krishnarajku]

A signal from proxima doesn't say that galaxy is full of inhabitants beacuse stars are always moving and ceataurus system coming towards us means it wasn't our nearby system for billions of years. Moreover, Sun's companion is also not found for your knowledge Mr JMG