From: John Stepkowski (legion@WERPLE.MIRA.NET.AU)
>From Melbourne Herald Sun, Monday June 26, 1995, p.9
Scientists have detected mysterious microwave singals in outer space which they say may have been sent by intelligent life-forms from distant planets
But the scientists, working in central New South Wales, have lost a race against time to identify the transmissions.
Today is the last day they will be able to use the unique radiowave receiver borrowed from the United States which has allowed them to pick up the signals.
Tomorrow it must be dismantled and packed for its return - leaving behind one of the greatest mysteries to confront Australian science.
One of the scientists involved in the CSIRO search for intelligent life forms on other planets, Dr Bobbie Vaile, said yesterday that on several occasions during the five-month project, unexplained microwave signals had been detected from regions around stars.
The 209 stars, targets for investigation in the search called Operation Phoenix, were selected for being similar to our sun.
Thousands of signals were picked up by the American scanner, which was linked with Australia's largest telescope at Parkes, the vast majority coming from terrrestrial sources such as satellites, army radar systems and even mobile phones.
"But several times we picked up on signals which could not be explained away," said Dr Vaile, a senior lecturer in physics at the University of Western Sydney and an honorary fellow of the Australia Telescope National Facility.
"Of course, because it's going to be a pretty big announcement to say that new life has been found, we had to do more than double-check it.
"So we would go back to the star four or five times getting the signals, then we'd go back again and they wouldn't be there."
Dr Vaile said thay had therefore been unable to prove the existence of extra-terrestrial microwaves.
"But on the other hand, maybe we were just re-checking at the wrong time," she said.
"They could be billions of years in front of us in terms of technology."
Although the Australian scientists are disappointed that their work has been inconclusive, Dr Vaile said it would be phenomenally useful in alien hunts.
The Australian experience in picking which frequencies have the most success in avoiding microwaves from terrestrial sources, for example, will be used when the second half of Operation Phoenix gets under way in the northern hemisphere this year.
The two-part project will cost its American billionaire sponsors $9 million.