Evidence Of Life In Outer Space, Russians Claim
(N.Z.PA.- Reuter—Copyright)
MOSCOW, April 12. A group of Soviet scientists believe they have discovered a super-civilisation of intelligent beings millions of miles away in space, the Russian news agency, Tass, r * irted tonight.
One Soviet radio astronomer, Gennady Sholomitsky, said these beings had sent out radio signals known as CTAIO2. Another Russian scientist said, according to Tass, that astronomers at the British observatory, Jodrell Bank, had ob-, served that if rational beings had sent out such signals, the source must be “very small.”
At Jodrell Bank tonight, a leading British astronomer, Mr Reg Lascelles, said the station had no evidence to support the Soviet theory. “We would want to look over the evidence a lot more before we could come to an opinion,” he said. But on a purely statistical basis, Western experts do not doubt that there may be civilisations on other planets in the universe. Regular Pattern The surprise Tass statement quoted Mr Sholomitsky for his recent observations of emissions from a mysterious source. He said the emissions followed a regular pattern of flickerings, which were repeated every 100 days. “Not Man-made” In Pasadena, California, the man who discovered the outer space source referred to by the Russian scientists, said today its radio signals were “certainly not man-made.” Dr. Allan Sandage,, of Mount Wilson-Palomar Observatory, told A.A.P.-Reuter that the source emitted radio energy roughly 100,000,000,000,000 times more powerful than the sun.
When he was told that Mr Sholomitsky said he had found variations of some 20 per cent in the radio radiation every 100 days, Dr. Sandage replied: “There just cannot be any machine that can cause a variation of total power like this. It may be right that it does vary, but it is certainly not man-made.” Dr. Sandage and Dr. John Wyndham discovered the “quasi-stellar radio source” as it is known and published a paper on it recently.
Both radio-astronomers are associated with the California Institute of Technology and listed their discovery there. Its prefix of “C.T.A ” refers to the Cal Tech “A” list.
Dr. Sandage said the quasistellar . radio sources, also known as quasers, were one of the most exciting recent discoveries of radio astronomy. “We do not know what they are,” he said. “All we know is that they are abnormal astronomical objects. They may be galaxies in the process of formation.”
Not Held Proof The radio radiation from CTAIO2 “in no way proves the existence of an external civilisation,” he said. Asked to say whether it was possible for life to exist there, he said no-one could tell.
The quasers, which are millions of miles deep in space, also have variations in the light they emit. “The variation in light is so enormous
that it has to be natural,” Dr. Sandage said. Other leading radio-astrono-mers were also sceptical about the claim.
Dr. Frank Drake, professor of astronomy at Cornell University, said that “the judgment of the world will have to await release of the details.”
Dr. Drake formerly headed radio-telescope operations at the National Radio-Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia“The possibility of intelligent origin of the radio signals depends on what their regular flickerings are, which we cannot tell,” he said. “If they are simple variations, an explanation in terms
of natural phenomena is very likely. If the pattern of the flickering is very complicated and repeats itself, an intelligent origin would become likely.
“We cannot make this choice until the Russians have revealed their data in detail and it has been verified by observers."
Log in