From Orson Welles' radio broadcast panic, to the massive production supply of sci-fi films, one thing is very clear: humans are obsessed with aliens. In fact, we are so obsessed with discovering “other life forms” that we've taken it upon ourselves to coin the term SETI, or “Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence.” Recently it has been discovered that Russia held back a tiny tidbit of possible alien contact for over a year.
The Russian Academy of Sciences' Special Astrophysical Observatory is home to the RATAN-600 – a 1,890 foot wide radio telescope whose purpose is to observe and report radio frequencies collected through adjustable reflective panels directing radiation from a visible light source to a receiver. In May of 2015, the RATAN-600 received a 4 second long signal from the star system HD164595 about 95 light-years from Earth. The sun-like star “HD164595” has at least one planet, that we know of, with a mass similar to Neptune's.
Paul Gilster of Centauri Dreams, a website dedicated to peer-reviewed research on deep space exploration, stated “Working out the strength of the signal, the researchers say that if it came from an isotropic beacon, it would be of a power possible only for a Kardashev Type II civilization.” Here Gilster uses the Kardashev scale, a method of measuring a civilization's technological advancement, to determine the signal's origin is one of a more advanced civilization than our own. Thus, aliens could have very well be who sent out this signal.
However, many scientists are still skeptical. The signal has not been successfully repeated since reception, it was much too short to pull an exact origin, and if it was truly significant there's Russia's lack of reporting for a whole year. Would one not immediately grab the attention of the press and scream about such a signal?
The thought of “other intelligent life forms” existing outside of our planet is one curiosity we never seem to satisfy. Perhaps Earth is doomed to be a lonely little planet after all.