Keith’s note: According to this SETI Institute discussion of the Updated Rules for Evaluating and Revealing the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence “The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) has ratified updated protocols governing how scientists evaluate, verify, and announce evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence.

• Why it matters: The guidelines are the first major revision in more than 15 years and address today’s realities of social media, AI-generated misinformation, deepfakes, and 24-hour news cycles.
• Key change: Any potential detection must undergo rigorous independent verification before a public announcement is made.
• Expanded scope: The protocols now reflect modern SETI research, including searches for technosignatures across the electromagnetic spectrum and other emerging detection methods.
  Researcher protections: New provisions acknowledge risks such as online harassment, doxxing, misinformation campaigns, and intense media scrutiny.
• No Reply policy remains: The protocols reaffirm that no response should be sent to an extraterrestrial intelligence without broad international consultation, including through the United Nations.“
• More

Keith’s note: By now you’ve heard all the goofy talk of a comet from outside our star system that might be an interstellar spaceship coming around the sun. I was reminded of something else that happened on this date – 30 October 1938: The infamous “War of the Worlds” radio broadcast by Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater. It drove a lot of people slightly nuts – including my grandmother. She listened to the broadcast along with my father on this Croydon AM/Shortwave radio. And the radio still works. If the comet sends a probe toward Grovers Mill, New Jersey, be scared. Very scared.

Keith’s note: According to “SETI Post-Detection Protocols: Progress Towards A New Version“:
“The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) SETI Committee has long provided guiding principles for responding to a potential detection of a SETI signal. … In keeping with the evolving landscape of SETI research, the IAA Declaration of Principles was streamlined and updated in 2010. Recognising the need for continued adaptation, the IAA SETI Committee established a Task Group in 2022 to re-examine the protocols in light of recent advances in search methodologies, the expansion of international participation in SETI, and the increasing complexity of the global information environment.”

Keith’s note: On this day in 1997 the film “Contact” hit theaters etc. I wrote something in 1997 about a visit I made to West Virginia, Green Bank, hanging out with Jill Tarter, and driving around radio telescopes in a diesel taxi cab. I am posting this from a climber’s hostel in New Hampshire which seems appropriate. “Going Off Source: Time Away With SETI In West Virginia“.

SETI Institute: “Frank Drake 1930-2022: So many scientists at the SETI Institute and around the world, were inspired to follow their careers because of Frank Drake. Frank not only left his mark on the fields of Astronomy, Astrophysics and SETI, but he left his mark on all of humankind. He dared to pursue one of the most profound, compelling and inspiring questions in all of science and indeed, all of philosophy. NASA’s third science question: ‘Are We Alone?’ might well have been something else were it not for Frank’s pioneering.”

Keith’s note: Bill Nelson was on CNN just before 8:00 pm EDT Sunday night to talk about the UAP/UFO report released by the Pentagon Friday evening. Nelson said “I have seen the unclassified and classified version of the report. It says what we thought. We do not know what the answer is to what those navy pilots saw. I have asked our scientists if there is any kind of explanation. […]

Contacting aliens could end all life on earth. Let’s stop trying, Op Ed by Mark Buchanan, Washington Post “More alarming is the possibility that alien civilizations are remaining out of contact because they know something: that sending out signals is catastrophically risky. Our history on Earth has given us many examples of what can happen when civilizations with unequal technology meet — generally, the technologically more advanced has destroyed or […]

NSF begins planning for decommissioning of Arecibo Observatory’s 305-meter telescope due to safety concerns “Following a review of engineering assessments that found damage to the Arecibo Observatory cannot be stabilized without risk to construction workers and staff at the facility, the U.S. National Science Foundation will begin plans to decommission the 305-meter telescope, which for 57 years has served as a world-class resource for radio astronomy, planetary, solar system and […]

One Of Everything: The Breakthrough Listen Exotica Catalog “We present Breakthrough Listen’s “Exotica” Catalog as the centerpiece of our efforts to expand the diversity of targets surveyed in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). As motivation, we introduce the concept of survey breadth, the diversity of objects observed during a program. … As far as we are aware, this is the first object list in recent times with the purpose […]

NO SIGNAL: Growing Up in Green Bank, West Virginia, Observer (scroll down to page 36) “I grew up in Green Bank, West Virginia, at the center of the federally mandated National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ), where interference like cell phones, wireless internet, and other devices are legally regulated. My hometown feels like another planet, full of opposites and tucked away from the world in a quiet spot. I grew up […]