BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Nonsense and outright hoaxes

The internet was full of people announcing confidently that this story was proof of extraterrestrials:

I suppose the cynics would understand why some astronomers are searching for intelligent life out in the cosmos. After all, there seems to be a scarcity of it on Earth these days.

However there are serious astronomers engaged in this area. I know some of them. But they realize that they need to make a careful evaluation of evidence before assuming alien intelligence is involved.

In May last year, astronomers using a Russian telescope found an interesting radio signal coming from around a star 94 light years from Earth. The signal didn't seem to be random. They said it was consistent with what you might expect from an alien civilization. (I admit to my ignorance here of what might look like something produced by an alien civilization.) But they thought it was likely to have a more ordinary explanation.

Recently, the signal was reported as almost certainly a military satellite.

If you want to know more, here is a story from Space.com.

This story is an example of an outright hoax.

There are a number of sources of the story. Here is one version.

Of course, NASA has said no such thing. And it occurred to me that for someone living in the far north, this would just be business-as-usual for the time of year. In Hammerfest, Norway, the Sun will set on the morning of the 19th and not rise again until the 22nd of January.

But really, this general darkness thing isn't going to happen. The explanations of it seem to vary from site to site, but all of them are ridiculous. Fortunately, you don't have to take my word for it. Today is November 13th, so you don't have long to wait to see for yourself.

The previous post in this thread was from this time last year? Do you remember 15 days of darkness? Of course not, it didn't happen. So is it likely to happen this year?