CONTACT! False Signal or the Real Thing?

Has an intelligent radio signal from deep space been picked up by a NASA scientist, and is it being suppressed?
The evidence is looking shaky so far.

Aricebo RAO in Puerto Rico

Andrew Collins Reports

Alleged NASA -Affiliated Astronomer Deciphers 'Intelligence' Signal From Nearby Stars.

A NASA scientist has detected a radio signal emanating from an area of sky with astronomical coordinates corresponding to the bright red star Aldebaran in Taurus. She has confirmed that the signal contains an intelligent message, which is now being deciphered. The Arecibo radio telscope in Puerto Rico, along with other RAOs (radio astronomical observatories) around the world, have now been focused on these coordinates in the hope of confirming the intelligent signal, and establishing exactly what this ET civilization, perhaps thousands of light years away, is trying to communicate with planet earth. Sound likes the plot to Carl Sagan's book "Contact", the 1997 film adaptation of which featured actress Jodie Foster as the astronomer who first receives the signal.

However, this is no fictional story. It is the "breaking news" that is rocketing around the internet as I write. Alternative Egypt writer Wayne Herschel, author of book The Hidden Records, has revealed on Facebook that an astrophysicist named Judy Fältskog, who operates out of a major RAO that reports back to NASA, detected the "intelligent " signal inbound from Aldebaran in Taurus, and perhaps eve from multiple coordinates including: Epsilon Eridany, Izar (Epsilon Bootes), Thuban (Alpha Draconis) and Proxima Centauri. All of these sources are apparently sending out intelligent signals that are seen as unnatural.

Herschel pointed out that Judy Fältskog has a Facebook page, but asked people not to bombard her with with questions, since she was obviously busy right now. A sensible request, for the next thing Judy's Facebook account is suddenly deleted, leading instantly to claims of suppression of truth and a NASA conspiracy to hide the facts.

Wham! Suddenly, this is the hottest story on the Internet (other than South Park being possibly responsible for the bomb in New York's Times Square due to their recent portrayal of Mohammed in a bear suit for their 200th episode).

Above Top Secret, Facebook and many other news forums began debating the story as it spread like wildfire.

So was the signal for real? What has happened to Judy Fältskog? Is there any independent confirmation of this story?

I watched all this unfold, and asked these questions to my own contacts in the world of astronomy and astrophysics. Their opinions were informative. Firstly, it can be confirmed that none of this has anything to do with SETI - the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, as they are privately funded and not affiliated to NASA. Secondly, it becomes clear that although Judy Fältskog is connected with NASA, she is also a UFO buff into alien abductions (nothing wrong with that, of course). She had asked the observatory whether it could target the coordinates associated with the signal, particularly those in the region of Aldebaran, at the suggestion of Herschel, since they feature in proposed star alignments concerning the geometry of the Giza monuments.

As to what's happened to her, I understand from a close informant that she is having a nervous breakdown, which is very sad, and it is probably for this reason that she has closed her Facebook account, not because she is being hastled by the NSA.

Richard Hoagland, the purveyor of all thing alien and Martian, has claimed publicly that the whole thing is a hoax, a claim stringently denied by Herschel.

My own contacts tell me that there is no buzz about this story among the RAOs they know, although obviously they cannot speak for all of them.

I subscribe to ATEL, the astronomer's telegram, the purpose of which is to inform RAOs around the world of tentative deep space dicoveries in different wave bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. The idea is for other observatories to try to monitor the object in question in the hope of learning more about what's going on, (bearing in mind that after a star sets in one country it rises in another, so can be monitored there). There has been nothing on ATEL about any rogue signals inbound from Aldebaran or any other deep space object.

None of this proves that the intelligence signal inbound from Aldebaran, or wherever, is false. I simply do not have enough information to say one way or another what is going on here. All I do know is that stories that are too good to be true, often are. So be careful what you believe, for the moment at least. Wait for that all important confirmation from a nice, independent source before shouting "contact" from the top of the nearest high building.