In early 2021, a strange signal was detected at the SETI Research Center of Berkeley, California. As part of the verification process, the dish detecting the signal was aimed off-axis 5 degrees to see the signal fade, then brought back on target. Calls were made to other installations to confirm the signal but it vanished while waiting on other researchers to point their radio telescopes.
The signal lasted 47 seconds, and never repeated.
Despite the lack of recognition from NASA and elsewhere, we moved ahead on the project, targeting the same region of the night sky, which was also flooded with noise from various natural phenomena in the Milky Way. The signal was reacquired two months after completion of the radio telescope array, this time lasting only fifteen seconds.
The proximity of the signal in a field of such high radio activity and satellite clutter made scientists around the globe reject the evidence, but we persist.
We are now closer than ever, but on a limited budget our telescopes remain unmanned.
Our secondary plan was to use SDR equipment, allowing remote control of the dishes and the signal data to all. We open it up for anyone to log in and take control of a single dish from the array.
Your mission: find the unknown signal and try to decipher the data stream from the noise. Data collection will likely take months, but the dishes are aimed at the proper region of sky, and we think that with the help of thousands of budding astronomers, you will find the signal quickly and help us to both track it and acquire data.
Data from other anomalies should be reported as well, as it will help us to sift errant data from the signal. When we have acquired enough data, we will hopefully be able to process it and find out for certain if this signal is artificial in origin.
If it is, we shall have to decide what to do with it, and if we could even decode an alien signal at all.
Our project has been rejected by NASA. Now we need you to ensure that we succeed, for the fate of all mankind.