Astronomy / Space We are not alone.. Mysterious radio signals from deep space detected

[GunnerBill]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46811618

I just saw this on BBC.

Mysterious radio signals from deep space detected


Astronomers have revealed details of mysterious signals emanating from a distant galaxy, picked up by a telescope in Canada.
The precise nature and origin of the blasts of radio waves is unknown.
Among the 13 fast radio bursts, known as FRBs, was a very unusual repeating signal, coming from the same source about 1.5 billion light years away.
Such an event has only been reported once before, by a different telescope.

 

[Nick Sticks]

It is interesting but I thought the radio signals/waves were coming from a particular type of star rather an alien civilisation?

Edit: does anyone know of a basis for a radio like tuning system that may be used to identify the star?

 

[Vandaahl]

1.5 billion light years... That signal is older than anything that has ever been dug up. Whatever it was, it is prolly gone now (or smells terrible).

 

[zepisco83]

It is interesting but I thought the radio signals/waves were coming from a particular type of star rather an alien civilisation?

Edit: does anyone know of a basis for a radio like tuning system that may be used to identify the star?

I am not an astronomer but if it's from a star in another galaxy then it must be a really really massive star.

 

[ethelred]

Using radio as a method of communication is very 20th century. This is the fallacy of something like SETI imho - the window of using broadcast radio waves is pretty narrow in a civilizations life cycle.

If it's from another galaxy, even if it's a repeating signal would point to a natural source.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

Edit: does anyone know of a basis for a radio like tuning system that may be used to identify the star?

what we need is a FSS ....

 

[MyThos]

1.5 billion light years... That signal is older than anything that has ever been dug up. Whatever it was, it is prolly gone now (or smells terrible).

Haven't you watched "Contact"? ;o)

 

[zepisco83]

1.5 BLY distance, they re extinct since a very long time, what/who ever they were.

life in universe : extremely probable
life in universe that we can reach while they exist : a totally different story.

civilasations as we know them rise and fall so quick, on the universe time scale, that sharing a common moment in the same area is, imho, close to impossible.

Not only that, if there is something that playing elite made me realize when i watched the galaxy map for the first time in a 1:1 scale is that even if we had the technology to travel at the speed of light and had a ship capable of being self sustainable for decades it would still be really hard to find another habitable planet let alone other civilizations. Just to think that the diameter of the Milky Way is 100 000 LY it really makes me think that what ever created us was not meant to be discovered.

 

[Winterwalker]

1.5 BLY distance, they re extinct since a very long time, what/who ever they were.

life in universe : extremely probable
life in universe that we can reach while they exist : a totally different story.

civilasations as we know them rise and fall so quick, on the universe time scale, that sharing a common moment in the same area is, imho, close to impossible.

Either that or they should be arriving .. any minute now.

 

[GunnerBill]

Either that or they should be arriving .. any minute now.

he he, it is a long way away!

 

[Shadowdancer]

civilasations as we know them rise and fall so quick, on the universe time scale, that sharing a common moment in the same area is, imho, close to impossible.

And if they manage to send signals with quite literally the power of a billion suns, we may not want to share that moment.

 

[Patrick_68000]

1.5 billion light years... That signal is older than anything that has ever been dug up. Whatever it was, it is prolly gone now (or smells terrible).

The descendants of these aliens will arrive soon(™).

 

[Para Handy]

Here was The Guardian's article about these repeater FRBs:

https://www.theguardian.com/science...-radio-bursts-from-deep-space-could-be-aliens

'Some, however, including Prof Avi Loeb, from the Harvard-Smithsonian centre for astrophysics, have posited more outlandish theories, suggesting they could be evidence of incredibly advanced alien technology.

In 2017 Loeb and his Harvard colleague Manasvi Lingam proposed that FRBs could be leakage from planet-sized alien transmitters. Rather than being designed for communication, they would more likely be used to propel giant spaceships powered by light sails which bounce light, or in this case radio beams, off a huge reflective sheet to provide thrust, the scientists said.

“Fast radio bursts are exceedingly bright given their short duration and origin at great distances, and we haven’t identified a possible natural source with any confidence,” said Loeb in a statement after the publication of a previous paper in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. “An artificial origin is worth contemplating and checking.

“Science isn’t a matter of belief, it’s a matter of evidence. Deciding what’s likely ahead of time limits the possibilities. It’s worth putting ideas out there and letting the data be the judge.”'


P.S. :

Using radio as a method of communication is very 20th century. This is the fallacy of something like SETI imho - the window of using broadcast radio waves is pretty narrow in a civilizations life cycle..

Can you please let me have the numbers for this Friday's Euromillions Lottery?

Seriously, how on earth (or elsewhere) can you possibly know what form of communication might be developed in the future? You might theorise that other forms of communication technologies will be (and indeed probably have to be) developed. However you cannot be sure that this will be true or that EM transmissions will never be emitted by an advanced civilization, even if not as a communication medium, as Loeb says.

(takes off Devil's Advovcate wig and retires from the court.... )

 

[Shadowdancer]

However you cannot be sure that this will be true or that EM transmissions will never be emitted by an advanced civilization, even if not as a communication medium, as Loeb says.

At the power levels those FRBs are emitted, the uses that come to mind are ① weapons, ② damn scary weapons, ③ propulsion if you need to move your entire system out of the way of something scary right now (e.g., ① or ②), or ④ interstellar echolocation.

That's United Federation of Hold My Beer I Got This levels of fun

 

[Iskariot]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46811618

I just saw this on BBC.

[h=1]Mysterious radio signals from deep space detected[/h]
Astronomers have revealed details of mysterious signals emanating from a distant galaxy, picked up by a telescope in Canada.
The precise nature and origin of the blasts of radio waves is unknown.
Among the 13 fast radio bursts, known as FRBs, was a very unusual repeating signal, coming from the same source about 1.5 billion light years away.
Such an event has only been reported once before, by a different telescope.

There are a number of theories about what could be causing them.

They include a neutron star with a very strong magnetic field that is spinning very rapidly, two neutron stars merging together, and, among a minority of observers, some form of alien spaceship.

 

[GunnerBill]

Your use of a different font colour made the quote you included invisible until I highlighted the text. I suspect I am not the only one using the Elite Dangerous forum theme so have a dark background in which your text was lost.

Thanks, it should be fixed now. TBH I just copy pasta'd the text from the Beeb.

 

[Zieman]

At the power levels those FRBs are emitted, the uses that come to mind are ① weapons, ② damn scary weapons, ③ propulsion if you need to move your entire system out of the way of something scary right now (e.g., ① or ②), or ④ interstellar echolocation.

That's United Federation of Hold My Beer I Got This levels of fun

Most of the burst is probably some O-class stars bumped on a more massive than stellar size black hole simultaneously, and the data encoded means basically "don't try this at home, it's veery dangerous"

 

[Para Handy]

The Guardian has put together another article:


https://www.theguardian.com/science...tural-after-mysterious-signals-say-scientists


Alien theories understandable after mysterious signals, say scientists

Fast radio bursts have caused more suspicion about extraterrestrial activity

... Chris French, head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London, said it was natural for humans to see aliens behind every cosmic mystery. “We have what is called an intentionality bias,” he said. “It’s the assumption that whenever something happens, something or someone made it happen for a reason. In the context of space, that someone is always going to be aliens.”