Repeated radio bursts from Space

[Venusian Broon]

I've been taking a keen interest in a lot of Fermi Paradox things and related topics recently, so this newspaper article made me take note:

Repeated radio signals are coming from a galaxy 1.5 billion light years away

There's a bit of lack of info in the article, but they seem to be picking up a population of Fast Radio Bursters, some at around about 400 MHz which is the lowest frequency currently seen for a FRB (but that's a technical issue with the survey, so there is likely to be much longer wavelength bursters around the universe), and they actually observed another FRB repeater.

Unfortunately I feel, this isn't going to be little green men trying to signal to us, but some sort of interesting natural phenomenon. However I wonder if it will help to unravel the possible origin of the famous WOW radio signal (see Wow! signal - Wikipedia)

 

[Brian G Turner]

Yeah, presumably it's a natural feature - but a part of me would like to think we're detecting bursts of energy from ship's coming out from hyperspace. Repeaters could be space gates.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Yeah, presumably it's a natural feature - but a part of me would like to think we're detecting bursts of energy from ship's coming out from hyperspace. Repeaters could be space gates.

Thinking about this seriously, if it were generated by artificial means then I'd guess there should be some common 'footprint' in the data across all the signals. Duration, strength, relative frequency distribution etc...that would be clearly difficult for nature to replicate

However much I'd like the woosh of a galactic star gate...the scientist in me thinks some sort of gigantic natural phenomenon

 

[Brian G Turner]

To follow up, 2 pieces about this on the BBC website this evening:

Mysterious radio signals from deep space
Signals from space: What are they?

 

[Daniel]

There is no doubt what the signal means, at least, not to readers of Cixin Liu: When this incident was reported on Chinese media, a vigilant reader posted : 不要回答不要回答不要回答 (Don't reply, don't reply, don't reply!)

 

[Venusian Broon]

There is no doubt what the signal means, at least, not to readers of Cixin Liu: When this incident was reported on Chinese media, a vigilant reader posted : 不要回答不要回答不要回答 (Don't reply, don't reply, don't reply!)

Let's see, repeater source was 1.5 billion light years away, so....if we did send something to 'them' and an invasion fleet was dispatched, we'd expect them anywhere between 1.5-3 billion years from now (depending on whether on not faster than light travel is possible). Which coincidentally matches the estimates of the length of time we have left on a habitable Earth due to our sun maturing.

So hopefully we'd have moved home somewhere else (and learnt a bit more about science) or the invasion fleet would turn up to a dried up dead husk of a world

I think said vigilant reader is being a bit too paranoid.

 

[Foxbat]

I'm busy reading Hawkings' Brief Answers To The Big Questions. He makes some interesting comments on the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere. Probably worth looking at for anybody looking into this.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I'm busy reading Hawkings' Brief Answers To The Big Questions. He makes some interesting comments on the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere. Probably worth looking at for anybody looking into this.

If you are very interested there are a number of excellent Youtube people tackling this topic, well - they are more like podcasts with pretty pictures, than vids. They go into a lot of depth, I'd guess much more so than the late Prof Hawking.

ParallaxNick.

His videos on the Fermi paradox are a tad annoyingly short...but excellent nonetheless. The 'Universe of Water' and 'Planet X' series are meatier and highly recommended by me. Also he does a three parter looking at 2001: A Space Odyssey. ParallaxNick tends to go for the 'history' of the issue and explain it from that. That's his angle.

Isaac Arthur

Loads of stuff here all about futurism and space mainly. Big chunky 'episodes'. Loads of brain food for Space operas and SF

Also in the middle of reading Milan M. Cirkovic's The Great Silence which, although isn't 'academic' is a bit more formal than a popular science book. Really enjoying it though.

 

[WarriorMouse]

I can't help but wonder if these are similar to the "WOW" signal.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Interesting to see magnetars figured as a possible culprit: Magnetar mysteries in our galaxy and beyond

 

[J Riff]

..but no signals from the trillion+ planets in this galaxy?

 

[Venusian Broon]

..but no signals from the trillion+ planets in this galaxy?

Indeed, that is the great mystery. Many solutions have been proffered.

I have just read the 'Galactic stomach ache' thesis that tries to explain this. It's...interesting!

 

[J Riff]

Uh huh. Tried, but if correct then a bunch of connected scientists would look rather dim, - can't have that. Physics is right... math, stuff like that, but
'piled higher and deeper' truly applies to a lot of the rest of it.