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Amateur astronomer Alberto Caballero finds possible source of Wow signal

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Re: Amateur astronomer Alberto Caballero finds possible source of Wow signal

#31

Post by satisfaction »

mellosouls wrote: post #7

I've only read the article and not the research but that's because the article says the argument is simply: 1. The Wow! signal is intelligent in origin. 2. This exoplanet system here is in an area the signal might have come from. 3. It looks a bit like our system so might have intelligent life. This sounds like more of a moonshot for believers rather than a thoroughly scientific investigation.

To quote the article directly: "Caballero reasoned that if the source was some other life form, it would likely be living on an exoplanet.."

The author does not claim the signal is intelligent.

Re: Amateur astronomer Alberto Caballero finds possible source of Wow signal

#33

Post by billforsternz »

dnautics wrote: post #26
monkpit wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of the issue is that the title is a bit clickbait-y. Sure, it’s technically a correct title, but at first glance it seems much more interesting than it actually is.

How would you fix it? "Astronomer finds an exoplanet which fits exclusion criteria if WOW! Signal is intelligent in origin"?

I would fix it by not printing it at all because it's a click bait title with no substantial underlying story.

Re: Amateur astronomer Alberto Caballero finds possible source of Wow signal

#34

Post by AnimalMuppet »

satisfaction wrote: post #31
mellosouls wrote: post #7

I've only read the article and not the research but that's because the article says the argument is simply: 1. The Wow! signal is intelligent in origin. 2. This exoplanet system here is in an area the signal might have come from. 3. It looks a bit like our system so might have intelligent life. This sounds like more of a moonshot for believers rather than a thoroughly scientific investigation.

To quote the article directly: "Caballero reasoned that if the source was some other life form, it would likely be living on an exoplanet.." The author does not claim the signal is intelligent.

But then he only found a possible source if the signal is intelligent. He did not find a natural astronomical phenomenon in that system that could be the source.

Re: Amateur astronomer Alberto Caballero finds possible source of Wow signal

#35

Post by kens »

I read the paper (1) and it's kind of pointless. There's no actual evidence of anything in this paper. It consists of a database search of stars in the WOW signal direction, finding one that is sort of like the Sun. It is unknown if this star even has any exoplanets. Many comments think there is an exoplanet, so let me emphasize that all that is known to exist is a star.

(1) https://arxiv.org/pdf/2011.06090.pdf

Re: Amateur astronomer Alberto Caballero finds possible source of Wow signal

#36

Post by privong »

dnautics wrote: post #26
monkpit wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of the issue is that the title is a bit clickbait-y. Sure, it’s technically a correct title, but at first glance it seems much more interesting than it actually is.

How would you fix it? "Astronomer finds an exoplanet which fits exclusion criteria if WOW! Signal is intelligent in origin"?

> How would you fix it? "Astronomer finds an exoplanet which fits exclusion criteria if WOW! Signal is intelligent in origin"?

As far as I can tell there's not even evidence of an exoplanet around that star (likely because that star hasn't been searched for evidence of an exoplanet). The arXiv preprint basically amounts to "Identification of a Sun-like star in the same part of the sky where the 'Wow' signal originated."

Re: Amateur astronomer Alberto Caballero finds possible source of Wow signal

#37

Post by eecc »

partisan wrote: post #28
benpanter wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "paper" is here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.06090 but its analysis is not really something that you'd get published in an astronomy journal [speaking as a former professional astronomer]

Sorry to pry, but what does one do after a professional astronomy career?

You write Scala? (https://tpolecat.github.io)

Re: Amateur astronomer Alberto Caballero finds possible source of Wow signal

#39

Post by sushshshsh »

kens wrote: post #35

I read the paper (1) and it's kind of pointless. There's no actual evidence of anything in this paper. It consists of a database search of stars in the WOW signal direction, finding one that is sort of like the Sun. It is unknown if this star even has any exoplanets. Many comments think there is an exoplanet, so let me emphasize that all that is known to exist is a star. (1) https://arxiv.org/pdf/2011.06090.pdf

Is this information not helpful?

I am completely disgusted by the HN tone of "it's pointless to look at this because there are potential flaws"

Re: Amateur astronomer Alberto Caballero finds possible source of Wow signal

#40

Post by Beldin »

privong wrote: post #36
dnautics wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you fix it? "Astronomer finds an exoplanet which fits exclusion criteria if WOW! Signal is intelligent in origin"?

> How would you fix it? "Astronomer finds an exoplanet which fits exclusion criteria if WOW! Signal is intelligent in origin"? As far as I can tell there's not even evidence of an exoplanet around that star (likely because that star hasn't been searched for evidence of an exoplanet). The arXiv preprint basically amounts to "Identification of a Sun-like star in the same part of the sky where the 'Wow' signal originate…

> "Identification of a Sun-like star in the same part of the sky where the 'Wow' signal originated."

Even that is clickbaity - it fails to account how likely it was to find such a star in that volume of space.

That would at least offer some analysis of the situation.

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