Possible Radio Emission from Exoplanet Detected

Post by not_kurt_godel » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 3:07 PM UTC

flobosg wrote: post #10

WJW wrote: post #3

From a Jupiter-like gas giant type exoplanet, which generate radio emissions through entirely natural processes just like the gas giants in our own solar system. The title is a tad more spectacular than the actual discovery.

This comment left me wondering: What's the astronomy equivalent of “in mice”?

Post by jstanley » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 3:12 PM UTC

V-2 wrote: post #26

skocznymroczny wrote: post #14

It seems that we expect an alien civilization, if it exists, to follow a similar discovery path as we did. As such we listen for radio signals as a way of communication, because that's what we are doing. How likely is it for another civilization to follow the same path? Some of our breakthrough scientific advances happened by accident. What are the odds that we missed some big new technologies because we haven't happ…

I can't see a good reason to assume an alien civilization would be industrial to begin with, whatever discovery path might lead one there. And I don't even mean they could be underwater creatures etc., which is also a possibility. Imagine Earth as we know it, inhabited by humans as we know them, but no fossil fuels (due to a different geological history), very few metal ores (making every metal as scarce as, say, pla…

Post by formerly_proven » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 4:01 PM UTC

xenophonf wrote: post #27

wcoenen wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was going to reply that it might be difficult to match the power of something like Jupiter's radio signals. However, it turns out that Jupiter's decametric radio emissions are only about the equivalent of a megawatt antenna[1]. The US air force already has a radar with a peak power of 32 megawatts[2]. So with sufficient motivation, in principle we or an alien civilization could certainly send regular signals like t…

Not only could we send those kinds of signals, we already have done it using the Arecibo Telescope (RIP), which h̶a̶s̶ had EIRPs ranging from 200 megawatts to 22,000,000 megawatts depending on the transmission frequency. In 1974, we beamed a short message to the Messier 13 globular cluster with a transmission power of just under half a megawatt. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message

Post by kjs3 » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 4:05 PM UTC

rob74 wrote: post #23

checkyoursudo wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gotta be something like "(but it's probably not aliens)", right?

Could you use "non-biogenic" ( https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/biogenic ) for a thing like radio emissions?

Post by Diederich » Fri, Dec 18, 2020, 4:16 PM UTC

ojnabieoot wrote: post #16

WJW wrote: post #3

From a Jupiter-like gas giant type exoplanet, which generate radio emissions through entirely natural processes just like the gas giants in our own solar system. The title is a tad more spectacular than the actual discovery.

The title is in an odd spot where, on the face, it is completely anodyne, and not at all misleading or “clickbait.” Yet even sensible readers (like me!) see “radio” and “exoplanet” in the same sentence and think “ALIENS!” Very awkward spot for the science PR people writing this. It’s almost like it needs extra words to prevent people from adding “Possible (But Definitely Non-Alien) Radio Emission From Exoplanet (Whic…