71–80 of 86 posts
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”?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Signal is the emission of interest, however it occurs. Noise is the other stuff. In common use though people mentally (and literally) drop the first word from " modulated signal" and seize upon signal. It's normal and writers should make an effort to use unmodulated or, probably better, natural in such descriptions. Emission isn't a bad word for this context, but it's still all encompassing and easy to mentally go th…
Is not the signal in question modulated by the motion of the source, as most signals in astronomy are?
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…
But then there is another, better, part of me that thinks it is so awesome we live in a time when people can build a machine that listens to "sounds" made deep in a giant planet in another fricking solar system.
To the team who built that machine and shared it with us - thank you. nice one.
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…
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…
Like the Ashen Lights (small glows on the unlit side) of Venus: these were theoreticized to be big fires used for agriculture or a form of celebration of the Venusian Emperor... Think about that for a second: a civilization on another planet would 1. use a slash-and-burn method of agriculture (why not hydroponics), and 2. would have a hierarchical society with an emperor (why not autonomous cells), and 3. require/facilitate celebrations of their leader(s) (why not leaderless), and 4. use possibly some evolved form of fire worship (why not water, why not nothing), and so on.
All these are Earth constructs. An alien race would likely not understand those concepts at all.
So, suppose we made contact, there would not be a common frame of reference at all, except by using mathematics, physics and chemistry and the like. Describing foundational things like numbers and carbon chemistry would be possible, but at some point that language would reach its limits. Anything abstract like "hate", or "love", or "exploring" would be impossible to describe.
Also, the technology levels of the two species would have to be close to each other. I mean, just try describing a transistor to a pet, or describing a cloud-based service to a person from the year 1700.
I'd say the chances of any kind of contact are very, very small, but still non-zero.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is not the signal in question modulated by the motion of the source, as most signals in astronomy are?
Probably, but I think the post you are responding to is talking about the sort of modulation that artificially alters a radio carrier wave in order to encode information.
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…
If you’re producing radio anyway, it’s not a big leap to come up with a practical application.
First, they really missed an opportunity to rick roll everyone with this article. (just kidding) But seriously, this went way over my head. If anyone can explain this to me like I'm 5, that would be awesome, I'm really interested in the subject but lack any real knowledge of the science.
These folks managed to pick up those types of signals, of a large planet orbiting a different star. I'm impressed that they were able to get that done.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nothing like the comment section to snap you back to reality.
I suppose... but often the top comment is wrong or mis-leading in some way: "the middle-brow dismissal" HN is famous for. I usually find the most enlightening commentary on HN a few replies down from the top comment where a true expert chimes in to show why the middle-brow dismissal is in fact incorrect and adds their own nuance to the conversation.
Famous amongst what group?